Peaches with Greek Yogurt

Roasted Sweet Potato and Cranberry Beans with Ricotta

This is a River Cafe dish that's become a staple in my kitchen. I love making it with fresh cranberry or Borlotti beans when they are in season because it speeds up the cooking process, but it's just as good with dried beans soaked overnight. The beans are cooked with sage, garlic and a tomato, and the sweet potato is cut into chunks, tossed with olive oil, marjoram, and chili flakes, and roasted at 400 degrees for about a half hour. Fresh mozzarella is amazing with this dish but I didn't have any... to be honest, the ricotta just wasn't the same.

Zucchini and Arugula Frittata with Goat's Milk Feta

Frittatas really are the best way to get lots of veggies into a meal. I had some zucchini that was starting to wrinkle, and a big bag of arugula in my fridge, and half an hour later: lunch! I don't use a recipe for frittata- in this case I just sauteed the onions with some herbs and garlic, added in the zucchini and arugula and let them wilt, and then poured in beaten eggs. I scrambled them around a little and then let them set around the edges before crumbling some feta on top and sticking the pan in the oven for a few minuts, until the center was set. Finally, I put the frittata under the broiler for about 2 minutes, just to brown the cheese a bit and puff the eggs up.

Basil Devilled Eggs with Fried Capers

Yesterday what I expected to be a quiet holiday with a couple of friends turned into a big party. I made lamb and beet burgers, a couple of salads, grilled corn with garam masala and lime, sangria, Eton Mess, and these devilled eggs, inspired by Orangette's recipe. Instead of topping the eggs with the basil aioli, I mixed it into the egg yolks, and I thought that worked out really well. The fried capers on top were a great addition and I will definitely be finding ways to use them in other recipes too! Sadly, this was the only picture I got of the eggs before they were devoured... if anyone else took a better pic, let me know!

Summer Sangria

I am a sucker for Moscato d'Asti and as great as it is on its own, it also makes an amazing sangria. Here I used a combination of peaches, plums, and a handful of cherries, but really any summer fruits will work. I also added some green apple and grapefruit to give it an authentic sangria feel.

Lamb Burgers

For these, I mixed ground lamb with finely chopped red onion, fresh Greek oregano, ground cumin, and salt and pepper. I served them with mint chutney, feta cheese, and chopped olives, on rosemary focaccia.

Beet Burgers!

When I was in Austin a couple months ago I had an amazing veggie burger at 24 that was made with beets, lentils, and brown rice. I found this recipe on the Kitchn that looked similar, and with a couple of small modifications I think it came out great! Here's how I made mine (warning- lots of prep work is involved). I used chickpea flour so that the burgers would also be gluten-free.

1/2 cup cooked brown rice (you should overcook it so it's very soft)
1 onion, diced very fine
3 large red beets, also chopped very fine (you could use a food processor for this)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 C cooked lentils, slightly mashed
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 Tbs ground coriander seed
1/2 C chickpea flour
salt and pepper
olive oil

Sautee the onions with a little olive oil until translucent. Add the beets, garlic, and coriander and season with salt and pepper. Once the beets have softened (shouldn't take long since they are chopped so fine), add the mixture to the rice and lentils in a large bowl. Check for seasoning and add the lemon juice and chickpea flour to help bind the mixture together. Form into patties.

When you are ready to serve the burgers, heat olive oil in a very hot pan and cook the patties until browned and crisp on one side before flipping (about 2 minutes per side). The patties may fall apart a bit in the pan, but you can just push them back together with a spatula and once they are cooked they should hold together pretty well. If you have time, form the patties ahead and regfrigerate for an hour or two before cooking them- this will make them hold together much better.

Serve with roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, and arugula lightly dressed in lemon juice. I think the burgers eat best on a softer bun, since they are relatively fragile- a harder roll will squash them and make for a messier meal.

Farro with Cucumbers and Radishes in Buttermilk Dressing

Recipe from 101 Cookbooks.

Shaved Carrot Salad with Harissa, Mint and Feta

I like Amy Chaplin's harissa recipe, and I usually keep a little jar of it in the fridge to season veggies and chickpeas easily.

Ricotta with Peaches and Acacia Honey

Roasted Beets with Spiced Chickpeas, Avocado and Arugula Salad

Black Bean and Avocado Tacos with Cotija Cheese

I cooked the beans with chillies, cumin, oregano and garlic, and then garnished with fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime. The only thing that would have made this dinner better: an ice cold watermelon agua fresca.

Strawberries and Cream

One of the best things about living in the UK (in my opinion) is the amazing variety of dairy products; your average grocery store has at least four kinds of cream to choose from, and when I lived in London I loved to buy double cream to pour over the incredible strawberries that were available in the summer. The heavy cream one can buy here in the States is much thinner but makes a decent substitute when I have freshly picked berries in my kitchen.

Pistachio Mortadella and French Mustard on Seeded Wheat, aka Bologna Sandwich

Roasted Rhubarb over Yogurt

I roasted the rhubarb with lemon zest and juice, finely minced ginger, and brown sugar. Best breakfast ever!

Green Salad and Buffala Mozzarella

I just got back from a week of food frivolry in New York and as I was driving home from the airport all I could think about was a big, leafy salad and a ball of fresh mozzarella di buffala. I dressed these beautiful baby gem lettuces with a balsamic and mustard vinaigrette, and drizzled a little good olive oil over the mozza- so simple, but so satisfying!

Farro Pasta with Baby Broccoli, Anchovy, Garlic, Capers and Hot Chillies

Beet and Goat Cheese Bruschetta and Salad with Asparagus, Fennel, Arugula and Toasted Almonds

My favorite salad dressing these days is a little Dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and some finely chopped shallot. Super healthy and super yummy! The beets were dressed in red wine vinegar, capers, sliced spring onion, and chervil.

Blueberries and Granola

This blog has really evolved into less of a recipe collection and more of a documentation of the simple foods I like to prepare for myself at home, rarely requiring any instructions at all. I am contemplating changing the header to reflect this- the fact that these are things that are relatively quick and easy to make for just one person (but also adaptable for more diners)- but I'm not quite sure what I should say. Any thoughts from the readers?

Chickpeas and Kale with Vegetarian Grain Sausage and Corn Tortillas

Truffle Cake aka The Second* Easiest Cake in the World

This is a combination of two different River Cafe "truffle cake" recipes- one had a more mousse-like filling that used egg yolks and butter with the chocolate on top of a hazelnut praline crust, and the other was simply chocolate and cream, or 100% ganache. I opted to make the praline crust with the simple ganache on top and the combination was perfect. I used Mission almonds instead of hazelnuts, which my mother doesn't like. Aside from an hour of chilling in the fridge, this cake came together in about a half hour and required almost no effort at all, and only five ingredients, all of which I had in my pantry. I served it with whipped cream and it was such a huge hit at our Passover meal that I will definitely be making it again.

2 C Mission almonds (or hazelnuts)
6 Tbs Demerara sugar (you could also use Turbinado or brown)
1/2 C butter (I used salted and I thought it was a nice compliment to the bittersweet chocolate)
450 g dark chocolate (70% is recommended)
10 oz heavy whipping cream

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Butter the bottom of a 9" springform pan, line with parchment, and butter the paper as well. Roast the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes, and then pulse in a food processor until coarsely ground.

Melt butter in a saucepan and add sugar, letting it boil until a light caramel forms (not very long). Add the nuts and stir for a couple of minutes so that everything sticks together. Pour the mixture into the cake pan and spread into an even layer while still hot. Let cool.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Heat the cream and then stir it into the chocolate until combined. Pour on top of the praline crust and refrigerate for at least an hour until you are ready to serve.

When you are ready to serve the cake, wrap a towel soaked in hot water around the sides of the pan for a few seconds to melt the ganache slightly so that the ring will come off smoothly. When serving, dip your knife in warm water between slices for super clean cutting.

* the easiest cake in the world is Icebox Cake.

Lentil and Veggie Tacos

I love that you can put anything in a tortilla and call it a taco. In this case, I used leftover lentil salad (lentils, shallot, garlic, herbs, red wine vinegar) that I heated up, leftover veggies (peas, asparagus, spinach and spring onion), and a little goat cheese. Yum!

Rigatoni with Roasted Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

I freeze lots and lots of roasted tomatoes every summer so I can eat them year round. This is one of my favorite ways to use them. It's so easy- I just chop up the tomatoes and let them thaw, and toss them with the hot pasta when it's cooked. The tangy goat cheese crumbled on top is the perfect compliment to the sweet tomatoes.

Beets with Preserved Lemon, Chickpeas with Harissa, and Asparagus

Spring Veggies Over Polenta

Black Beans and Quinoa with Kale, Celery, and Onion

Also: coriander and oregano, and celery leaves, cilantro and green onions tossed in at the end.

Chickpeas and Asparagus with an Egg

Mezze-ish

I had a bunch of recipes with a bit of an Eastern bent bookmarked (okay, Nice is not really Eastern...), so I made a meal out of them for a tv viewing party. Clockwise from top: herb salad (parsley, cilantro, mint, arugula, spinach, and preserved lemon), olives, socca (so easy!!), pickled watermelon radishes, roasted beets with harissa, green bean raita, and (middle) sweet potato, kale, and quinoa cakes.

Shaved Fennel, Asparagus, and Arugula Salad

I had this with a sliced, hard-boiled egg on top... yum!

Kale, Yellow Beet and Barley Salad with Red Onion and Feta Cheese

Adapted from this recipe. This was even better the next day.

Egg in the Middle

I know most people call this Toad in the Hole, but my mom always called it Egg in the Middle. Instead of making soldiers out of the cut out bread, I tore it into breadcrumbs that I toasted with a little garlic and lemon zest. Yum!

Poached Salmon with Lentils

I really need to work on my night photography skills. Lunch always looks so much nicer than dinner!

Asparagus and Goat Cheese Bruschetta, Beet Salad

Bruschetta is the perfect vehicle for almost any salad. Inspired by this recipe, I dressed the shaved asparagus with some finely sliced shallots, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Beet salad recipe here.

Arugula, Mandarin Oranges, Smoked Almonds

Chilled Asparagus with Crab, Lemon Yogurt Sauce, and Breadcrumbs

For the lemon sauce: grind garlic into a paste using a mortar and pestle. Season with salt and pepper and add lemon juice to achieve the desired consistency. Finish with freshly grated lemon zest.

Broccoli Manchego Melts on Seeded Wheat Bread

Roasted Squash and Avocado "Panzanella"

This is loosely based on this recipe from Jamie Oliver. I roasted squash with his mixture of cumin, chilli, garlic, thyme and orange and lemon halves, and tossed that with the avocado, arugula, and some red wine vinegar. Then I added some torn up bits of toasted whole wheat seeded bread at the end. I think it would have been nice with the addition of some toasted seeds like Jamie suggests, since the bread ended up sopping up all the dressing and not providing much crunch, but it was delicious anyways!

Citrus Salad with Avocado

Elk and Cheddar Melts with Piper's Pickles

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Piper whipped up this tomato soup for us after a couple of hours of romping in the snow; I made some grilled cheese using her beautiful homemade bread to go with it. (Bourbon hot chocolate not pictured.) What a perfect snow day lunch!

Elk Loin with Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Turnips, and a Red Wine- Rhubarb Apple Sauce

Amazingly enough, at Piper's house this was another pantry meal. She had the elk in her freezer from a hunter friend, and the brussels and turnips from her CSA. We rubbed the elk with a spice mix (black pepper, juniper berries and herbs), seared it on the stove and then roasted it in the oven. The Brussels sprouts and turnips were cooked in bacon fat until they caramelized, and we improvised the sauce using rhubarb, apples, red wine, rosemary, and a little gin to compliment the juniper in the meat.

Beet Bruschetta

Stuck in Chicago during "Snowpocalypse 2011," my friend Piper and I have been working with what food she has in her pantry... by which I mean, the most amazing assortment of ingredients! Inspired by a meal we had at Lula before the blizzard, I used the beets from her last CSA box to make my favorite salad, and served it atop her incredible homemade sourdough with her homemade farmers' cheese. Yum!

Roasted Beets with Olives, Capers, and Oranges; Smashed Chickpeas and Toast

Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Tart, Reprise

We made this tart again. You have no idea how good it is!

Coconut Rice with Squash and Black Beans

From Tartelette... Terrible picture, but this was delicious! The lime zest and lemongrass in it really give it that something extra.

Cherry Custard Tart with Anise

This came from the Moro Cookbook- the cherries (which I had frozen from last summer) are cooked in anise liqueur, and then you make a syrup with the juice to pour over the finished tart. Please note that due to the low lighting, this looks much more yellow and eggy than it really was!

Penne with Olives, Capers, and Breadcrumbs

Cranberry Beans, Roasted Squash and Apples

Lentils and Spicy Squash with Avocado Toast

Spiced Almonds

Inspired by Moro, these are just almonds I roasted and tossed with olive oil, paprika, salt, and a little cayenne and white pepper.