Festive fall kale salad (gf + v)

I bought some gorgeous organic kale on sale and let the season’s colors and flavors inspire this wonderful salad that will surely be a hit on your holiday table! This colorful and festive dish is as healthy as it is delicious, a rarity among holiday foods. The persimmon and pomegranate provide oodles of antioxidants. The acidity of the simple lemon dressing helps to soften the kale and tone down its slightly bitter edge, while also contrasting beautifully with the sweetness of the dates and persimmon. The nuttiness of the pecans rounds everything out. An autumnal symphony of delicious flavors! Serves 4-6 and can easily be scaled up.

Roast eggplant cutlets with a creamy lemon-basil sauce (gf + v)

Here is a simple, fresh and different way to serve eggplant when you’re in the mood for a change from the usual tomato-based preparations. The bright, fresh flavors of the lemon and basil contrast beautifully with the lovely umami of the eggplant. As always, the key is to roast that eggplant into sweet caramelized submission, so that it is utterly succulent and irresistible! Serves 2-3 as an entree.

Super simple spaghetti pomodoro (gf + v)

I was an overzealous tomato-buyer at Costco last week, and the next thing I knew there was a large tray of beautiful cocktail tomatoes threatening to spoil in my kitchen (the insane heat wave we’re having here didn’t help matters). A perfect opportunity to make a quick but delicious pasta pomodoro! This recipe has so few ingredients but each one is really crucial to its amazing, classic flavor (don’t even think of substituting dried ingredients for fresh in this recipe – total waste of time!). This is a totally different experience than eating your pasta with boring premade marinara sauce. Give it a try! Fair warning: your kitchen will smell amazing and this stuff is hard to stop eating. If you serve it with sides, you’ll get 4 servings – but if it’s a one-dish meal, count on just feeding two hungry adults!

Brown rice fusilli with asparagus tips, English peas and pesto (gf + v)

I hope you are well and that your week is off to a good start. Here’s a quick n’ easy pasta dish that is sure to be a hit even with pickier eaters! Simple enough for a weeknight dinner but elegant enough for a festive meal, It features my homemade vegan pesto which is super-versatile and can easily be made up to about a week in advance (keep in fridge), or longer if you freeze it. Fully of bright green, springy veggies and the wonderful herbal scent of basil, it won’t weigh you down the way that some greasy pesto dishes do. I use brown rice pasta but there’s no reason you couldn’t use regular or whole wheat if you prefer. Serves 4 as a main dish, 6-8 if it’s a side.

Honey orange cake (gf + dairy free)

Honey cake is a traditional dessert served on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), along with other sweet foods, served to symbolize our hopes and wishes for a sweet new year. My version is loosely adapted from the Joy of Cooking’s wonderful vegan ultra-orange cake recipe. The cake batter rises due to the chemical reaction between baking soda and vinegar, just like that science fair volcano experiment you did ages ago in elementary school! And, here’s the best part: because there are no eggs in this recipe, you can taste the delicious batter to your heart’s content without worrying about salmonella! This recipe will give you get a nice moist cake with a rich and complex honey-orange-vanilla flavor, not too sweet but very satisfying. Using fresh oranges for their zest and juice is an absolute must for this recipe. I like topping these cakes with sliced almonds but feel free to get creative 🙂 Makes two 8-inch round cakes (or one thicker cake in a 9 x 13″ pan). Best served still warm from the oven.

Cinnamon-peach chia seed pudding (gf + v)

I remember, as a young Girl Scout, being taught how to collect wild chia seeds that grow in the chaparral of southern California. I remember learning way back then, that chia seeds were an important food for the Aztecs and Mayans and that they are incredibly nutritionally rich…But I forgot about all that until, in the last few years, chia seeds became a super-trendy health craze. Now I can’t browse the blogosphere without being inundated with chia seed recipes. But I must say, this is one trend that I think deserves all its hype. Chia seeds really are a superfood – packed with protein, fiber, omega-3s, calcium, and antioxidants, filling yet low in calories, they make a perfect nutritional boost to many favorite foods. They also tend to absorb water, becoming somewhat puffy and gelatinous, making them a perfect vehicle for making puddings!

My version of chia seed pudding is super duper easy and involves combining a few basic ingredients, a quick zap in the micro, and resting overnight in the fridge – it’s a perfect thing to throw together at night so you can look forward to a delicious (think creamy coconutty pudding meets a cinnamony peach cobbler!) and fortifying breakfast all ready for you in the morning. Also makes a super yummy and healthy dessert. Serves 1, but can be easily scaled up.

Simple white bean salad with fresh herbs (gf + v)

At my new place, I finally have a little outdoor space and can actually grow fresh herbs – so exciting! (I have grown fresh basil indoors in sunny windows in the past, but it’s not the same…) – so now I have a little potted basil plant as well as fresh parsley and thyme growing on my balcony, all which feature in this recipe. This is a quick and super tasty salad you can throw together in just a few minutes to complement any number of wonderful Mediterranean-themed meals. Definitely an upgrade from those soggy canned three-bean salads of yesteryear.

I try to always keep a can of cannelini (white kidney) beans in the pantry because they are so versatile and recipe-friendly. Though hearty and filling, their flavor is very mild and unassuming, but this salad is quite lively thanks to a variety of aromatic fresh herbs and a little bit of purple onion for bite. Serves 2-3, but can easily be scaled up for larger crowds. Can be made 1 day ahead and pre-chilled, and will keep 1-2 days in the fridge.

Balsamic roasted eggplant (gf + v)

Things got crazy over the past few months what with taking my boards and moving from NorCal to SoCal, but I am happy to finally be back in the kitchen cooking! I hope you’ve had a great and delicious summer! This recipe was inspired by a visit to my new local farmer’s market, where I was absolutely thrilled to find a large variety of eggplants for sale: lovely green Thai eggplants shaped like eggs, slender lavender Chinese eggplants, deep purple Italian eggplants, pale green Filipino eggplants…thanks to my husband “egging” me on, the next thing I knew I was buying one of each! Eggplant is a finicky vegetable, as I have mentioned in past recipes – the key is to cook it into sweet tender submission (undercooked eggplant is just bitter and gross!). While there are many ways to cook eggplant, my personal favorite to oven-roast it. I was very lucky to have been recently gifted a lovely bottle of seriously delicious balsamic vinegar as a graduation present from a dear coworker, so that also featured in this recipe. I hope you enjoy this versatile summer dish, which tastes great on its own, is lovely over a green salad or a bed of simple pasta marinara, or would also be great as an hors d’oeuvre served with toasted baguette slices or pita triangles. Serves 3-4.

Oatmeal-chia seed breakfast bake with stone fruit (gf + dairy free)

The farmer’s market this weekend was full of gorgeous stone fruit, and the sun actually came out – summer is finally on its way! Here is a great way to capture those wonderful summer flavors and make sure you have a delicious, healthy breakfast even if you need to eat on the go. You can prepare a large batch, slice and pack up to enjoy it all week long, but you may end up making quite a big dent in it when you are seduced by its delicious cinnamony smell hot out of the oven. This simple combination of high-fiber filling oats and chia seeds, lovely ripe plums/peaches/apricots or whatever other nice fruit you have on hand, and a simple cinnamony batter will put a smile on your face and power you through busy work mornings. This will become a staple recipe, and there are so many potential delicious variations: add or sub in berries, apples/pears in the fall, frozen or dried fruits in the winter – it is really a recipe you can use all year long! (Hint: think beyond breakfast! this yummy treat also makes a healthy dessert…and yes, I know what you are thinking – you have my blessing to serve it with whipped cream or a la mode 😉

Ridiculously simple curry sweet potato soup (gf + v)

The weather here in the Bay Area has been so gloomy that I’ve been having to remind myself it’s almost June! Well, nothing goes goes better with cold gray weather than hot soup, so here is a recent one I came up with that is incredibly flavorful and so easy to make (in this one-pot recipe, the boiling water becomes the basis for the broth so you don’t have to waste water while California is plagued with a drought!). The curry gives it a little bit of heat and the coconut milk adds a light creaminess. Makes about 4 servings.