Roasted Beet & Quinoa Salad with Dried Apricots and Almonds

If this isn’t a refreshing way to enter winter eating, I don’t know what is. I’m talking about the leanest, meanest days for finding fresh produce, the doldrums of harvesting. Yeah, we’ll be here for a while longer. Luckily, there are always some dried fruits, nuts and grains that have been stored away for safekeeping — and only the toughest of the fresh root vegetables survive, like beets.

Spicy Beet Salad With Smoked Almonds on Toast

I find the mild flavor, mild texture, and outrageous color of roasted beets so enjoyable that I’ll pop them into my mouth whole like popcorn. Only, it’s not all the time that I get to roasting a few beets, especially when it’s been as warm as the last few weeks in New York. However, I did roast a lot of very good beets the other day — good, because they were just in season at the farmers’ market (rather than … Read More

Peach and Roasted Beet Salad

I don’t know anything that doesn’t taste good with a slice of a fresh, juicy and tree-ripened summer peach. It doesn’t need anything to accompany it, but it sure can give other ingredients a boost. For example, ricotta or goat cheese with a peach slice on crostini. A bowl of vanilla ice cream with peaches. Grilled peaches on shishkabob sticks, in salsa and gazpacho, on a pizza instead of tomato slices, peanut butter and peach sandwiches. I’m eating buckwheat pancakes … Read More

Simply Roasted Beets

I’ve been bringing roasted beets to work for snacks a lot lately. A lot of people have peered over my shoulder and said, “Oh, beets — how do you cook them like that?” My first reaction, that of a not-so-helpful home cook-ophile, is usually to say, “How do you not cook them like that?” I don’t mean to sound snobbish here. Obviously, I’m writing this post in response to all these requests. But as long as you’re not simmering them … Read More