Tag: easy meals

Meatless Taco Salad

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, salads2 Comments

When a salad is the meal, I pile on layers and hit as many food groups as possible to create a hearty, filling, plant-based salad I could eat every day. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Sometimes you want salads to be simple and light, especially when served alongside an entree. But when the salad is the meal, it’s time to pile on the layers and hit as many food groups as possible. That’s the idea behind the hearty, filling, plant-based taco salad I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

I’ve long loved this salad because it has so many delicious ingredients that it doesn’t need the ground beef often found in such a one-bowl meal. Kidney beans and cheese provide plenty of protein, and the crisp tortilla chips and other fresh layers supply contrasting textures. The vegetables become the salad’s stars, and I pile on as many as my garden is producing—roasted garlic, corn, cherry tomatoes, greens, onion tops, and cilantro—with avocado, lime and green olives that I can’t grow in Montana for bonus fun. With so many fresh ingredient options and a homemade salad dressing built around my favorite salsa, I could eat this salad every day and never tire of it.
Learn to make Meatless Taco Salad

Cooking Eggs

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Ingredient, Using3 Comments

To put it simply: Testing cookware by cooking eggs is fun. Get cooked egg recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
I have to admit that I’m one of those people who holds onto cookware way too long. After pots are scratched, warped, and showing their age by letting even the simplest foods adhere to their surface, I continue to use them. Replacing cookware, especially a high-quality set, is expensive. So I’ve been excited to set out on a quest for the perfect cookware.

Eggs in many forms are ideal test recipes. They can be delicate yet prone to burning or sticking. They cook quickly, so they’re speedy, easy meals. This time of year, the chickens are laying prolifically. Most egg dishes don’t require a recipe, and many styles can be created just by cracking a fresh egg into a hot pan. But some call for a bit of technique, including endless variations on omelets.
Learn to make A Three-Egg Omelet and other cooked eggs

From Garden to Oven

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using4 Comments

You can put the heat on unexpected spring vegetables, like lettuces and radishes. Get garden-to-oven recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
When the first vegetables grow big enough to harvest from the garden, I’m usually focused on enjoying them raw and fresh: leafy greens and herbs, green onions and garlic, radishes and peas. But as the recipes I’ve shared this month have shown, you can think beyond salads, garnishes, and snacks and actually cook these vegetables, whether they’re wilted over pasta or baked into a quiche.

You may already serve some spring produce, like asparagus and rhubarb, hot and sizzling. But it may never have occurred to you to put the heat on other vegetables, like lettuces and radishes.
Learn to cook spring vegetables and make Balsamic-Roasted Radishes

Filling Salads

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using3 Comments

Salads are so versatile: chop up some ingredients, toss them with dressing, and your fresh, one-dish meal is ready to eat. Get salad recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
Salads dominate my harvest menu. They’re so versatile: chop up some ingredients, toss them with a bit of dressing, and your fresh, one-dish meal is ready to eat. I start making homegrown salads as soon as spring greens show true leaves and don’t stop until the ground freezes.

Most salads fit the “no recipe required” category. Once you find your preferred ratios, even the dressing can be made on the spot with whatever’s at hand. If you follow @twiceastastyblog on Instagram you’ll find plenty of my daily salads. But I still get enough requests for ingredients and proportions that you’ll find a couple dozen salad and dressing recipes on the blog and can even gather your friends for a workshop. Some of these recipes are traditional, like panzanella, sunomono, and the two American classics in this week’s post. But as you’ll learn, all of these salads can be adapted based on what’s in season and what you have on hand.
Learn to make Three-Bean Salad and Taco Salad

Flavors of Fall

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using1 Comment

Even though September means hours of putting up homegrown food, much of the garden will offer portions suitable for fresh meals. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Of all the growing months, September holds the garden’s greatest bounty. I’ll harvest the widest variety of produce over the next few weeks, some of it from plants that are in their prime but much of it from those that are yielding their final offerings. In my garden, many plants will release preservable quantities this month, including nightshades, cucumbers, squash, and if a frost hits before the month’s end, apples. Plums and pears will be the only new arrivals, but they’ll all be ready at once.

Even though I spend plenty of hours in September putting up homegrown food, much of the garden will offer portions suitable for fresh meals. Broccoli and even asparagus are still putting out a handful or two of new shoots at a time. Corn and snap beans just passed their peak but will continue to give up enough for immediate use. Cherry tomato and basil plants will keep reminding me of summer even as the days shorten and cool. So I’m taking a break from sharing canning recipes this month to pass on some of my favorite ways to savor the flavors of fall.
Read more about the flavors of fall

Scallions and Radishes

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Ingredient, UsingLeave a comment

These scallion pancakes are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, easy, and tasty. Get savory pancake recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
When the summer harvest hits its peak, one of my favorite meals is a batch of Zucchini Pancakes with Fresh Asian Salad. I enjoy these so much that a freeze grated zucchini so that I can make them all year. But the salad, with its freshy harvested tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil, is really a summer thing. So I’ve been craving a combination I could enjoy earlier in the season, while my tomato plants are still seedlings.

For a quick spring variation, I hit upon the pairing of scallions and radishes. You can easily find scallions, or green onions, at the grocery store year-round, but if you grow a garden you can harvest scallions or young perennial walking onions in spring, the tops portions of full bulb onions in summer, leeks in fall, and chives from pots all year. Each can be used in this pancake recipe. To make this recipe even more accessible, I decided to keep the pancakes gluten free, dairy free, and vegan.
Learn to make Scallion Pancakes with Chickpea Flour and Lemony Radish Salad

No Recipe Required

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using2 Comments

Spring’s first edible gems are so delicious that recipes are not required. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
May began with a week of firsts for Twice as Tasty. I had my first experience baking in a real woodfired pizza oven during a Grilled Sourdough Pizza workshop, and I taught my first Fine Dining: Front Country workshop for Outsiety. In both classes, I was able to share first cuttings freshly snipped from the garden. This week, I also baked the first stalks of rhubarb into a dessert to share with friends.

My first cuttings are almost always from perennials pushing up through the ground year after year. You probably think little of these plants when you see them in a produce section: they’re not showy, or colorful, or supersized. But when they’re the first edibles to pop through your garden soil, on their own time and with no effort on your part, they’re gems. And my favorite ways to eat them are so simple that you don’t even need a recipe.
Read more about simple spring meals