Vegetables

Cook's Illustrated

Before sharing these recipes with you, please know that they are:
Not exactly healthy
Incredibly delicious

This is a from-scratch green bean casserole that’s a cinch to make and a nice departure from the cream-of-mushroom standby we all know and love. The wonderful thing about it, besides the fact that it contains bacon, is that it begins with a plain white sauce, which can be adapted in any number of ways. Use a combination of different cheeses, add a little mustard, some mushrooms–whatever floats your boat. And while I opted for a topping of panko breadcrumbs, you can substitute the yummy french fried onions (or crushed potato chips; you heard me) if that’s more to your liking.

Have fun with it! The green bean casserole world is your oyster.
Just don’t add oysters. You’ll need them for the dressing.

When I am looking for side dishes for special meals this time of the year, brussels sprouts always come to mind as they are one of my favourite winter green vegetables. There are so many great ways to serve brussels sprouts and I have to say that a creamy gratin is top on my list, especially when you have the oven on already for something like the roast beef that I made on the weekend. As far as gratins go, this brussels sprouts gratin is pretty simple. You start out by blanching the brussels sprouts to make sure that when they come out of the oven they are nice and tender and fully cooked. Salty and smoky bacon pairs particularly well with brussels sprouts and I always enjoy adding them to a brussels sprouts gratin! Next up is the creamy sauce which I like to start out with sauteing some diced onions and garlic before moving on to making the bechamel sauce with the butter, flour and milk. For this gratin a tried something a little different and I added some grainy mustard to the mix to add a bit of a kick and a nice contrasting texture along with a bit of colour. Now you could throw the gratin into the oven like this but a crunchy crust is always nice and super easy to make with some panko bread crumbs mixed up with some finely grated cheese.

I was imagining us sitting at the table with a bottle of prosecco, roasted chicken wings, and these artichokes. We’re eating everything with our hands, unabashedly scraping artichoke leaves with our teeth and eyeing the last few cloves of the braised garlic. I haven’t had much success preparing artichokes in any other way besides the old Italian–American standby—stuffed with breadcrumbs and steamed—that is, until I prepared these little babies. This recipe is insanely good and I’m going to make artichokes in this way forevermore. I needed to add water throughout the cooking process. In the end, I added an additional 3/4 cup of water in 1/4-cup intervals when the pot threatened to run dry and scorch. Don’t add the additional water up front, as you’ll never deeply brown your garlic or artichokes and those crispy brown bits are treasures. Add a little salt into the heart cavity with the parsley. I also used baby artichokes, which surprisingly took the same amount of time to cook, yet I didn’t have to scoop out the choke during prep. Enjoy—this recipe is a true crowd-pleaser. I can’t wait to serve these to friends.

That moment in the day when you've realized you haven't taken anything out for dinner, it's too late to un-thaw anything...now what? Luckily I have a large zucchini from my mom's garden on the counter, because I don't know what I'm going to make with it, but THAT is dinner tonight!

Here’s another use for those ripe summer tomatoes. Salty crumbled feta and tender herbed couscous make a satisfying filling for these easy stuffed tomatoes. They work well as a side dish next to grilled chicken or steak, or as a light main dish.