Vegetarian food - quick and easy recipes - page 22

The flavour in this rich caramel sauce is balanced out by the addition of bourbon and espresso powder. Start by boiling butter, brown sugar, and cream, plus some light corn syrup to keep the caramel from crystallizing. When it’s ready, flavor it with bourbon and espresso powder for a boozy sauce that adds a little extra pizzazz to a scoop of ice cream or a slice of Mississippi Mud Cake. Game plan: The sauce can be made up to 4 days ahead.

Though braising sounds like a time-consuming effort, this recipe from Ana Sortun, chef and owner of the Mediterranean restaurant Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts, can be pulled off in less than 30 minutes. The mix of Mediterranean ingredients like anchovy, raisins, capers, olives, pine nuts, and lemon lends tons of bright flavor and unexpected complexity without extra fat or calories.

This shortcut version of the classic Spanish romesco sauce—a combination of tomatoes, red peppers, bread, and almonds—is an easy, quick dip to prepare for cocktail parties. Its flavors pair well with anything from vegetable crudités to grilled chicken breasts and pasta, but one of our favorite ways to serve it is with roasted shrimp. Try pairing it with easy homemade chimichurri sauce for a garlic twist on this classic dipping sauce.

Whole wheat flour gives this pizza dough a hearty flavor and a chewy yet crisp texture. This recipe makes enough dough for two large pizzas, so you can top one for the adults and let the kids have a go at the second one, or freeze it for later. Just add pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and all your favorite toppings. Chowhound uses this in our easy margarita pizza recipe.

The classic technique for making glazed carrots involves adding just the right amount of water to a saucepan along with carrots, butter, and sugar and simmering for the exact length of time it takes for the liquid to reduce to a syrup and the carrots to become just tender. I usually overcook the carrots or add too little water, so I like this more forgiving technique. Cook the carrots in boiling water until crisp-tender and drain.

Most people don’t try making hollandaise sauce at home because the classic method requires a water bath and constant attention to ensure a perfectly textured sauce. In this fast and easy version, we use a blender to emulsify butter and egg yolks into a perfectly smooth sauce with a hint of brightness from lemon juice. Use it for classic eggs Benedict, or drizzle it over broiled fish or steamed veggies. Pick a great new blender to make this sauce and everything else you want smooth.

A combination of sugar, water, and strawberries cooked together, cooled, and strained. Use this sweet, fruity syrup in cocktails, desserts, or bubbly sodas.

With cabbage, carrots, radishes, and herbs, this slaw is as colorful as it is flavorful. It’s a great make-ahead dish, since the flavor develops as it sits; just be sure to give it a quick stir before you serve.

This salad is a great way to use up leftover or slightly stale bread. The original is typically made with red wine vinegar and the saltless bread found throughout Tuscany. Our version has a light lemon vinaigrette and cucumbers for an added dimension and some crunch. What to buy: Pull out your best extra-virgin olive oil for this recipe, as the quality becomes apparent after the first bite.

This tasty cucumber salad recipe combines honeydew, cucumber, and feta cheese in a garlic, lemon, pepper dressing to create an amazing salad. While honeydew is usually the backbone of fruit salads, it can also shine in savory recipes, like this one with crunchy cucumber, feta cheese, and mint. The lemon-and–olive oil dressing has lots of black pepper to temper the flavour of the melon.

You don’t need to pull out the ice cream maker for this elegant cold dessert. Just blend frozen pineapple with rum, lime juice, simple syrup, and ice, then freeze the mixture until solid and scoopable. This tart, tropical sorbet hits the mark as both an after-dinner cocktail and a dessert.

This basic cream cheese frosting recipe is really easy to remember: Just beat together 2 sticks of butter, 2 packages of cream cheese, 2 cups of powdered sugar, and a splash of vanilla extract. It has just the right balance of sweetness and tang, so you can spread it on almost any sweet, from pumpkin cupcakes to ginger cake, or sandwich some between oatmeal cookies. Game plan: Refrigerate the frosting in a zip-top bag or an airtight container with a tightfitting lid for up to 4 days.

Rémoulade is essentially a homemade mayonnaise loaded with flavor. The sauce was originally created in France, but we put a Creole spin on it with the addition of Louisiana-style hot sauce, Worcestershire, and bell pepper. Though it’s normally served with fried-fish dishes such as our Cornmeal Fried Catfish, we also like it with boiled shrimp or mixed into a potato salad. What to buy: Have all the ingredients at room temperature before you start—the rémoulade will come together better.

I grew up eating a version of this dip made with only dried dill weed, and though it tasted pretty good, I like the addition of some fresh dill and a little parsley as well. The dip needs to hang out in the fridge for a couple hours for the flavors to blend, so this is an ideal recipe to make ahead for a party. Serve alongside some Long Island Iced Tea for an impressive party spread.

This is a milder and more accessible version of my first hot sauce recipe, Habanero Blood Orange Death Kick. When my dad (who grows his own Trinidad Scorpion peppers) said it was way too hot, I took his advice and left out the serranos to curb the heat a bit. I also used easy-to-find domestic oranges and limes. Spoon it over a breakfast frittata for a punch of heat.

This creamy, comforting dessert takes hardly any time to assemble and can be left to cook unattended while you prepare, eat, and clean up after a dinner party. Just stir rice, milk, and sugar together in a slow cooker coated with butter and turn it on high. By the time the dinner dishes are cleared and folks are poking around for something sweet, dessert will be ready. Just before serving, stir in brown sugar, raisins, vanilla, cinnamon, and more milk to bump up the creaminess.