hello to visitors from around the world!

Since February 2012, these recipes have had visitors from:

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Curaçao, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Gambia, French Guiana, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Réunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

(130 countries out of 206!)

+

Please leave a comment! Teach me how your family makes something, or share what you think about a recipe you tried. We can all learn more together!
There are a million ways to browse these 525+ recipes. Check out my go-to recipes, or how about over 155 different ways to love vegetables? (Of course, there’s also 90+ dessert recipes…)

+

I am not building a brand, selling a book, or making money off friedsig. Any ads you see here are placed by wordpress, which hosts this site for free, and sharing food knowledge should be $free – click here for more info.

+

Thanks so much for checking out friedsig!

another, better, healthier dubu-jorim?! (Korean spicy braised tofu)

Korean spicy braised tofu (dubu jorim) is one of my favorite quick vegan weeknight tofu recipes! I can easily gobble up an entire batch of this with rice, noodles, or even served over a bed of roasted cauliflower!

I love the spicy braised tofu recipe that I posted a few years ago! However, that 3T dark soy sauce is a lot of sodium, and the teaspoon of chili is not enough to really call it a “spicy” dish.

Maangchi’s version is very, very similar to the recipe I posted in 2020 by JinJoo at kimchimari. The small changes you’ll see here are reflective of the way my own version of this dish has changed over time. While I do like JinJoo’s addition of mirin, I think 3T soy sauce vs. 1T soy sauce changes the sauce dramatically. I also love that Maangchi’s recipe calls for three times as much chili! This one will definitely wake you up.

Try both and see which one you like better! I’ll also include my adaptation, and her original. If you haven’t visited Maangchi, go give her some love while you pan-fry your tofu!

---

my version of Maangchi’s spicy braised tofu dubu-jorim 두부조림

1 package of tofu
oil to fry (a few T)

half a small onion or a quarter of a larger onion
1 clove minced garlic
a few handfuls of scallions, chives, or Chinese garlic chives

sauce:
1T light soy sauce
(optional splash of mirin/rice wine)
1/2t. coarse kosher salt, less if fine salt (the original 1t. salt is far too much)
1/2 t. sugar (the original calls for 1t. sugar and that tastes great!)
1T. gochugaru (Korean hot pepper flakes) (use about half this amount if you’re using the more common and spicier dried chilis like Japones or chile de àrbol)
1/2 c. water

optional toppings: drizzle of sesame oil, sprinkling of sesame seeds, chopped green onions/chives to taste

1. fry chunks or slices of tofu on a medium-high heat until crispy. you can pan-fry, air-fry (convection oven,) whatever you want.
2. remove tofu, and in the same pan (if you pan-fried them) add a bit more oil and your finely chopped onions.
3. when they grow golden, add your garlic, stir-fry 1 minute, and then add the sauce to the pan.
4. simmer until the sauce looks more like sauce than water, then re-add tofu.
5. braise tofu in the sauce for a few minutes. serve with some of the optional toppings, pour over rice or noodles, pack in your lunchbox, or just eat it with a fork straight out of the pan!
   
   recipe barely adapted by friedsig from Maangchi’s spicy braised tofu dubu-jorim 두부조림

---

original recipe: Maangchi’s spicy braised tofu dubu-jorim 두부조림

Ingredients

• 1 package of tofu (18 ounces: 510 grams)
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ cup minced onion
• 2 green onions, chopped

For the sauce, mix in a small bowl:

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)
• ½ cup water

---

This isn’t one of those complicated, hours-long Korean recipes like gamjatang (pork neckbone soup) – it’s quick, simple, hearty, vegetarian goodness! Definitely a “rotation” recipe here. Check out the rotation tag for more recipes I make again and again, or more Korean recipes that I have tried! I also have more amazing tofu recipes to share with you, like the four different versions of mapo tofu that I have tried, my favorite cold and spicy summertime snack liangban tofu, and takeout-style crispy vegan kung pao tofu!

marinated olives and feta

Got a “salt tooth”? This is definitely in the top five fastest, easiest, impossible-to-mess-up, quickest appetizers that makes you feel like an extremely wealthy person. There is something about this that feels extremely rich and fancy. Pretend you’re at a rich person’s dinner party after TEN minutes of effort, AND you still get to wear sweatpants.

I love and crave olives. Sometimes I get cheapo green olives stuffed with pimentos, usually for a recipe like pastelón or a bloody mary party. They’re around $2 from the dollar store or a discount food store, and much easier to find than a fancy oil-cured olive. If you have a discount warehouse in your area, like Costco, you might be surprised how affordable even a really nice olive like a Castelvetrano can be in bulk.

I was expecting this recipe to be okay, more of a way to use up leftover olives than anything else. I was NOT expecting this to be my new favorite thing. Feta is increasingly outside of my budget – but happily, Aldi still carries a $3 brick of feta in brine. That means this “appetizer” is under $5 to make. Why did I put appetizer in quotes? Well…… I started making this recipe around a year and a half ago, and in that time I used an entire industrial-sized bucket of olives. This isn’t just a good recipe. It’s truly great.

---

I didn’t measure any of this – it’s not really that kind of recipe – but I’ll include the measurements from the original from Bone Apple Teeth in case you’re a measurer. (Double the recipe if you’re sharing this for dinner!)

4 oz olives
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon, peeled into strips
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
3 oz brick feta (not crumbles)

Smash the garlic cloves and olives, remove peel from lemon in wide strips, add every ingredient except for the feta to a saucepan and “sizzle” over medium-low heat for five to ten minutes or until your kitchen smells quite garlicky.

Add feta, crumbled into large chunks, into a jar. Pour the mixture over the feta. Let sit for an hour, if you are patient enough.

Pro tip: if you refrigerate it and the oil goes semi-solid, just leave the mixture (still in the jar, or in a small bowl) on top of your toaster oven as you toast some bread, and the ambient heat will melt the oil.

Transfer mixture to a small bowl, dunk your bread in there, and enjoy!

---

recipe written and created by Claire Saffitz from Bone Apple Teeth

---

If you’re not into bread, I *highly* recommend this as a salad dressing. (I’ve had it for lunch, served over greens, several times over the past few weeks. Add some grains like cracked wheat or quinoa and it’s filling!) If that sounds too healthy, you can use this as a pasta sauce, use cold as a dressing for a grain salad like farro or spelt, eat with baked or fried fish or even use as a dressing for canned tuna, or serve with roasted veggies. This would be amazing dumped over some ratattouille, thrown on top of a white bean stew, or even as a dressing for potato salad.

---

Is it low-sodium? No. Is it heart-healthy? Sure! Harvard Medical School says that a diet rich in olive oil is associated with longevity, and the Cleveland Clinic says that olives are a great source of vitamin E, fiber, and may even reduce your cholesterol and high blood pressure. Did I check the validity of the studies quoted by these medical experts? Nope! Would I eat this even if it was associated with negative health outcomes? Yes! Nobody can keep me away from this meal I have been consistently craving.

Enjoy!

epis (haitian green sauce)

Love Puerto Rican sofrito / recaito, Trini green seasoning, or “Caribbean green seasoning”? If you haven’t tried them, do you like pesto? Picture a pesto with other herbs instead of basil, a tiny hit of bouillon instead of parmesan, and so much garlic and onions! If you’ve ever eaten Haitian food, you have probably thought, “Wow, this is delicious… it has some special flavor I can’t put my finger on,” it might have been the homemade epis.

Like many Caribbean dishes, its origins are with African food, and indigenous (Taino) Caribbean food. If you love Caribbean food, you have to try this.

---

Thank you so much to HaitianCooking.com for this recipe!

10 sprigs of parsley
1 onion
2 celery stalks
2 cups culantro (substitute cilantro if you can’t find it!)
2 green bell peppers
3 scallion stalks
2 chicken bouillon cubes
5 sprigs of thyme
3 Heads of garlic
2 tbs of Lime juice or 1 lime
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs of vinegar

blend. that’s it! you’re done! keeps for a week in the fridge, but then you should freeze the remainder. you can freeze it in a ziploc and break off pieces to use, or freeze in ice cube trays and transfer the frozen cubes to ziploc bags, jars, or other freezer-safe containers.

recipe by HaitianCooking.com

---

The comments are full of opinions about cilanto vs. culantro. If you have access to culantro/chadon beni/recao, it seems people tend to feel that is more traditionally Haitian than cilantro. However, in watching YouTube recipes, it seemed like for every one person saying cilantro was a crime in epis, there was someone else saying their Haitian mom or grandmother used cilantro.

I love the small regional and familiar differences with recipes like this. If I had access to culantro, I would have used it. However, my local shop had only cilantro and parsley, and I went with it.

As always with my recipes, don’t take my word as gospel truth. I have no claim to know what is authentic Haitian food. I’m happy to share what I cook, along with my opinions. They are just that: opinions. If you’re Haitian, I would love to hear how your family makes epis!

---

I’m still not sure if I like this better than sofrito. I think right now I’m on the fence. The tomato paste (I know not everyone uses it!) adds something special to sofrito. I can say with absolute certainty that this epis is incredible when used as a marinade for chicken, or rubbed onto a fish filet before pan-frying. However, my absolute favorite use for epis and sofrito is with beans. I challenge you to find a more perfect way to add depth of flavor to black bean soup. I saute onions and garlic first, then add the epis to cook out the raw flavor, and then add the broth and beans. This is a particularly good recipe for people who tend to find fresh herbs going south before they can be used. This ensures you always have a hit of fresh-tasting cilantro for whatever you plan to cook! I always have a batch of sofrito or epis in my freezer for a quick batch of black beans!

My only caution is that the temptation is huge to use this raw as a sauce on the side, but please be aware how much raw garlic and onion is in this. I’m not going to say *not* to use it raw, but you may be breathing fire for a while….

easy low-maintenance classic risotto

I’ve made the classic risotto recipes where you scoop in boiling water a quarter-cup at a time and stir constantly. I’m not mad at those recipes. I’m just a busy person. If you want the classic parmesan and white wine flavor of risotto without having to babysit it the whole time, this is your recipe.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 cup Arborio (or sushi, in a pinch) rice
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 3 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus more if needed
• ½ cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces), plus more for serving

1. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6 to 8 minutes.
3. Add the rice and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until absorbed.
4. Add half the broth (1 ¾ cups) and simmer, stirring once, until absorbed, 8 to 10 minutes.
5. Add the remaining broth and simmer, stirring once, until the rice is tender and creamy, 8 to 10 minutes. (If the rice is not cooked through and the mixture is dry, add more broth and continue to cook until tender.)
6. Stir in the Parmesan and the remaining tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired.
   
   recipe written by Kate Merker at Real Simple (reproduced here almost exactly, except that I left out the parsley. Sorry.)
   

---

Typically, I post recipes here that I’ve tried once or twice and enjoy. This is one of those recipes I’ve made zillions of times, and assumed I’d already included it here. Traditional risotto has a unique texture, and I’ll admit this one can border on congee. But it’s so quick and easy, I could never be mad at it.

This has been a staple in my diet for years. Glad to finally have the chance to share it with you. Thank you to Real Simple, who lived up to their name with this one.

a better butternut squash with nigella seeds (sorry, ottolenghi!)

yotam ottolenghi. a man who creates brilliantly unique and fantastic flavor combinations… with the most unnecessary techniques. don’t worry – i am here to simplify and affordable-ify.

i do pick on ottolenghi, but it’s out of love. the man has *tons* of unique recipes – maybe thousands – and googling any vegetable on earth + his name will return a host of fantastic, even novel flavor combinations. he is not even in my top ten most irritating food celebrities. i would call this man “extra” – but i respect and admire him, even in the face of fusion that i might call “painful clickbait” (sicilian-sichuan fusion? please don’t put pine nuts and raisins in your mapo tofu.)

this recipe – one of his many, many, many winter squash recipes – tastes just like it looks. absolutely delicious.

as has become tradition around here, i will share his exact recipe, as well as my version, describing all the techniques i find absolutely unnecessary. i will make the recipe not only more accessible, but more affordable. come on, it’s 2022, who among us can afford to waste food?

---

the original: yotam ottolenghi’s roasted butternut squash recipe, courtesy of the blendergirl

Ingredients

• 1 1/2  tablespoons vegan butter
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced (1½ cups/170 g)
• 1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1/4-inch/3-cm chunks (2 3/4 lb/1 kg)
• 3 1/2  tablespoons  raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 1/4  teaspoon  nigella seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon  ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon  ground turmeric
• 4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 1 large cinnamon stick
• 1 green chile, halved lengthwise
• 1 tablespoon  super-fine sugar
• 1 scant cup (200ml) vegetable broth
• 3/4 cup (150g) vegan Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon  finely chopped cilantro
• Celtic sea salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF/220ºC.
2. Place the butter and oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry for about 8 minutes, until soft. Add the squash, increase the heat to medium-high, and cook for a further 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it starts to color. Remove from the heat and add the pumpkin seeds, 1 teaspoon of the nigella seeds, the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, chile, sugar, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Mix well and transfer to a baking sheet large enough to hold the vegetables in a single but snug layer, about 10 by 12-inches/25 by 30-cm. Pour the stock over the squash and roast for 30 minutes, until the squash is tender. Set aside for about 10 minutes: the liquid in the pan will continue to be absorbed.
3. Serve warm, with the yogurt spooned on top or on the side, along with a sprinkling of the cilantro and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon nigella seeds.

Recipe from Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London’s Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi (and discovered thanks to the blendergirl‘s write-up of yotam ottolenghi’s roasted butternut squash recipe – check out her lovely photo and write-up!)

---

friedsig’s version of ottolenghi’s roasted butternut squash w nigella seeds

Ingredients

• 3/4 T. butter or margarine
• 1/2 T. olive oil or neutral oil
• half of any onion, sliced thin
• a medium-sized butternut squash, or any winter squash, sweet potatoes, or anything similar (about 2 lbs. – frozen is fine)
• a tablespoon or more pumpkin seeds
• 3/4 t. nigella seed (or substitute maybe 1/2 t. or so of garlic or onion powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• a pinch of turmeric, or more if you love turmeric like me
• 1 or 2 cardamom pods, crushed, skins removed
• 1/4 t. ground cinnamon
• sprinkling of red pepper flakes, or half a small minced chili pepper
• a pinch of sugar, or more if you like sweet
• 1 scant cup (200ml) broth or stock
• salt, to taste
• a little plain yogurt to top it with (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF/220ºC.
2. Place the butter and oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry for about 8 minutes, until soft. Add the squash, increase the heat to medium-high, and cook for a further 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it starts to color. Remove from the heat and add the pumpkin seeds, 1 teaspoon of the nigella seeds, the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, chile, sugar, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Mix well and transfer to a baking sheet lined with tinfoil large enough to hold the vegetables in a single but snug layer, about 10 by 12-inches/25 by 30-cm. Pour the stock over the squash and roast for 30 minutes, until the squash is tender. Set aside for about 10 minutes: the liquid in the pan will continue to be absorbed.
3. Serve hot. If you want, serve with plain yogurt. Or chicken. Or whatever you like.
   
   
   

---

alterations – and why

1. while sauteed onions are delicious – do you really want to wash a skillet AND a sheet pan? the whole point of a sheet pan dinner is you have one pan to wash. sure, you can saute the onions in a skillet and brown the squash – if you want to wash twice as many dishes! unless you have a house full of kids who will wash your dishes, it’s just… extra.
   
2. half a cinnamon stick?! whole?!? on a sheet pan?!? roasting released the cinnamony aroma – my apartment smelled amazing – but just a half-hour in an oven is not sufficient to infuse the entire sheet pan with cinnamon. whole cinnamon stick is amazing in applications where something is simmering for a long period of time. of course you’ll want a whole cinnamon stick in your Glühwein – in your lu rou fan with its two-hour braise – maybe even in your moroccan chickpeas and apricots. but a whole cinnamon stick on a pan of roasted vegetables just makes zero practical sense. you could grate even a sixteenth of that cinnamon stick and get way more cinnamon flavor. i tried it his way – you have to give a world-famous chef the benefit of the doubt sometimes (unless it’s david chang). but i found it to be a total waste of the ingredient. save yourself a few bucks – grate the thing instead.
   
3. ditto on the chili pepper. maybe not the most expensive ingredient – but what on earth is the point of leaving the chili whole? is it like “button, button, who’s got the button” or the baby in a king cake? like, “hey dinner party guests, the meal is mild for everyone except for one person. who will get the whole chili pepper?!” it’s a totally irrational choice, and the spice did not permeate through the sheet pan. better to sprinkle just a bit of red pepper flakes. hell, even hot sauce would be a smarter choice.
   
4. the tinfoil. if you could see my sheet pan covered in burnt vegetable stock…
   
5. the sugar. a tablespoon of sugar on something as sweet as butternut squash? i mean, i won’t stop you. but why? okay, yes, in the photo, the stock and sugar melted down into a glaze that looks absolutely lovely. extremely photogenic. if you’re making this recipe for social media clout, then by all means, glaze your squash. however – and i say this as a person who loves a khatta meetha (sweet and sour) meal – butternut squash is naturally sweet enough.
   
6. celtic sea salt? my guy. bless your heart. i don’t own a single grain of celtic sea salt. i promise the salt you have in your cabinet is just perfect for this recipe.

---

It tastes like a slightly more affordable/easy/westernized version of kaddu ki subji (Indian sweet and sour squash). If you are a fennel/licorice disliker, cooking for someone picky, or on a budget, this Ottolenghi version is a fantastic (and flavorful enough) version. It really does taste good – just not the wild flavor bomb of a kaddu ki subji. I definitely recommend this recipe for anyone who likes squash, especially for someone who is a bit intimidated by the sheer quantity of spices that an authentic Indian recipe calls for. Which do I prefer? No contest; the unhinged amounts of fennel in the kaddu ki subji is my top choice. However, I might prefer to cook Ottolenghi’s for company – not only because I am on a budget, but there are so many fenugreek and fennel dislikers out there, and I think almost anyone could get down with Ottolenghi’s version.

---

If you love an Ottolenghi recipe with a bit of a more affordable and easy spin on it, check out my better miso butter onion (sorry, Yotam Ottolenghi!). Of course, check out the people who brought you this recipe, Yotam Ottolenghi and the Blender Girl. If you are in the market for something fun to do with winter squash, check out soup joumou (haitian pumpkin soup), vegan pumpkin (or squash) gnocchi, or a simple and hearty curried red lentil, squash, and coconut soup.

zucchini and green apple salad

Without a doubt my favorite new recipe so far this summer! This is beyond “a keeper” into the territory of “one of my favorite salads of all-time”! Happy to share this recipe from Didem Şenol‘s Aegean Flavours, which I read on a wonderful Turkish food blog called Pantry Fun. I’ll include both the original, and the version I made with what I had.

---

---

MY VERSION:

1 large zucchini
1 large sour green apple like Granny Smith
a few spikes of garlic chives and a handful of mint leaves from my garden
half of a small container of goat cheese, crumbled
just a tiny bit of vinegar and olive oil
half a lemon, juiced
a sprinkle of nigella seeds, salt, and pepper

I sliced the zucchini and apple on a mandoline, tore the herbs by hand, and then added the other ingredients and mixed everything together.

---

THE ORIGINAL:

2 green courgettes/kabak

1 green apple/yeşil elma

½ bunch of dill/dereotu

1 spring onion/taze soğan

a handful fresh mint leaves/nane

150g lor peyniri OR goat’s cheese/keçi peyniri

20g nigella seeds/çörekotu

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

juice of half a lemon

100ml vinegar/sirke

extra virgin olive oil/sızma zeytinyağı

Slice the courgettes and apple as finely as possible. I used a mandolin slicer. Place the apple slices in water with lemon to prevent them from discolouring. Finely chop the dill, spring onion, and mint and mix with the courgette, apple and cheese. Add the nigella seeds. Add the vinegar and salt, and then finally the olive oil and mix together. The recipe states that if you add the olive oil first, the salad won’t absorb the vinegar. I would say, go carefully with the vinegar and taste the salad as you add it. You don’t want it to be overpoweringly vinegary.

write-up by Claudia at Pantry Fun – original recipe by Didem Şenol

---

Absolutely wonderful, fresh, delicious, and healthy. August is the perfect time of year for a no-cook recipe! The goat cheese and lemon are tangy, and the garlic chives and nigella seeds add just enough interesting flavor while still allowing the apple and zucchini taste to shine through. I didn’t have any dill in the house, but I can only imagine that the addition of fresh dill would make this salad almost too delicious to eat. I plan to eat this again and again!

---

Looking for more healthy plant-based summer recipes? If you like fresh raw salads, fresh fennel and cucumber salad in yogurt sauce is a favorite of mine. Cucumber salads are so budget-friendly and infinitely adaptable, and of course cooling, refreshing, and hydrating in increasingly hotter summers. I love a charred onion and cucumber salad (vegan!) and a Sichuan style cucumber salad and, if you love the mint and lemon in the zucchini and green apple salad, you’ll love this five-minute healthy cucumber, lime, and mint salad.

herbs de Provence (herb blend)

This classic Provençal (French) seasoning blend is packed with flavor. Another salt-free seasoning you’ll use on everything!

---

1 T rosemary
1 T savory
1 T lavender flowers (cut in half if you use lavender leaves – i dried some from my garden)
1 T thyme
1 T basil
1 T marjoram
1 T parsley
1/2 T fennelseed
1/2 T tarragon
1/2 T oregano
1/2 t bay leaves

it’s okay to leave out any ingredients you don’t have

combine, store in a sealed, air-tight container. (all ingredients must be dried completely or they will mold.) best used within a year.

adapted from a recipe from Mariposa at allrecipes

---

Whether you have hypertension, or just want to cut back on salt, a salt-free seasoning blend is an amazing way to impart flavor to your food. Healthy food has a bad reputation for being bland & flavorless. If anything, I think the opposite is true; salt and sugar often take the place of real flavor in processed food. If you have access to fresh ingredients – lemon zest and juice, fresh herbs, homemade fruit vinegars, fermented veggies – there’s little need for heavy, strong flavors. Regardless of what you have, something simple like herbs de Provence can add something special to anything you prepare.

Need some inspiration? Sprinkle some on your roasted potatoes or chicken, in the batter of anything you fry, in a simple pan sauce or homemade salad dressing or yogurt dipping sauce or aioli, on any salad (especially a cold summery bean salad or chicken salad,) in ratatouille, in a tomato sauce or cream sauce for pasta, in marinated olives or cheese, or just sprinkled on some fresh garden tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil. I especially like herbs de Provence on vegan food; your vegan pasta or chickpea salad game will never be the same! Lately, I have been roasting bags of frozen broccoli with a little olive oil and a healthy dusting of herbs de Provence. It’s such a great lazy weeknight snack!

I still use my salt-free ‘ranch’ / Capitol Hill seasoning blend multiple times a week, because everything is better with garlic. (It really makes the best garlic bread in the world.) If you’re using bland ingredients, like veggies from Walmart, maybe you want to go big, like some ras-el-hanout or a heavily roasted Sri Lankan black curry powder. But especially when working with delicate ingredients like potatoes or tomatoes fresh from the farmers market, this herbs de Provence really hits the spot.

What’s your favorite way to use herbs de Provence?

fennel crackers

No waiting hours for bread to rise. No yeast. No ten minute long knead. Just a quick cracker to serve with your favorite summer foods, like baba ghanouj (vegan eggplant dip) or roasted tomato dip.

Original recipe by Meeta of The Bhukkad Bawarchi

WHAT I’LL TRY NEXT TIME:

3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 c. rye flour, or other wholemeal flour
1/2 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
1/8 t. crushed red pepper flakes
2 t. sesame seeds
1/2 t. nigella seeds
1 t. whole fennel seeds, crushed coarsely
1/2 t. black pepper
2 T. olive oil
~1/4 c. water
2 t. lime juice

Combine all the dry ingredients. Add the olive oil and lemon juice slowly. Drizzle in water slowly as you knead, adding as much water as you need, which may vary. Mix just long enough to bring the dough together, then wrap with cling film and refrigerate for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 450F. Roll out the dough a bit thinner than you think you should, and cut into strips, rounds, use cookie cutters, whatever you want. (Strips are easy and low-hassle to cut with a knife.) You can brush them with olive oil and sprinkle coarse salt on top if you’re fancy. Bake until golden brown – around 9 or 10 minutes for me, but check often after minute 7.

---

WHAT I MADE:

3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 c. rye flour
1/2 t. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. crushed red pepper flakes
2 t. sesame seeds
1/4 t. nigella seeds
1 t. whole fennel seeds, crushed coarsely
1/2 t. black pepper
2 T. olive oil
~1/4 c. water
2 t. lime or lemon juice

---

THE ORIGINAL RECIPE, BY Meeta of The Bhukkad Bawarchi

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. red chilli powder
• 2 tsp. sesame seeds
• 3 tsp fennel (saunf) seeds, coarsely grounded
• ½ tsp. black pepper, coarsely grounded
• 2 tbsp. Olive oil
• ½ cup warm water + 2 tsp. of lemon juice
• Olive oil for brushing

---

Nice simple cracker. Took less than an hour to finish baking a batch. Good with cherry tomato, thyme, and garlic confit. The spices and seeds in the crackers are infinitely adaptable. I’m sure they’d be great with dehydrated onions, poppy seeds, flaxseeds, or any of your favorites. Personally I think nigella seeds are just perfect in crackers. This may be the start of a cracker phase…

loukaniko (greek sausage)

One of my favorite homemade sausages!

my version:

1 lb. ground pork (or any not-lean meat)
1 lb. ground chicken (or any lean meat)
as much pork fat as you feel comfortable adding (calls for a cup; i add maybe a quarter of this, but it does dry out, so keep this in mind. fatback is the best, if you can source it.)
1.5 T grated orange zest (orange rind only, no white pith underneath – you can buy dehydrated orange zest if you can’t grate)
1.5 T kosher salt, less if fine, more if extra-coarse
1 T sugar
2.5 T minced garlic
0.5 T ground coriander
0.5 T cracked black pepper
1 T fennel seed
0.5 T dried oregano
1 t dried thyme
0.25 cups of red wine (some recipes call for white) with a splash of red wine vinegar
(I will also sometimes add some Chinese garlic chives from my garden; some recipes call for sauteed leeks)

if you’re not me, here you would feed the ingredients through your sausage grinder, stuff them into casings with your sausage machine, and set them to cure.

if you are me, or similarly lazy-yet-broke & without Official Sausage Machine Infrastructure, you will mush all these ingredients together until your hands hurt, then leave in the fridge overnight. keep everything as cold as possible. (you can use a stand mixer if you own $500 kitchen infrastructure.) it will come out crumbly if you use your hands – but if you’re like me, you probably don’t mind that much, haha.

the next day, shape into your preferred shape (i like kofte-style “cigar-shaped” or cylindrical patties formed by squeezing) and pack up to freeze or refrigerate.

recipe by friedsig & based mostly on a recipe by Hank Shaw at Honest Food

---

I think I have made this…. three times? It’s a winner every time. Obviously, like all sausages, the possibilities are endless here. Loukaniko can be cooked like any sausage. Form it into a patty and make burgers. Make gravy. Saute a big mess of apples and onions with the sausage, like a cassoulet. Stew it down with white beans. Fry it off and cook some fish in the leftover loukaniko grease. It’s amazing with pasta and a bit of feta. Bake them into savory muffins. Fry them up with eggs and hash browns for breakfast. Bake it into a casserole with veggies, potatoes, or whatever you like. No surprise I love it fried off into a pot of cornmeal mush for an ultimate comfort food. You can grill them, fry them, bake them, even microwave them (although the browned crispy bits are so wonderful that I would advise against it unless you have to.)

Check out the original recipe from Hank Shaw at Honest Food – especially if you want to make real sausages and not my DIY MacGyvered version – and if you like making your own sausages, check out my other favorites, including Lebanese style sausages, chorizo, and maple breakfast sausages!

jerk chicken

Is it the best chicken in the world? I understand if you say “no” – but I might disagree.

• 4 lbs. Chicken
• 10-12 Tablespoons Jerk Seasoning/Marinade
• Lemon/Lime juice or Vinegar
• 2 Teaspoons Garlic Salt (optional)
• 2 Teaspoons Paprika
• 2 Tablespoons Dry Jerk Seasoning

recipe by Xavier Murphy at jamaicans.com

mix everything together. marinate in the refrigerator for at least one day.
then grill it, traditionally over allspice branches for extra flavor, according to Xavier Murphy
(or you can bake it; I won’t tell anyone)

---

jerk marinade recipe by Winsome Murphy at jamaicans.com

• ½ cup allspice berries
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 6-8 garlic cloves
• 4-6 Scotch bonnet peppers (note: obviously, this will be quite hot. 1 is not enough. I’d go with at least two, even if you are sensitive to spice.)
• 1 tablespoon ground thyme or 2 tablespoons thyme leaves
• 1-2 bunches scallions (green onions)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce to moisten

---

dry jerk seasoning recipe by Imma at African Bites

1½ tablespoon (15 g) onion powder
1½ tablespoon (15 g) garlic powder
1 tablespoon ( 5 g) ground ginger
1 tablespoon ( 5 g) dried thyme
1 teaspoon (2 g) white pepper, freshly ground (I used black pepper)
½ tablespoon (3.5 g) cinnamon
1 tablespoon (7 g) ground allspice
1 tablespoon (7 g) smoked paprika
½ tablespoon (3.5 g) ground nutmeg
2-3 tablespoons (28-42 g) coconut sugar, or replace with brown sugar
½-1 tablespoon (5-10 g) vegetable bouillon. chicken, or Maggi powder (to taste)
1 tablespoon ( 5 g) hot pepper, or more (Scotch bonnet, cayenne pepper, or pepper flakes (to taste)
2 tablespoons (10 g) dried chives or scallions

---

A note to our vegan and vegetarian friends: this marinade is unbelievable on tofu, or served as a dipping sauce for grilled veggies, and the dry jerk seasoning is fantastic on everything from corn-on-the-cob to grilled cauliflower. It’s quite adaptable! Blend the marinade with a mango for a surprisingly good hot sauce. Coat fish before roasting. Sprinkle the dry seasoning on frozen fries or veggies before you bake them. The possibilities are endless! What is your favorite thing to jerk?

---

I understand that someone out there might prefer something sweeter and less spicy, like an apricot-honey chicken tagine. Someone might prefer a five-ingredient chipotle-lime chicken to save time. They might even prefer their chicken fried and not grilled, like Korean-style fried chicken. However, I am not these people. I am a simple jerk, and I know of no better chicken on the planet than an authentic plate of jerk chicken, grilled up by a Caribbean family, served with a bit of ginger drink and a shot of rum. However, if you’re not invited to the Jamaican barbecue, you can make this. It might be a bit lonelier, and it will not taste the same. But it’s damn good.