Vegan

This is great to do in the depths of winter when everything else is incredibly beige. The kale is in season even in the depths of winter, and this makes for a wonderfully verdant dish to cut through the gray skies....

Take it from someone who learned the hard way: tomatillos are very much not green (under-ripe) tomatoes. They’re a completely different product with a different flavor. Tomatillos also have a lot more pectin than tomatoes, which gives this salsa nice body....

This is pretty easy to get creative with. Just about any reasonable hard herb works really well. Think thyme, rosemary, or sage. Delicate herbs like basil will work, but they’ll be a little bit destroyed by the high heat of the oven....

Soups can be very complicated in their simplicity. For this soup, you really need to commit and used great dried black beans — not something from a can — to get the best results....

This is really just a specific realization of a broader technique for stir frying vegetables. But it’s a combination I really like, so I figured I’d write it down. It’s a bit of a hodgepodge of Chinese technique with some Japanese ingredients that I tend to have on hand more readily in my kitchen....

This is one of the easier ferments that I’ve gotten familiar with. All you need is a clean container, some fruit, salt, and a bit of time. It’s a lactic acid fermentation, probably most familiar to people (certainly to me) through kimchi....

This chickpea preparation is dead-simple. It was a pandemic discovery via the incomparable Ottolenghi team. The most challenging part is crushing the spices. In all honesty, I’m not above using pre-ground cumin or coriander when I’m feeling extra lazy....

This is one of my favorite ways to make chocolate cake. It’s moist, rich, and incredibly chocolate-forward. And incidentally vegan to boot. To quote Nigella Lawson, whose recipe I have liberally adapted here, “No need to offer explanations; you just need to offer the cake....

Ingredients 1 large fennel bulb 50 g pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped 30 g extra virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper Zest of a lemon Juice of half a lemon Coarse salt Method Using a mandonline, thinly slice the fennel....

This recipe comes to me almost exactly from my favorite YouTube channel, Boulangerie Pas à pas. I won’t pretend these are quite as easy as popping to the store and buying burger buns....