vegetarian

Vegetarian

Streamlined Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Parmesan is one of those dishes that is almost guaranteed to disappoint when ordered in a restaurant. But making it at home is a such a major undertaking, involving salting, breading, frying, simmering, and finally baking, that ordering it out sounds like a pretty good idea. Our recipe not only renders the dish doable in just a couple of hours, it delivers spectacularly good results. Gone are the soggy, slick eggplant slices and heavy, lifeless flavors—we bake our breaded eggplant slices, make a quick-cooked tomato sauce, and assemble with care to make the easiest and best-tasting Eggplant Parmesan. This recipe requires salting eggplant slices, and although it takes some time, it’s a simple step that has a big impact on the finished dish. Eggplant Parmesan would be served as a contorno—or side dish—on a traditional Italian table, but it’s hearty enough that it makes a satisfying main dish. Serve bread alongside, and offer a simple leafy salad before or after, whichever you prefer.

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Vegetarian

Roman-Style Stuffed Artichokes

Artichokes give tomatoes stiff competition as the most iconic vegetable in Italian cooking. Rome is home to two famed artichoke preparations: fried artichokes and this dish, braised artichokes stuffed with breadcrumbs, lemon, garlic, and herbs. For this recipe, you'll be trimming the artichokes down to their tender leafy cores. After the choke is removed, the artichoke is stuffed with a simple but intensely flavorful filling.

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Vegetarian

Strata with Spinach and Gruyère

Strata–basically a savory bread pudding–is too often soggy and laden with excessive custard and ingredients, rendering a simple casserole an overindulgence in both preparation and consumption. We felt that the perfect strata for breakfast or brunch should contain complementary fillings and flavorings, and just enough richness to satisfy. The solution was to start with the right bread–a thin-crusted supermarket loaf of French or Italian bread beat out sturdier artisan loaves. These softer breads (sold in the bakery department at most supermarkets) soaked up the custard evenly, and were more pleasant to eat when served. With the added step of staling or toasting the bread, we drove off more moisture, and ensured the bread stayed intact. (Note that if your bread is already stale, you can skip this toasting step.) For the savory spinach and shallot filling, we started by squeezing thawed, frozen spinach to remove much of its liquid, then sautéed the vegetables to continue driving off moisture and building deeper flavor. The addition of white wine, reduced down in a skillet to concentrate its jammy flavor and rid it of any boozy bite, added a welcome brightness to an otherwise heavy dish. After layering in the components and weighing the dish down to compact the disparate ingredients into a more cohesive dish, the strata needed to be refrigerated for at least 8 hours and up to overnight. The next day, after a short 20-minute stint on the counter, all the work left to do was bake the strata until the top was lightly golden brown.

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Vegetarian

Quinoa Pilaf with Chile, Queso Fresco, and Peanuts

In the often-staid world of grains and seeds, quinoa is a veritable rock star. Packed with sufficient quantities of all nine essential amino acids it earns itself the title of complete protein (it’s also a good source of fiber and minerals). Beyond health benefits, quinoa has a pleasantly vegetal, slightly nutty flavor that lends itself to a wide range of dishes and seasonings. Add in its rich history dating back to cultivation by the Incans (who held it as sacred), and it’s easy to see why quinoa consumption in this country has soared over the past decade. Most recipes for quinoa pilaf turn out woefully overcooked because they call for nearly twice as much liquid as they should. We cut the water back to ensure tender grains with a satisfying bite. And we finished the pilaf with a judicious amount of boldly flavored ingredients such as chile and peanuts, which ensures the toasted quinoa stays in the spotlight—right where it belongs.

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Vegetarian

Stuffed Acorn Squash

To enhance the overall presence of acorn squash in our stuffed acorn squash recipe, we set aside two roasted wedges to mash and add to the filling. The roasted mash added nutty, caramelized flavor to the filling and also helped bind it. To round out our filling, we chose apples for sweetness, kale for added texture, and goat cheese for a welcome tang.

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Vegetarian

Soft-Cooked Eggs

The two components of an egg—the white and the yolk—react very differently to heat. Most important: The white and the yolk begin to solidify at very different temperatures. This means that when cooking an egg that we want to be ultimately both solid (the white) and liquid (the yolk) at once, we have to carefully bring the whites up to a much higher temperature. We found that we could get perfectly soft-cooked eggs by adding two eggs to boiling water and then removing them after several minutes. But when we tried adding extra eggs, the whites didn’t cook through. That’s because adding the cold eggs to the saucepan temporarily lowered the temperature of the water. With more eggs, the water’s temperature dipped lower and took longer to return to 212 degrees. We needed to use boiling water to cook the eggs without actually submerging them in it. What about steaming? Using a steamer basket worked perfectly—and it turned out that eggs cooked in steam took exactly the same amount of time as eggs that were submerged in an ample amount of boiling water. With that in mind, we made our method even easier by losing the steamer basket but keeping the small quantity of water. Because of the curved exterior of the eggs, they didn’t make enough contact with the water to lower the temperature significantly, so we got beautiful tender yet fully set whites cradling warm, fluid yolks just like we had gotten in the steamer. We recommend serving these eggs in eggcups and with buttered toast for dipping, or you may simply use the dull side of a butter knife to crack the egg alongside the equator. Break the egg in half, and scoop out the insides with a teaspoon.

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Vegetarian

Hearty Ten-Vegetable Stew

Vegetable stews pose a unique challenge: how to get deep, robust, and savory flavor from ingredients that are packed full of moisture and natural sugars. Without proper treatment, the vegetables in a vegetable stew will turn the dish both watery and sweet. This recipe uses ingredients with impact as well as cooking technique to give the stew dynamic flavor. For example, mushrooms cooked until well browned add meatiness, a good dose of both sautéed onion and garlic brings a distinct savory character, wine brightens up the flavor with its fruitiness and acidity, and herbs lend an earthy quality and fullness to the stew. The ten different types of vegetables in this stew are added in more or less three different stages: The mushrooms and aromatics are sautéed before the liquid goes into the pot The hardy root vegetables are added along with the liquid And the quick-cooking vegetables are stirred in near the very end. These tiered additions ensure great flavor and perfectly cooked vegetables.

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Vegetarian

Vegetarian Chili

Most vegetarian chilis lack depth and complexity. They rely on beans and chunky veggies for heartiness—but neither ingredient offers any real replacement for the flavor, texture, and unctuous richness that meat provides. We set out to build a version as rich, savory, and deeply satisfying as any meat chili out there—one that even meat lovers would make on its own merits, not just to satisfy vegetarian friends. We made a homemade chili seasoning blend and took time to select the right beans. We wanted to develop our chili’s savory depth and meatiness—minus the meat. And we did.

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Vegetarian

Fresh Egg Pasta

Fresh egg pasta is surprisingly easy to make at home. With just two ingredients (flour and eggs) and a little kneading, you have endless dinner possibilities—and we assure you the results are far superior to any store-bought version. Discover our quick and simple food processor method for how to make fresh pasta. You will also learn how to store, cook, and freeze the pasta, as well as how long it takes to cook. In this class, we will show you how to use a hand-cranked pasta machine to get perfect lasagna sheets (the first step in homemade ravioli), fettuccine, pappardelle, and tagliatelle.

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Vegetarian

Creamy Parmesan Polenta

Polenta, similar to Southern grits but Italian in origin, resonates with Americans as stick-to-your ribs comfort food. Its thick, creamy, starchiness is perfect as a bed for many dishes, such as rich braises and stews, or garnished with a sauce or vegetables that play off its nutty, minerally notes, polenta itself can the basis for a substantial meal. Traditionally, polenta requires constant stirring for up to an hour. With the novel techniques our polenta recipe employs, you’ll have a potful of flavorful polenta with far less work and much less time than if you had cooked the polenta the traditional way. A simple topping of sautéed cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese turns the polenta into a hearty first course or a light main course (that’s vegetarian, to boot).

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Vegetarian

Vegetarian Indian Dinner

Some of the best vegetarian food comes from Indian cuisine. In this course, you will learn how to make a variety of Indian food recipes, so you can cook a homemade feast from start to finish. First, you will find information about popular Indian spices and spice blends, such as garam masala and curry powder. You will also learn how to grind your own spices, which ensures that they are always fresh. In our how-to videos, you will learn our recipes for naan bread and mango-peach chutney, a popular Indian condiment. Finally, each recipe tutorial includes step-by-step tutorials and common mistakes to avoid when cooking each dish.

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