Paneer Paratha or Cheese Paratha as the name indicates is a stuffed bread. Here the stuffing is cheese which can be spiced up or just leave it plain. This is a good brunch item. It tastes yum with ketchup, Pickle, Yogurt or any gravy side dish.

Crispy Paneer is a spicy starter. This deep fried Paneer or cottage cheese is an excellent recipe for any cocktail snack as well. Serve this tempting dish with some raw Onions and mint Chutney.

Bombay Aloo (Bombay Potatoes) is a popular North Indian side dish. Now how did it get this name is a mystery - Bombay is a city in India which is now called as Mumbai. Maybe this version originated in Mumbai and so the name - anyways this is a delicious way to make Potatoes colourfull! The left overs can be mashed and used to make stuff Parathas.

Vegetable Biryani is a spicy rice item with a combination of Vegetables and Indian spices. This is actually a Mughlai dish but has gained popularity in Indian Cuisine. This can be served as a main dish with any gravy or Raita.

There’s a falafel joint down the street from me that makes these amazing curry fries and you can smell them from a block away. They are so tantalizing, but baked fries are sooo much healthier and totally quench my curry fry craving.

These baked fries do take a bit of work. You need to parboil them, plunge them into ice water and then bake. But I wouldn’t post this recipe if it weren’t totally worth it! It’s everything a fry should be; a creamy interior while crispy on the outside. And it’s one of those things that, if you do it once, the next time it won’t be such a big deal and the time after that even less so. Looking over the directions I’m surprised at how much work it looks like when in reality it is so easy!

The type of curry powder you use is important. I use the Penzey’s sweet curry blend. It’s fairly mild with a little kick, and not bitter like some curry powders can be. Oh, and expect yellow garlic fingers for a few hours because you have to handle the curry powder with your hands. Welcome to my world.

If certain folks had their way, chili would be made with nothing but beef, chilies, and the hair off a Texan's back. If you're one of those folks, well here's a recipe for you. Yippie ki-yay, and all that.
Well if you're one of those folks, move along, this is not the chili you are looking for.
If, however, you are open to such atrocities as beans in your chili, keep reading. Why does vegetarian chili get such a bum rap? I mean, there's the obvious: chili is a divisive issue, even (or especially?) amongst those who love chili.
But hey, guess what? Beans can taste good in chili. Tomatoes can taste good in chili. (Don't believe me? Try out this recipe). Heck, even pork and tomatillos can taste good in chili.
So why shouldn't we be able to make a completely meatless version that tastes great as well?
Turns out we actually have quite a few great tasting vegetarian chilies on the site already, but all of them (and pretty much every vegetarian chili recipe I've seen) fall under the fast-and-easy, 45-minutes-or-less category.
This in and of itself is not a bad thing—vegetarian chilis as a general rule don't need to be cooked as long as meat-based chilies because vegetables tenderize faster than meat—but long, slow cooking also nets you another benefit in the flavor development. Fast chili recipes are inevitably not quite as rich and complex as you'd like them to be.
My goal this week is to create a 100% vegan chili recipe that has all of the deep chili flavor, textural contrast, and rib-sticking richness that the best chili should have.

I realized I don’t have a super basic sausage recipe on the site and so here it is! The now classic, always magical, seitan and bean steamed-in-tinfoil sausage. Perfect for grilling, sauteeing or tossing into stews.

In case this is your first time making a vegan sausage, here’s what’s going down: You’re going to mash some beans in a mixing bowl and then throw in the other ingredients and mix. Then you’re going to roll ‘em in tinfoil like a Tootsie Roll, and steam them. And then, like magic, you will have vegan sausages. Easiest thing in the world!

Kerala curry is a famous fish curry from the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is traditionally served in a shallow clay dish called a chatty, or manchatti.

Kaeng kiao wan is the Thai phrase that indicates a green curry. Shrimp (kung, khung, or goong) is a very popular type of green curry dish, but you can substitute fish, chicken, beef, or shellfish according to your taste.

Goa curry in one form or another is eaten up and down the western coast of India. There are endless variations, but the basic qualities are a fiery hot coconut curry with the sour punch of tamarind.

Chupes are hearty chowders popular along South America's Pacific coast from Chile to Peru. Chupe de camarones is a Peruvian classic made with shrimp and vegetables and is substantial enough to make a full meal.

International Recipes and Iconic Dishes from Around the World

First, the golden rule of crab cakes: only use enough extraneous ingredients (i.e., anything that's not crab) to hold it together; it follows that the crab should be of good quality, preferably not canned.
Yes, they have a tendency to fall apart, but the key is to use plenty of butter in the pan, wait until it's very hot before adding the cakes, and turn them only once when the crust is fully formed and golden. Though these guys were nearly a hash when I finally got them onto the plates, they did make it—and the flavor was excellent.
It did feel a little bit funny cooking this dish for dinner in January, since crab cakes remind me of summer more than anything else. But maybe that's actually the perfect reason to prepare this classic from the New York Times Country Weekend Cookbook, which opts for an egg and a minimum of breadcrumbs to tie it all together.
I modified the recipe to include a homemade tartar sauce, which isn't too difficult, and raises the bar for this meal considerably.

Feel free to makes the cakes ahead of time and hold them in the fridge overnight. You can even take them from the fridge straight to the pan, although if you do, I'd recommend letting the cakes sit in a warm oven for a few minutes to let the center of the cakes get up to temperature. Some sour cream or Greek yogurt, lemon wedges, cold beer, and a green salad, and brunch is ready to serve.

You need a supply of fresh steamed rice noodles for this recipe. Check your local Chinatown or a good Asian grocery. Steamed rice noodles need to be used the day they are made. Do not refrigerate them or they will become brittle/stale very rapidly. If you can't find chow fun noodles, and cooked vegan Chinese noodle will work.

File Vault 2 and embedded 'Recovery HD' disk are new additions to OS X in Lion release.

A fresh OS X Lion installation creates 'Recovery HD' by live re-partitioning 'Macintosh HD'. The recovery disk is 650MB in size (as of 10.7.2), of partition type Apple_Boot, and therefore, will be hidden during normal usage by OS X user interface. It does not show up in Finder, and not even 'Disk Utility.'

If the recovery disk 'Recovery HD' is proper, booting up a Mac without File Vault 2 while holding down the Option key will result in listing 'Recovery HD' as an alternative to 'Macintosh HD' for booting the machine up. For Macs with File Vault 2, only holding down the Cmd+R key combination will boot 'Recovery HD.'

The 'Recovery HD' of a Mac without File Vault 2 contains 'Base System Install', which is a minimal OS X kernel plus useful utility applications (Disk Utility, Time Machine, Network Utility, Pasword Utility). The main purpose is to allow partitioning a hard disk and restoring the system from a Time Capsule via the Time Machine application.

The 'Recovery HD' of a Mac with File Vault 2 does not contain 'Base System Install,' but only CoreStorage components and a minimal kernel for authenticating a user to Core Storage, to get a File Vault 2 (Whole-Disk-Encryption) protected disk mounted. Therefor, once File Vault 2 is turned on, your Mac will loose the ability to boot 'Base System Install'. The only way to start a Time Capsule restore is to boot from a Lion Installation DVD (or USB), if you had one made from the downloaded Lion installation app from the AppStore (instructions are widely written in web articles, please search the web).

When a Lion Mac is restored from Time Capsule via the Time Machine application, as of 10.7.2, the 'Recovery HD' will NOT be recreated. A Mac with File Vault 2 previously enabled will also be restored with File Vault 2 disabled; i.e. the disk will NOT be encrypted (this is right thing to do IMO). Without 'Recovery HD', File Vault 2 cannot be enabled anymore. This is a BIG problem for Mac owners who need stronger assurance of data security.

This article is a collection of my experiences in fixing this plight I had to face after restoring my Mac after my Seagate Momentus 500GB (G-Shock) crashed badly.

Its January, and as everything’s grey and dreary perhaps you’re feeling the work blues. So why not use the tools at your fingertips to find yourself a new job?

LinkedIn is the best platform to use if you’re looking for a job on social media websites as it’s the most professional of them all. In this screencast tutorial, we’ll take you through best practice for using LinkedIn as a job seeker.

It’s every girl’s worst nightmare. Just a few weeks shy of my 39th birthday, trying to drift off to sleep, I was suddenly seized by a terrifying thought. “I have never porcini crusted anything.” Maybe porcini crusting went out of style with The Rachael haircut, but it’s still my idea of a fancy meal.

And Valentine’s Day is coming up, so maybe you wanna’ get a little fancy? Porcinis remind me of wet leaves, red wine and cozy cloudy evenings. Their sensuous woodsy taste just oozes romance. They’re a little pricey, but dried ones aren’t too bad — I think one ounce set me back under four bucks at Whole Foods. You grind them up in the blender, mix with breadcrumbs and seasoning and voila! Delicious crust.

Even though you might not make this recipe any day of the week (but you might), it isn’t difficult to do. My favorite part is that the accompanying Shallot Gravy is made with both the leftover marinate and the leftover crusting mixture.

I served over Scallion Mashed Potatoes and Caramelized Beets. You can definitely have the whole menu done in an hour or so (not including marinating time). Here’s how: Marinate the tofu during the day. Then when you get home, first thing you do is prep the beets and get them in the oven. Then prepare the potatoes. Now prep the shallots (this is the hardest part! Shallots can be a real pain.) Blend the porcinis before blending the mashed potato ingredients so that you don’t have to wash the blender out. Now make the sauce, porcini crust and, finally, cook the tofu. That may sound confusing, but once you read through the recipes, you’ll get it.

CodeKit automatically compiles Less, Sass, Stylus, CoffeeScript & Haml files. It effortlessly combines, minifies and error-checks Javascript. It supports Compass. It even optimizes jpeg & png images, auto-reloads your browser and lets you use the same files across many projects. And that's just the first paragraph.

Slice is designed primarily for people that shop online frequently, but can also act as a backup tool for those of you who aren't clicking the "buy" button quite so often. Check out some real-world scenarios below. If some of them sound familiar, Slice may be a good fit for you.

A quick & healthy breakfast, perfect for those lazy days.
Add extra goodness by sprinkling in some fresh blueberries or raspberries

Welcome spring--or vegetarian guests--to your table with this delicious main-course recipe that is destined to become a favorite for family and feasts alike. For killer veggie burgers, serve any leftover slices on toasted whole wheat buns with lettuce and spicy mustard.

Steaming the tempeh first helps it stay moist and absorb this flavorful marinade. Any leftovers can be added to salads, sandwiches and vegetable dishes.

Use in sandwiches or wraps, or serve on a bed of sautéed veggies like spinach, carrots, bok choy or bell peppers.

For the best presentation, choose a mix of red, yellow, green or orange bell peppers.

This hearty loaf combines tofu with onions, carrots, garlic and parsley and bakes up firm and sliceable. Try adding any of the following to make this vegetarian take on a classic comfort food even more delicious: ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, or dried basil, oregano or thyme. Top slices of the tofu loaf with vegetarian mushroom gravy, or pair them with brown rice or quinoa pilaf.

Serve this dish (inspired by the Middle Eastern classic, Mujadara) either as a vegetarian main course or a hearty side.

This dish is spiced with garam masala, a blend of aromatic spices such as cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Serve with naan or other soft flatbread. Since tofu sometimes sticks to the skillet when pan-fried, use a nonstick skillet if you have one on hand.

This recipe comes to us courtesy of the Renegade Lunch Lady Chef Ann Cooper and her book Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed our Children. These lentil patties are delicious as well as healthful, and can be served as a burger on a whole grain bun, or as an entree with rice and some grilled veggies.

These easy-to-assemble burgers can be shaped ahead of time and cooked off when you're ready to eat.

A great vegetarian dish as part of a Chinese banquet or just a nice midweek supper on its own with steamed rice.

A healthy breakfast doesn't need to taste boring - add zing to your morning with salsa and sweetcorn pancakes.

I get blank stares when I ask my vegetarian cooking students if they’ve ever eaten seitan (say-tahn). Yet, hands go up when I ask if anybody has ever eaten mock chicken, beef, or pork in a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. The name is foreign but you may be more familiar with the product than you think.

Sometimes you gotta take a break from the hard-core carnivordom, and these are the way to go—just ask our staff, who eat them around the clock. These balls happen to be Mike's favorite too. You'll often find us at the bar with a big bowl, topped with Classic Tomato Sauce or Spinach Basil Pesto and a side of steamed or sautéed spinach. And when it comes to kids, this is a great and tasty way to sneak in more veggies.

Beans and legumes are among the healthiest foods you can eat. A vegetable protein, they contain fewer pesticides than animal products. They’re low in fat, and are versatile enough to absorb flavor from a wide variety of flavors and spices. With so many warnings about chemicals in canned foods, now might be the time to make the switch to home-cooked beans.
Dried beans are usually very cheap, although they take a while to cook from scratch so consider energy usage when making price comparisons.  Make a large quantity and freeze to make the effort worthwhile.  I’ll give a few methods.

My next guest post comes from my awesome friend, Andrew, of Eating Rules, an amazing blog that focuses on healthy eating by following three simple rules.  Whether he’s challenging you to avoid processed foods or encouraging you to look closely at food labels so that you’re making the most nutritious choices possible, Andrew makes you think about what you’re putting into your body (something which a lot of us don’t do often enough).  The best part is that he does it in a truly approachable, positive way, without that hefty serving of guilt that some writers serve with their health lessons.
For this post, he’s created a fabulous, basic recipe, that also helps me cover another one of the topics I keep meaning to get to here on PGEW: making homemade stock.  I’ve referred to my homemade veggie, chicken, and turkey stocks in the past, but have yet to get them up on the blog.  And I’m kind of glad now, since Andrew’s veggie stock looks so much better than mine!  Let’s check out this great recipe that helps make the most of any extra produce you may have. 

Ready for the table in no time, these enchiladas are a tasty recipe that the whole family will enjoy.

The WordPress plugin “Leaflet Maps Marker” allows you to pin, organize & show your favorite places through OpenStreetMap on your blog and via different APIs on external websites or apps.

Potato And Pea Curry (Aloo Matar)

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Nanode is an open source Arduino-like board that has in-built web connectivity. It connects to a range of wireless, wired and ethernet interfaces. It allows you to develop web based sensor and control systems - giving you web access to six analogue sensor lines and six digital I/O lines. It costs under £20 as an easy build it yourself kit. Nanode was designed with hacking in mind.

Try guessing how many apps have permissions to access your private information... Now click the icons and get ready for a surprise!

It pays to travel light with just a single carry-on suitcase. Not only will you avoid paying excessive airline luggage fees, but you’ll get through airport security faster with a stealthily packed, slimmed-down carry-on suitcase. You’ll also save time by not waiting for checked luggage and you won’t risk losing a single bag. Yay!

Tantalising flavours make this healthy tikka masala a winner on all levels.

Mushroom Lasagna

Popular in Israel, this shakshuka works for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

I know there are plenty of articles about themes for WordPress and at tripwire magazine we have also published our share. The reason is simple – WordPress is awesome and it just gets better and better. Further there are new themes released and new designers and vendors entering the market every day. This is good for everyone using WordPress, but it has almost come to a point where the massive supply makes it hard to make a decision and filter the good themes from the bad ones. One option to get around this problem is to take a look at premium theme vendors as they typically have fewer, but very high quality themes that can be customized easily. In contrast you can go to the large theme directories and search for a theme that fits your requirements for look and feel. While this may be more time consuming it will not cost you a single dollar. As you can understand it isit is important to start searching using the sites that have good search capabilities, good previews and detailed descriptions of theme features. This article does not list a single WordPress theme, but it gives you an overview of some of the best premium theme vendors and free theme directories currently available. The article has been divided into two main sections – Premium Theme Vendors and Free Themes Directories. Make sure you check out the Coupon Code section at the bottom if you plan to buy a premium theme! You can also check out some of our list posts showcasing wordpress themes e.g. WordPress CMS themes, WordPress photography theme and WordPress photo theme.

Potato Croquettes

Create Mac apps.
Use HTML5 for the UI.
Script it with anything.
Can not possibly be simpler.

As satisfying and hearty as the pot pie is, it's a difficult task to take the humble dish from homey to glamorous. But as we've learned this week, cooking our way though American Flavor, Andrew Carmellini has the ability to transform food from comforting to breathtaking.
The stewy filling of Carmellini's Chicken Pot Pie is vegetable-rich with carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, peas, cremini mushrooms, and new potatoes with chunks of braised chicken legs and a subtle touch of smoke and heat from chipotle Tabasco sauce. When you're finished simmering it, you might be tempted to break out a spoon and call it a day. But it's the crust here that really makes the dish.
Instead of going with the traditional biscuit crust (and you know that Carmellini can make a mean biscuit) he goes with a thin crust that puffs up and bakes into a cracker-like dome, encasing the pie in a crisp that's just waiting to be shattered. It's the perfect salty-crunchy accompaniment to dip into the bubbling chicken filling.

We delivered top quality, cutting edge WordPress themes and superior customer support. Give your WordPress powered website a professional new look, and be up and running in no time at all.

Baked Falafel Pita Sandwiches

Computing is full of buzzwords, “cloud computing” being the latest one. But unlike most trends that fizzle out after the initial surge, cloud computing is here to stay. This article goes over Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service and guides you to implementing a WordPress plugin that backs up your WordPress database to Amazon’s S3 cloud. Note that this is not a tutorial on creating a WordPress plugin from scratch, so some familiarity with plugin development is assumed.

Yes, curry is popular in Indian cuisine. Except it's not a singular dish that you will find across all tables. There are plenty of curries in India. Each region, each home, each religion has its own variations. This translates into a delicious abundance of liquid manna in shades of amber, red, yellow and green.

I've always been fascinated by the gushing reviews that "curry" gets in the west, especially in the UK. So on a recent trip to Britain, I was eager to try the dish that has put Indian cuisine on the world map, in its new home. I ordered the first chicken curry I saw on a menu. Suffice it to say that the only thing that I could recognize was the white rice accompanying the dish. This was no curry! The dish had barely enough gravy to smudge the bottom of the serving bowl. It did have spice, but it wasn't really amalgamated and the sweetness was disorienting.
For Indians, a curry is a fish, meat, or veggie preparation swimming in a sometimes-spicy, sometimes-mellow gravy. The copious amount of gravy is used to drape each grain of rice, till every morsel is bursting with the flavor of the aromatic spices.
There's enough space on the global table for all versions of curry, but here's a glimpse of an authentic version of Goan fish curry. The blend of spices and coconut brings out the mild sweetness of the tender fresh fish that is so abundant in Goa and around the coast of India. Serve it with steamed white or red rice.

Let’s face it, cabbage is a tough sell. Even though it’s what makes coleslaw coleslaw and it’s a crunchy companion to a fish taco, most people associate it with their grandmother’s boiled cabbage fouling up the air with its death-like aroma. That’s why I’m titling this post Sexy Cabbage Sexytime because the other night, I came up with a way to cook it that’s so terrific, so genre-shifting, it’ll forever change the way that you think about cabbage.

As much as I like a freshly baked loaf of bread, I have to admit that crisp breadsticks (grissini) are one of my favorite snacks. You can nibble on them before dinner, with dinner, and after dinner. There's something so satisfying about the crunch. Like pretzels, but without all the extra salt.
These are cooked at a fairly low temperature. it's the key to getting the breadsticks completely dry and evenly baked without getting over-browned.

I've never been able to make a successful batch of biscuits. My botched attempts have reached the double digits. I finally just assumed me and biscuits weren't meant to be.
But I reconsidered this notion after coming across a recipe in Andrew Carmellini's American Flavor entitled The World's Best Biscuits—End of Story. Any biscuits with a name like that were certainly worth their weight in flour, buttermilk, and shortening.
After so many batches of leaden hockey puck biscuits, it was going to take a pretty incredible recipe to break my track record and to Carmellini's credit, his biscuits were just that good.
There are two steps in this World's Best Biscuits recipe that sets these fluffy little gems aside from others—a honey butter glaze that has the power to make anything insanely delicious and a dough that rolled, folded, and beaten down a total of seven times for optimal flakiness and breathtaking height. The biscuits were tall when they went into the oven and even taller and more beautiful when they came out, not to mention perfectly tender with just the right touch of sweetness.
So, are they the world's best? I'm going to have to say yes. Better than any biscuits I've made (obviously) and even better than the best biscuits that I've had outside of my kitchen.

Keftes de prasa are de rigeur at most holiday celebrations on the Sephardic side of my family. Rosh Hashanah, Passover, Hannukah--it doesn't matter. Any excuse is good enough reason to enjoy these simple leek fritters. Not much more than leeks, eggs, and breadcrumbs, they are deceptively delicious and addictive. Almost like latkes but with leeks instead of potatoes.
Like latkes, they are great fun at a celebration, but after sitting out for too long, they lose that perfect crispness that makes fried food really special. If you make them for a small group and serve them fresh from the pan, I guarantee your guests will be begging for a return invitation.
In this recipe, I've actually synthesized a couple different traditions. In my family, the leeks are boiled. I found a very similar Syrian-Jewish recipe for Ejjeh b'Kerrateh in the superb Aromas of Aleppo by Poopa Dweck, where she sautees the leeks, producing a stronger, better oniony flavor. The Syrian version also adds subtle flavors of allspice, cinnamon, and hot pepper, which I've listed as optional ingredients. I like them, but my wife found them distracting. On the other hand, the Syrian version doesn't use any breadcrumbs, which I think are an important textural element.
If you are nice, maybe someday I'll tell you about serving keftes de prasa in a sandwich, like falafel. (By the way, you may find keftes called kyeftes, keftedes, or kifticas. Our family pronounces them koof-teek-az.)

Tarsnap is a secure online backup service for BSD, Linux, OS X, Solaris, Cygwin, and can probably be compiled on many other UNIX-like operating systems. The Tarsnap client code provides a flexible and powerful command-line interface which can be used directly or via shell scripts.

At the present time, Tarsnap does not support Windows (except via Cygwin) and does not have a graphical user interface.

Tortilla casserole isn't authentically Mexican, beautiful, or fancy in any way. It's simply a delicious, homey way to put a healthy and inexpensive vegetarian entree on the table. If you have kids, odds are it will be a hit with them too. In my family we like to put something like this together on Sunday night and refrigerate it, then bake and serve it for dinner early in the work week. That guarantees us at least one hot home-cooked meal even if no-one has time to cook.
The most complicated thing it asks you to do is dice an onion.
This recipe is for the basic tortilla casserole. The most complicated thing it asks you to do is dice an onion. You can embellish the basic recipe in any number of ways. For example, add finely diced zucchini or bell pepper, roasted poblano peppers, or corn kernels. You could also replace the refried beans with whole pinto or black beans, or add a tablespoon or so of minced chipotle pepper to the sauce.
If you have time, garnishes of crema (Mexican sour cream), fresh cilantro, and lime slices are nice. This dish provides a great opportunity to break out all of those hot sauces crowding your refrigerator door—everyone can doctor it up to their own preference of chile heat.

It's the first real hurdle in a resolution diet: the Super Bowl. Every year, millions of blossoming healthy eaters are trapped in a 10x10 room with 50 friends, a 50-inch television, and more temptations than a Motown reunion. And while I would never advise depriving oneself of nachos and beer, there are ways to curtail the damage to your diet.
Parking yourself by the crudité table is one option, as is loading up on less fatty foods like popcorn, salsa, and pretzels. If your friends are all classy-like, shrimp and other non-fried seafood are excellent choices as well. Light beer is an acquired taste, but Sam Adams makes a decent brew, and I've never heard anyone complain about Corona Light. Chili, which we've discussed here before, is another excellent way to chow mightily without torpedoing your diet.
You can bring your own, cram it with vegetables and legumes, and no one will be the wiser. White Chicken Chili and Pumpkin Turkey Chili are stellar selections, as is Winter Vegetable Chili, the cover recipe from this month's Food & Wine.
Though entirely vegetarian, the chili is substantial, and packs some serious heat. Bizarrely, the parsnips are the highlight, since they pair beautifully with the chipotles.
It's a sweet, smoky combination I would not shy away from serving to Mike Ditka, John Madden, or two of the three Manning brothers. If you've never bought canned hominy before, I found it in the Latin foods section of my supermarket.

I'm not sure I really have any business cooking a recipe for chili that's not only vegetarian—making it a contradiction in terms—but also pulled from Patricia Wells' The Provence Cookbook. I think we all agree that the French are many things, but chili experts is not one of them. It's more like a vegetable stew with a healthy kick of chili powder. But when you get down to it, who really cares as long as it's delicious?
This certainly is. Essentially a slew of vegetables sweated then simmered with puréed tomatoes, chili powder, kidney beans, and rice, the result is healthy, hearty, and cost almost nothing to make. The aromatic vegetables make a wonderful base for the tomatoes, while the rice carries it into a full meal.

I've been talking smack about this recipe for months. Whenever my wife and I can't decide what to make for dinner, she'll lobby hard for this one—and it makes sense. I love black beans and we tend to have the rest of the ingredients around the house. It's a perfect pantry meal. The only problem? I couldn't picture how they'd turn out. I feared they would become chalky and dry like hockey pucks.
But that couldn't be further from the case for this Epicurious recipe. Perhaps stuffing them with loads of veggies and chiles helps them stay moist.
My only criticism? The "spicy" label is a misnomer. Unless you think "medium" packaged salsa is spicy, then you'll need to add some firepower of your own. Hot sauce these guys at will.

This is not my kind of food. No disrespect, it's just not what I dream of on my way home from work with a grumbling stomach, lunch long past. Strips of baked tofu, a sauce made with almond butter, and a pile of buckwheat noodles? But I will always respect a recipe that tastes really good. Always. And this one, from Lucid Food, does.
The soul of this dish is the sauce, a complex and sweet mixture of almond butter, soy sauce, maple syrup, and sesame oil. This lovely concoction is painted on the tofu while it bakes into dense, chewy strips; these are then the centerpiece of a quick stir-fry with ginger, garlic, scallions, and rice vinegar, bulked out with soba noodles and scattered with crunchy snow peas.
It doesn't belong to one cuisine; it's just vaguely Asian. But it all comes together quite well, finished with a handful of cilantro and doused with sriracha. It wasn't until I was halfway through that I realized I was eating a rare vegan meal. I didn't have much reason to complain.

While meat meals are traditionally based around the "protein," it often makes sense to plan a vegetarian meal around the primary grain. For example, I'll begin with "I think I want rice tonight," then work from there to decide if that should lead in a Thai, Indian, or Chinese (and so on) direction. Polenta is one of my favorite starting points because it so willingly embraces just about any Italian-inspired topping.
For today's recipe I opted for a simple saute of leeks and mushrooms, enhanced with wine and finished with gorgonzola dolce (a mild blue cheese) and a fine aged balsamic vinegar. If you use great ingredients it doesn't really need to be any more complicated than this.
By the way, don't listen to anyone who says you need to stir polenta constantly for the entire 45 minutes or so that it takes to become smooth. Just give it a good beating every so often, and make sure it has enough water so it won't scorch. The rest will take care of itself.
Watch and you will easily see when the transformation from rough to creamy has happened. At that point, mix in some Parmigiano-Reggiano and your are done. For an even smoother texture, you can follow the San Francisco restaurant Zuni Cafe's method and hold it covered in a double boiler for half an hour or so.

Finding a solid everyday cookbook is no easy task. Throw in the "healthy" factor, and it becomes harder than getting "Party in the USA" out of your head after your fiancé listens to it six times on repeat. Don't ask me how I know that.
Cook's Illustrated Best 30-Minute Recipe is my personal favorite, and I'm slowly, finally getting into How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Betty Crocker will always have a place on the bookshelf, and if you halve the oil in all of Ina Garten's recipes, her tomes suddenly become super useful for weeknights.
Now, thanks to the Brooklyn Public Library (R.I.P.?), I think we might have a new contender. Simple Suppers was released by the Moosewood collective back in 2005. The recipes are largely vegetarian, with a chapter of fish dishes thrown in for glorious, protein-y variety. So far, its offerings are three for three in my kitchen, and none have taken advanced skills or inordinately long amounts of time.
White Bean and Mushroom Ragout is the latest experiment, and it's a huge win. Made almost entirely out of pantry ingredients, the dish is the perfect antidote for those evenings when you're thiiiiis close to ordering takeout. It's filling and surprisingly complex flavor-wise, too, and you can spoon it over egg noodles, orzo, or polenta, as seen here.
If these first few forays are any indication, you can expect to see more from Simple Suppers in this column over the next few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy your Monday supper.

One might expect that a New Orleans-based chef like Emeril Lagasse is a big meat eater, but one of the most surprising things about his new book Farm to Fork is that the recipes are almost entirely vegetarian. There are few game and seafood recipes mixed in, but the bulk of the book is devoted to meat-free eating, vegetable dishes so satisfying you barely realize you're eating a vegetarian meal.
This Wild Mushroom Ragout over Creamy Polenta struck me immediately as a must-make due to it's striking similarity to one of my all time favorite vegetarian meals: the wild mushrooms served over creamy polenta from Al Di La in Brooklyn. The mushrooms are simmered with a mix of aromatics and herbs, tomatoes both diced and in paste form, and a stock of your choice—mushroom or vegetable or a veal or chicken stock. The mushrooms braise and release their earthy flavors making the sauce deep and rich, and an ideal topping for some of the creamiest polenta around.
The polenta recipe is for all of you out there who wonder why the polenta that you make at home is never quite as good as the polenta served in restaurants. There are a few secrets in there, all involving plenty of delicious dairy. Mascarpone, Parmigiano-Reggiano, butter, and whole milk make sure that this polenta is wonderfully creamy and rich with cheesy flavor.

This is one of the simplest and fastest Indian dishes I know. Start to finish, you'll have dinner on the table in a little over half an hour. Cubes of cheese and strips of peppers are briefly blistered over high heat before meeting a tomato gravy as easy to assemble as any basic Italian tomato sauce. The secret ingredient is fenugreek, both leaves and seeds—it's bittersweet and complex, making this simple, homey dish feel rich and luxurious. Just be sure to go heavy on the lime juice to balance out the sweetness.
If you can't get paneer, other firm frying cheeses will do. Hispanic markets often carry them (though they may get a little melty on you), and many mainstream supermarkets sell halloumi, a salty grilling cheese. Or you can make your own: Scald some milk, add some lemon juice, and strain the coagulated curd in a cheese cloth for a couple hours before pressing it into a block. You'll need a gallon of milk to make a pound of cheese.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of Appetite for Reduction calls this Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash the perfect breakfast for a vegan lumberjack. And while I've never met a vegan lumberjack (or any lumberjack, for that matter) I'm pretty sure that this warm, wintry bowl of crisp potatoes and Brussels sprouts is hearty enough to keep anyone going well into the afternoon.
I was a little concerned about the dried thyme, since, well, why bother with the dried stuff when fresh thyme is available in virtually every market? Ignoring my urges to go with the fresh stuff, I dusted off the jar and added two teaspoons to the pan along with grated lemon zest, salt, and pepper.
The flavor of the dried thyme was entirely different than it's fresh counterpart, woodsier and really wonderful when combined with the lemon zest. It was a much lighter way of enjoying Brussels sprouts, especially if you're used to cooking them up with bacon, the lemon and thyme add an herbal lightness to the spouts while the potatoes keep the dish hearty and satisfying.

Mejadra is the Israeli equivalent of rice and beans—a hearty grain and legume dish that can be served as a side or a vegetarian main. This version of mejadra from The Book of New Israeli Food by Janna Gur begins with gently cooked onions mixed with lentils and seasoned with cumin. The lentils are then simmered with long grain rice and topped with crisp-fried onions. Five onions for six servings of rice might seem like a bit much, but the two layers of onions give this dish its wonderfully deep oniony flavor, lending their sweet-savoriness to the rice and lentils.

You need a supply of fresh steamed rice noodles for this recipe. Check your local Chinatown or a good Asian grocery. Steamed rice noodles need to be used the day they are made. Do not refrigerate them or they will become brittle/stale very rapidly.

In the summer I get a bit lazy with side dishes. With the abundance of fresh produce from both the farmers' market and my garden, I usually serve vegetables and call it a day. The exception? Corn-scallion pancakes, which I serve with everything from barbecue chicken to ribs to salad. (I've even been known to wrap them around hot dogs for an easy mock corn dog.)
Like sweet pancakes, these savory pancakes are best served immediately but they do freeze well. If you freeze leftovers, thaw them before serving and then pop them in the toaster right before serving.

Second only to the cold cut heavy Italian sub, Peppers and Eggs is about as Italian-American as you can get, sandwich-wise. This recipe, adapted from Defonte's in Brooklyn for The Big New York Sandwich Book, is a spot-on home adaptation of the deli classic. Sautéed and simmered onions and bell peppers are scrambled with eggs, finished with a hefty handful of mozzarella, and piled into a crusty long roll. Don't try messing with any sort of highfalutin fresh mozz here; it's not the place for it. This is one case where only the salty, rubbery supermarket will do. And as far as seasoning goes, salt and pepper is just about all you need since the eggs take in all of flavors of the onions and peppers. Throw on a few hot peppers if you're feelin' like a tough guy, but this sandwich is really all about its barebones heartiness.

We've been enamored with Tyler Kord's mad scientist sandwiches at No.7 in the Ace Hotel from the get-go. Daring and totally innovative with plenty of Eastern influence, his subs are just crazy enough to work. Taking a cue from that stalwart of American-Chinese food, his General Tso's Fried Tofu Sub is a best-seller, and coming from a tofu-based sandwich that's really saying something.
Knowing how to treat your tofu is the first step on any great tofu dish, and Kord has the technique down. Seasoned tofu is dipped in a egg-cornstarch slurry, coated in panko, and deep-fried to a crisp, resulting in a perfectly crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside tofu that really tastes like something.
Roasted onions, lime juice, and thinly sliced carrots are tucked into soft sub rolls along with the crisp tofu. But what really makes this a transcendent tofu sandwich experience is the Unicorn Sauce. (What, what? Unicorns, where?) According to Kord, one of his cooks came up with this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink sauce that's "good enough to make unicorns dance." It's made from a laundry list of unlikely suspects: tarragon, Sriracha, and liquid smoke. It's a crazy sandwich, but in that really great crazy way that won our hearts in the first place.

The traditional way to steam sticky rice is in a conical steamer basket; other stove top methods can be used. I've included the directions for a microwave, but use the method of your choice.

Roti canai is probably Malaysia's more famous roti, but the lacy, crepe-like pancakes known as roti jala are even prettier—and much simpler to make. A simple batter of eggs, coconut milk, and flour is drizzled in concentric circles onto a hot pan, cooking in seconds and then folded to form a loose, netlike pancake whose nooks and crannies are ideally suited to mopping up curries and sauces.