Vegetables

Like A Boss: Glazed Shiitakes With Bok Choy

Like A Boss: Glazed Shiitakes With Bok Choy

Do Asian vegetables confuse you? Don’t know your bok choy from your choy sum? Neither do I, but when David Tanis, one of my favorite food writers,  published this recipe for Glazed Shiitakes With Bok Choy in his New York Times column City Kitchen, I soon found…

Hated the Biscuits; Loved the Bread Pudding

Hated the Biscuits; Loved the Bread Pudding

  I made biscuits the other day. It sounded like a good idea but I ended up hating them. B-o-r-i-n-g.  Even a generous pat of Kerrygold butter couldn’t bring them to life. OK. I’ll admit that it may have been me. I am in my…

Smooth As Butter: Roasted Butternut Squash With Lentils and Stilton

Smooth As Butter: Roasted Butternut Squash With Lentils and Stilton

How do you feel about butternut squash?  No, really. For those of you who might shy away from the squash, consider the following: It is a fruit; who doesn’t love fruit? It is a healthy food; who doesn’t want to eat healthy?  It is inexpensive;…

Chickpea Soup With Orzo and Spinach

Chickpea Soup With Orzo and Spinach

How about a hearty chickpea soup for New Year’s Eve or  New Year’s Day? This recipe features all sorts of good vegetables to launch your new year–chickpeas, carrots, fennel, spinach and on and on. If you sprinkle some grated Parmesan over the soup at serving…

Spilling The Beans On Guinness Baked Beans

Spilling The Beans On Guinness Baked Beans

  Truth be told, I love baked beans. There are few meals that I enjoy more than a big bowl of baked beans and a generous side of coleslaw. To my taste, the crunch of the coleslaw perfectly complements the sweet/savory flavor of the baked…

Cream of Carrot Soup, Soup for Syria, and Photographs That Will Break Your Heart

Cream of Carrot Soup, Soup for Syria, and Photographs That Will Break Your Heart

    This is one beautiful (and delicious) soup. The original recipe comes from a cookbook titled Soup for Syria photographed and compiled by Beirut chef, photographer and cookbook author Barbara Abdeni Massaad. Massaad also is the author of the best-selling cookbook Man’oushe: Inside the…

S’Wonderful: Cauliflower, Potato and Cheese Soup

S’Wonderful: Cauliflower, Potato and Cheese Soup

Soup is hot! Fortunately for us all, soup recipes seem to be having their moment. There have been any number of interesting and innovative soup cookbooks published in recent years. I know I’ve added Anna Thomas’ Love Soup, Barbara Abdeni Massaad’s Soup for Syria and…

Squash, Apples And A Little Sage Advice For The Holidays

Squash, Apples And A Little Sage Advice For The Holidays

  Best wishes from those of us here at Blue Cayenne (that would be me and Juliet)  for a happy Thanksgiving. And, if the going gets tough around the table tomorrow, you might do well to remember the sage advice of Oscar Wilde: “After a…

Of Cabbages, Kings and Flying Pigs: Creamy Cabbage and Potato Soup

Of Cabbages, Kings and Flying Pigs: Creamy Cabbage and Potato Soup

The time has come, the Walrus said,       To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —       Of cabbages — and kings — And why the sea is boiling hot —       And whether pigs have wings.          …

Barley And Lentil Salad With Feta

Barley And Lentil Salad With Feta

  What a delightful way to get some fiber! According to the medical experts, you need about 30 grams of fiber each day (women/25 and men/38). This salad meets about half of your daily requirement. If you hog all the avocado, you get even closer…