Monday, July 31, 2023
Good morning!
I didn’t know what a Phil Dunphy summer was before this, but now I want it too.
The world is your popsicle [Taste]
Weighing in on when to splurge and when to save on ingredients [Cultured Mag]
Over the winter, I shared some of my favorite accidentally vegan recipes ideal for colder months from the archives. What is "accidentally" vegan? Can a dish be intentionally vegan, too, you might ask? And the answer is, of course, yes but what makes these accidental is that I hadn't even realized when I was making most of them that they were. The lentil salad is objectively my favorite for picnics and potlucks. The black pepper tofu and eggplant is a dream of a summer dish. The plush cupcakes are the outright softest, most failproof birthday cupcakes I know how to make. Below, the vegan-focused summer edition makes use of what's in season now, and takes as much out of the oven as it can. I hope you enjoy it all -- unconditionally!
Cheers,
Deb
The Smitten Kitchen Classroom Wishlist Project 2023 is now live! In the US, a tremendous number of teachers don’t get the funding they need to set their classrooms up for success. Most will end up paying out of their own pockets to buy educational materials, which is all wrong. I’ve asked teachers to send me their wishlists in hopes that we can help clear as many as possible, as we did last summer. Help out if you feel you’re able — you will unquestionably make a teacher’s (and their students) day! [Project information. Direct link to spreadsheet.]
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. I’m thrilled that this warmer weather means you might be able to cook some of my summery favorites from my most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, such as: zucchini cornbread and tomato butter, clam chowder with bacon croutons, zucchini and pesto lasagna, and raspberry crostata, strawberry summer stack cake, and the blondie chipwiches. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I added these a new, separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
raspberry streusel muffins
New: I think these raspberry streusel muffins might be the best muffins I have ever made. They're perfect: hefty, moist, lemony, not too sweet, and absolutely tie-dyed with a constellation of raspberries inside. Plus, they have a few tricks up their sleeve I can't wait for you to read about.
my favorite lentil salad
My favorite lentil salad is really, truly inhalable: one part salsa, one part lentils, plus tomatoes, avocado, hot sauce, and a dream of a lunch scooped up with tortilla chips.
caponata
A great caponata -- the kind that's like a tangy, garlicky eggplant jam -- can be prepped once and used in infinite ways but my favorite is dolloped on grainy bread, repeated as needed, which will be often.
roasted tomatoes with white beans
This is one of my favorite summer meals of all time and it's wildly simple, just cherry tomatoes quick-roasted with olive oil, garlic, and salt until saucy, and then we tumble in a can of beans and let them drink it up. Finish with basil and eat straight from the pan, or ladle it over crostini. Repeat as long as tomatoes last.
black pepper tofu and eggplant
Eggplant and tofu are fantastic together in this stir-fry; the tofu holds its shape, the eggplant collapses and partly joins the sauce and the result was too dark and pretty to even bother garnishing with chiles or scallions, but you could. You’re in charge.
pearl couscous with olives and roasted tomatoes
Roasted tomatoes and garlic, slivered olives and an herby dressing have made this a summer staple around here for over a decade, with fantastic leftovers too. It's also a surprisingly popular kid lunch, should you have any small people with big demands in your life.
cold noodles with miso, lime and ginger
This is my take on a 10-minute noodle dish that also, conveniently, makes pretty use of whatever odds and ends lurk in our fridge, so we can spend warming days outside, not in the aisles of a grocery store.
potato pizza, even better
This pizza is covered with only potatoes, onion, olive oil, salt, and pepper but tastes like so much more than the sum of its parts. It goes spectacularly with a big spring salad and a crisp glass of wine. Not yet sold? From the oven, it looks and tastes like potato chips.
plush confetti cupcakes
To make the most plush, moist, tender-crumbed vanilla-scented confetti cupcakes? Skip the eggs and butter. These cupcakes are vegan, one-bowl, and can be entirely finished in under an hour. You can use the same recipe to make a full-sized party cake as well; instructions in the recipe.
strawberry, lime and black pepper popsicles
My favorite strawberry popsicle -- with lime juice and a faint sparkly kick from black pepper -- is a dream on sticky days like this.
chocolate and toasted hazelnut milk
A non-dairy milk that takes its inspiration from, well, Nutella, with deeply toasted hazelnuts and a little chocolate for the lightly indulgent treat our weeks demand, trust me. Make sure to check if the chocolate you’re using is vegan — not all chocolate is.
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. I recently added several new favorites I’ve bought in the last year. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!