Notes about Recipes in this site

• Asian noodle salad with cashew dressing

  • MaryLouSumberg on October 12, 2015

    I made the dressing with almond butter and it was very good.

• Pennette with kale ragu

  • krobbins426 on October 22, 2012

    Delicious! Subbed out crumbled goat cheese over the top for the parmesan.

• Melon madness pasta with bacon and feta

  • Vanessa on June 24, 2012

    Pasta with cantaloupe? And bacon and feta?? What a great combo, perfect for a summer Saturday in Charleston SC. I added some summer sausage because I only had a tiny bit of bacon and three young men to feed. The dish got some strange looks, but everyone scarfed it down!

• Japanese chicken curry

  • Kduncan on September 10, 2019

    Overall a fine recipe for Japanese like curry. The flavors were very nice, but it was a bit soupier then I like. This could be because I overly cooked down the liquid in the main pot, and had to add extra liquid to mix with the Roux.

• Kale and sweet potato salad with warm bacon dressing

  • bwehner on November 17, 2013

    Tap through to get to similar recipe. Also, can mix & add in other ingredients (pancetta & garlic with the kale; roast red onion with the sweet potato). The key is lime juice & cilantro. Unique & delicious. http://cookiemonstercooking.com/2012/09/12/roasted-sweet-potato-salad/

• Braised endives with citrus

  • Frenchfoodie on February 23, 2017

    The reduced sauce was delicious but the endives were only so so, probably only personal taste but I think it needed creaminess to temper the bitterness.

• Black bean Swiss burgers with bbq onions

  • krobbins426 on August 04, 2013

    This is a flawed recipe. Tasty, but flawed. I used 1 can black beans, pureed everything in the food processor, and it was way too thin, and then realized I had omitted half the bbq sauce. It had enough flavor, so I added 1/2 cup more of flour. They came out more like bean pancakes rather than patties or burgers. Taste was fine, especially with the vidalia onions cooked down. Would suggest trying this again with 2 cans of black beans and then adding additional flour if necessary. With 2 cans of beans, should make way more than 4 burgers.

• Chickpeas and chana dal (split peas) cooked together in a mint sauce

  • lorloff on September 28, 2014

    Great recipie a alot of work but worth in. I used tamarind concetrate and would add it gradually at the end to taste as opposed to 3 tablespoons all at once. Worked incredibly well Very delicious particularly with fresh chickpeas which I cooked in the pressure cooker following Bitman recommendations

• Garlic-roasted butternut squash and kale wheatberry salad with pomegranate

  • Jane on May 02, 2012

    For once when looking for a healthy dinner option I found I had every ingredient required in the recipe I picked from my EYB search. Well if I'm being completely honest I substituted dandelion greens for kale but that seemed minor. This isn't a quick dinner option as the wheat berries take an hour to cook (I didn't pre-soak them) and de-veining the greens takes quite a while too. But the combination of caramelized roasted squash and Brussels sprouts, chewy wheat berries, fresh greens, sweet pomegranate plus the sweet/sour pomegranate molasses in the dressing, was great. This was the first time I had massaged greens (with lemon juice and salt) and it is quite amazing how they "cook" and wilt down as they are massaged.

  • RTroeger on December 15, 2013

    Amazing salad. I used farro instead of wheatberries; it would've been even better with the wheatberries. The only thing I'd change is the amount of oil--six tablespoons plus oil for roasting is a huge amount for me.

• Mango, black bean, and quinoa salad

  • krobbins426 on April 30, 2013

    Doubled the recipe. More than enough for 4. Added lime zest, per similar closet cooking recipe. Substituted canned mild green chilis for the jalapeno.

  • Kathymelb on December 27, 2012

    Added wild rice which added an extra texture element.

• Moroccan chickpea barley salad

  • consortiumlibrary on October 04, 2017

    Great concept (thank you Hank Shaw**); lots of healthy fiber in a very delicious package. Too bland for us as written. Added red onion, more lemon juice, more parsley, more black pepper, subbed currants for apricots and cut amount in half, and added cumin and coriander. As adjusted, this was fabulous. Holds up well in refrigerator and can be made well ahead. Recipe makes 8 cups; serves 8-12 people. **This recipe was adapted from Hank Shaw's Simply Recipes version (also indexed) by adding red bell pepper and reducing amount of pistachios.

• Roasted butternut squash and burnt aubergine (eggplant) with pomegranate molasses

  • mondraussie on November 17, 2013

    Incredibly perfect combination of flavours!!

• Stuffed kabocha with raisins, apples, and cheese

  • adrienneyoung on September 15, 2013

    Complete non-starter. If this were my introduction to kabocha, I would really wonder why anyone bothered.

• Summer vegetable ragout with exotic curry sauce

  • Vanessa on June 18, 2012

    Terrific dish, interesting technique. (Make a curry sauce, roast veggies, combine them.) Easy, quick, flexible. Good for summer veggies, and I'm sure it will also be good for winter veggies. Also interesting to compare this version with the "original" from Bon Appétit (also indexed); that one calls for carrot juice rather than coconut milk.

• Roasted butternut squash salad with warm cider vinaigrette

  • Barb_N on June 27, 2019

    I had cubed butternut squash, arugula and blue cheese. I served this with shrimp rather than crab cakes- great flavor from the vinaigrette with mustard.

• Risotto with carrots and feta

  • Grywhp on April 04, 2012

    No cream in a risotto? Just made this and it was excellent. Was sure I would need to add salt and pepper at the end (neither is in the ingredient list) but it was perfect without the addition of either. Will make this again.

• Asparagus and green pea risotto with fresh herb tarka

  • Jane on May 06, 2012

    I really liked this risotto and it had the advantage of being low in fat. It was very fresh and spring-like with lots of vegetables. The asparagus stock, which you pre-make, gave a good base flavor and then adding the tarka of herbs right at the end was a great flavor boost. I didn't have basil or rosemary to hand so used chives and oregano, which worked well - I think you could really use any fresh herbs you like.

• Spanish white bean tortilla with piri piri sauce

  • Vanessa on July 06, 2012

    This was a great, easy dish. The technique (baked instead of the stovetop) is a wonderful way to get the tortilla to come together. It is a very flexible dish, too. I substituted potatoes (boiled briefly) and chopped roasted eggplant, because I do love the classic Spanish tortilla (and because I absolutely had to use up the CSA eggplant!). Finally, this dish is good hot, cold, and room temp. But the very best bit is the piri piri sauce, with that lovely smoked paprika taste.

• Summer squash gratin

  • Vanessa on July 14, 2012

    A gratin with no milk or cream? Still, not necessarily a 'healthy' recipe with 1/4 of butter and 1/2 cup of olive oil. But quite tasty, and also very possible to cut back on the amount of fats. It would be a good idea to make sure the potatoes are sliced more thinly than the squash so that everything cooks a bit more evenly. Also, I thought it was odd that the recipe called for mixing half the crumbs into the gratin, but that turned out really well.

• Corn-avocado salad with black beans and barley

  • ssdrabek on September 30, 2012

    Mine did not come out looking like the picture at all...I had way more black beans...not sure if I did something wrong??

• Masa crêpes with chard, chile and cilantro

  • michalow on December 30, 2012

    Original recipe from Deborah Madison calls for 1 cup chopped cilantro in the filling and sour cream instead of yogurt. Also suggests Oaxacan cheese or queso blanco as alternatives to jack.

• Creamy spinach spaghetti with roasted tomatoes

  • Vanessa on September 11, 2012

    Make a sauce for pasta with sauteed spinach, avocado, greek yogurt, and basil? Yeah, right. But after trying it, I have to tell you: do it. Just do it. I put a couple of leaves of extra basil in to help cover the avocado-ey taste so the non-fan in the family wouldn't really notice it as much, but it was good either way. Made a great pasta sauce, and then a terrific dipping sauce for breadsticks. In fact, it would make a great dip, period.

• Plum almond tart

  • Vanessa on September 11, 2012

    The tart dough included with this recipe was extremely temperamental (even though our South Carolina summer has suddenly turned marvelously crisp!), and I did a lot of squishing flattish bits of dough together. And the tart, assembled, only took about 20 minutes to cook (rather than 40-45), maybe also due to our "room temperature" being a bit high? The result is very high-five-worthy, though not as almond-flavored as I'd hoped. Still, the presentation is fabuloso and I'll make it again, with a different dough.

  • TCuiziniere on September 12, 2012

    I used 73 grams of ground almonds.

• Pumpkin oatmeal cinnamon chip cookies

  • Vanessa on November 11, 2012

    These cookies are delicious! We only have cinnamon chips in the grocery store locally for just few weeks of the year, so I had to wait (and wait) until I could make these. But they were worth the wait. Even though cinnamon chips, like butterscotch morsels, are surely a triumph of food science and have an incredibly "this is isn't really a food" vibe, they work really well with oats and pumpkin, and the cookies even kind of feel like they might be good for you, with all those oats! I am going to buy some extra cinnamon chips to stash in the freezer so I won't have to wait so long again when the mood strikes again.

• {Vegetarian} bacon and butternut pasta with caramelized onions and kale

  • Soosie on February 12, 2017

    Overly complicated recipe. Far too many steps. Although I'm a lover of all things garlicky, 5 cloves seems excessive. I added 4 and it was overpowering. Didn't bother making a bechamel, just stirred Greek yogurt into the pasta and vegetables and sprinkled the top with cheese and breadcrumbs. It was OK.

• Thai tofu and winter squash stew

  • FunkyViriditas on April 17, 2015

    This is very, very good, although labor intensive because of cubing the butternut squash. The one issue I had is that the tofu lacked flavor. I'm thinking that it should have been marinated in something first.

• Peppermint crinkle cookies

  • Vanessa on December 13, 2012

    Not sure what I did wrong, but these were way too wet to shape into balls and roll in powdered sugar before baking! (I just chilled it until I could get scoops out and plunked those on the baking sheet, and they did turn out to be pretty terrific,) Perhaps it was because I used a mix of chocolate-mint and dark chocolate chips rather than baking chocolate and peppermint extract? Perhaps it was because I couldn't figure out how to interpret the instruction to beat the eggs and sugar "until fluffy and large air bubbles form" (????). Perhaps the recipe is a bit deficient. Any way, definitely worth making, and a special holiday cookie with a surprising minty BANG.

• Chili mole

  • Vanessa on December 27, 2012

    This one came out kind of sludgy, but impressively flavored.

• Broccolini with tofu, sesame and coriander

  • Vanessa on December 28, 2012

    How perfect when you are feeling like you've just eaten and drunk way too much over these holidays! I made this with broccoli and my prized kecap manis (which is really really special and much better than the homemade ingredient substitution). Virtue and incredible umami taste, all at once!!

• Sweet potato salad with rye berries, pepitas and ricotta salata

  • meggan on January 10, 2013

    So I made this and it was kind of boring. I used farro and maybe that puffs up more than rye berries because the salad was mostly grain and needed a lot more dressing than called for.

• S'more nut bars

  • Rutabaga on November 07, 2015

    These bars are both easy to make and delicious. I particularly enjoy the combination of chocolate ganache and peanuts. For reasons not understood by his parents, our four-year-old declined to eat these, opting to indulge only in apple slices. I doubt most children (or adults) would follow his lead, however.

• Potato frittata with feta and scallions

  • mondraussie on May 22, 2013

    I think maybe I cooked this too long, but all the same it was very dry. Roasting the potatoes is certainly healthier than frying them, but you loose out in the moistness. A bit disappointing.

• Parmesan bread pudding with broccoli rabe

  • Vanessa on April 20, 2013

    This totally rocked! I made it with broccoli (because that's the CSA provided).

• Baby spinach salad with dates and almonds

  • mondraussie on April 20, 2013

    This is an absolutely wonderful salad, packed with flavour. I used mixed leaf rather than 100% baby spinach, for a bit of variety.

• Avocado-stuffed tomato enchiladas

  • Vanessa on June 29, 2013

    Tasty. In fact, better than tasty, and the avocado-haters in the crowd didn't even realize that was what they were eating ... while the avocado-lovers relished it.

• Stuffed zucchini with pistachio and dill

  • Vanessa on June 29, 2013

    Do yourself a favor and MAKE THE RICE even if you aren't in the mood for all the finicky work of stuffing the zucchini.

• Zucchini with basil, pine nuts and croutons

  • Vanessa on August 03, 2013

    Made with toasted walnuts because who can bear to spend so much for pine nuts these days! This was really really good. Savory. And the bread didn't get too soggy at all (a reason I don't make panzanella-type dishes too often).

• Black bean and salsa quesadillas

  • Vanessa on August 10, 2013

    Great choice for a quick meal, very tasty seasoning of the beans, and how can you go wrong with tomato-avocado salsa? All you need to buy fresh are cilantro, avocados, and tomatoes, and you're ready to rock.

• Corn and caraway risotto with Swiss chard

  • Vanessa on August 25, 2013

    This risotto features a technique I've never used with corn: strip the kernels from the cobs and puree them. The recipe said to add to the onion/butter mixture with the rice, but I waited until about 10 minutes into cooking the rice (my pureed corn was pretty wet and I didn't think it was going to help the rice get that nice initial "cook" in the butter. The result was incredibly creamy and rich, and the caraway seeds and corn went together really well too (a combination that I've also not seen before). Really good risotto! (I also skipped the Swiss chard, serving roasted broccoli on the side instead.)

• Bananas Foster chia pudding

  • Rutabaga on December 17, 2015

    I made this for breakfast and found that the pudding was still quite loose after the chia seeds soaked overnight in the coconut milk. For a thicker pudding, either decrease the milk by half a cup or so, or else add more chia seeds. I stirred some Greek yogurt into mine. It didn't take much to thicken the mixture, and I found that was a nice way to enjoy the pudding on its own without the topping, especially if you prefer something less sweet. The topping is delicious, but unsurprisingly very sweet. It's sweet enough to work as a dessert, no doubt. For a complete breakfast with less sugar, just top the pudding with toasted pecans and sliced banana, and maybe an extra drizzle of maple syrup.

• Braised summer cabbage with fried potatoes, feta, and dill

  • Grywhp on August 03, 2014

    This was very good - each ingredient on its own is pretty bland and boring, but in combo wow! Subbed parsley for the dill.

• Spicy fiesta tomato cobbler

  • Vanessa on August 17, 2014

    Awesome!

  • Rutabaga on July 27, 2015

    This is a delicious summer casserole, and relatively simple, although it does take at least an hour and a half from start to finish. Fortunately, the filling could be made ahead of time. I left the chipotle seasoning out to make it more palatable for my four-year-old, and served bottled hot sauces on the side.

• Chipotle butternut squash and Swiss chard enchilada casserole

  • Cheri on December 11, 2014

    This was really good. More like Mexican lasagna, as you don't roll the enchiladas, instead layer ingredients. I added some pepper jack and cojito. The spicy sauce and sweet squash tempered with the buttery chard and black beans was a very tasty and satisfying combination. Made in two pans, and froze 1/2 of the recipe, hope it is as good later as it was on the first round.

• Buckwheat Dutch baby with maple cranberry sauce

  • bwehner on August 23, 2015

    Excellent recipe for healthy, power food. Not very sweet (my favorite) & the pancake is dense, not fluffy. Will definitely make again to power a long run or bike ride!

• Winter fattoush salad

  • Foodycat on December 07, 2018

    I didn't use the apple, and scaled down the rest to be a side dish for two people. It was OK, but I have a favourite winter salad with similar ingredients which is much better - the pomegranate I had was quite sharp, and along with the lemon juice it was too acidic.

• Peanut butter and jelly chia pudding

  • Rutabaga on October 19, 2016

    This is a filling and hearty chia pudding. It's the one to try if you love peanut butter and jam, and is a fun way to use basic pantry ingredients to make a unique breakfast. On the second morning, I used pomegranate molasses instead of jam, which I liked even better.

• Spicy miso soup with Korean rice cakes

  • meggan on May 22, 2018

    Saltier than I would have liked. I would use reduced sodium stock next time.

• Lemony goat cheese and mascarpone pasta with caramelized Brussels sprouts

  • Rutabaga on December 01, 2015

    This was a hit with the family (the four-year-old made not one complaint about the inclusion of brussels sprouts). I added toasted pine nuts for some crunch. The sauce was a little soupy. Maybe it could have simmered longer, but next time I think I would just reduce the amount of cream and milk by a half cup each.

• Jalapeno popper black bean burgers

  • Rutabaga on October 08, 2015

    The cream cheese and roasted jalapeno filling makes these bean burgers especially delicious. For my four-year-old, I stuffed the burger with plain cream cheese to make a mild version of the burger, and he loved it. It's easy to prepare the patties in advance, and I found that my burgers held together very well.

• Roasted zucchini and quinoa bowls with cilantro pepita pesto

  • Rutabaga on September 07, 2015

    I enjoyed this, but would have appreciated it more made with the feta called for in the recipe (unfortunately, I was out). Because of limited time, we ate this dish while still hot, which wasn't a bad way to go. Still, I can see how it might work best as a hearty main dish salad served at room temperature, and hope to try it that way next time.

• Halloumi and roasted summer vegetable sandwiches

  • Rutabaga on September 01, 2015

    This is a satisfying veggie sandwich, nice and hearty. I just roasted the vegetables with oil, salt, and pepper, as I didn't want them to be too spicy for my son (who ended up just eating bread with pesto, anyway), and instead smeared some pipelchuma (recipe from the cookbook Jerusalem) on the bread to add some heat. The vegetable and cheese were really starting to char afte half an hour, so keep a careful eye on them after about 25 minutes in the oven. This could also be a great use for leftover roasted veg.

• Toasted pine nut milk chocolate shortbread

  • Ray234 on May 15, 2017

    This works well with walnuts also.

• Purple sweet potato and chickpea pot pie soup with rosemary biscuits

  • meggan on October 30, 2017

    I let this stew too long and it was really just a gloopy mess. My husband and daughter liked it but I thought it boring. I didn't make the biscuits but I am going to take the leftovers and put them in a piecrust.

• Mexican street corn and zucchini baked macaroni and cheese

  • Rutabaga on May 16, 2017

    This mac 'n' cheese really brings you the taste of Mexican street corn in a pasta dish, and that's a great thing. Don't forget the squeeze of lime, as that brings all the flavors together. I sprinkled the spice mix over about two thirds of the dish, keeping one third a little milder for the kids. My five-year-old still found it a little spicy (really, it's just that he prefers plain mac 'n' cheese), but the one-year-old chowed down with no complaint. This is a wonderful make-ahead dinner.

• Indian butter paneer burritos

  • Rutabaga on January 03, 2018

    I made a rather mild version of this dish, using only about a half teaspoon of curry paste and Madras curry powder instead of vindaloo, in hopes that the children would eat it. They didn't, but at least I enjoyed it. In an effort to save a little time, I fried the paneer cubes in the morning, then put them in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, I think this made them a bit tougher in the final dish. Since they cook quickly, it makes more sense just to make the entire dish at once, then serve immediately. Cilantro is a good addition, and a little squeeze of lime juice would offset some of the richness. We also used basmati rice instead of sushi rice.

• Honey chipotle roasted tofu and sweet potato bowls with quinoa and honey lime vinaigrette

  • MMarlean on October 27, 2018

    The honey chipotle dressing on the sweet potatoes is magnificent! Will use on sweet potatoes other times, too. Didn't have the tofu.

• Korean BBQ salmon bowls with quick-pickled cucumbers and gochujang sauce

  • Bloominanglophile on July 17, 2019

    A quick, light bowl of goodness that hit the spot on a sultry evening. Next time make only 3/4 of the gochujang sauce--that should be plenty!

  • anya_sf on July 26, 2019

    To me, the flavor was not reminiscent of Korean BBQ in any way, but I can overlook that. The recipe turned out fine after I made some tweaks, but I wouldn't make it as written. For us there was not enough rice or veg; I increased the rice and added some cooked broccoli florets to the salad. The salad was too bland and acidic; I added a bit of soy sauce to the dressing. Likewise, the cucumbers probably could have used a bit of salt, although I left them as is. Fortunately, the salmon was very tasty, although the sauce burns easily due to the sugar, so be careful with the heat. There was way more gochujang than needed, and I would have liked that incorporated with the salmon sauce rather than separate.

• Creamy feta, tomato, and chickpea Israeli couscous casserole

  • Rutabaga on May 02, 2019

    This was OK, but not as flavorful as I had hoped. It really needs salt added together with the broth, couscous, and chickpeas. I had salted the tomato mixture, so was hesitant to add more at that stage, but that was a mistake. With some additional tomatoes, oil, and vinegar, this would probably be quite good, so I would make it again, but be sure to increase the non-pasta ingredients. The accompanying photo also looks far more loaded with other ingredients than mine did.