Sides & Vegetables

Eating healthy was never so easy—or mingled so nicely with tortilla chips and beer.

Sorta like potato gratin, except the nutty, cheesy white sauce swaddles leaves of spinach, not sliced spuds. Sure beats salad.

Just three ingredients--parsnips, maple syrup, and olive oil. And it's so easy. Just slice, toss, roast, and be reminded just how nice simple tastes.

Sometimes it's a relief to take a respite from veggie side dishes that are overcomplicated to put together or overwrought with additional ingredients. Sometimes it's nice to simply revel in the innate goodness of the simplest incarnation of something.

Boletus edulis—that's the fancy-pants name for porcini—is hardly a come-hither sort of name, but with such a rich, earthy, unmistakable taste, who cares?

Portuguese peixinhos da horta. Tempura green beans. Whatever you call them, they're disturbingly easy to toss back one after the other while standing at the stove. And that's not a bad thing in our book.

Earthy beets. Salty cheese. There’s something stunning about the contrast between the two. Tasting is believing.

Peachy keen takes on new meaning with this little stunner of a starter or, if you're like us and have a hard time restraining yourself, your entire dinner. Summer personified.

Roasted cauliflower has been the darling of the veggie world for a while. But this version goes beyond with jalapeños, capers, lemon, and parsley. Roasted cauliflower 2.0.

Because there weren't enough tempting potato salads in the world, The South came up with its own rendition. And yes, it calls for Duke's. And a whole lotta other tempting things.

Guess which recipe David begged to have for a late Sunday night supper after the Ed Sullivan show? (Hint: This one.)

Simple. Surprising. Spunky. Just what we look for in a summer salad. Just what we found in this jumble of cucumbers, vinegar, and ginger.

Tired of steamed green beans? One taste of this salad and you'll understand why folks who try it for the first time are making it again and again and again that very same week.

Does it get any better (or more like you're vacationing south of the border) than grilled corn slathered with lime mayo, cheese, cilantro, and hot sauce? Nah.

A touch of maple syrup infuses traditional coleslaw with a unique, unexpected sweetness. Try this slaw with pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, or barbecue.

Portuguese tater tots. That's how we think of this mashup of potatoes, chouriço, and onion that's deep-fried until crisp and golden on the outside and impossibly airy yet rich on the inside.

This zucchini linguine is a panoply of summer abundance with summer squash and herbs crowding out the usual pasta sauce suspects. No complaints here.

Don't care for broccoli? Just toss it on the grill. It'll take on a beguilingly earthy, smoky quality that's actually quite hard to resist.

Store-bought potato chips, cheese, and black pepper. Our only question is: Why didn't we think of this sooner? Genius.

Lidia—yes, THAT Lidia—shares her classic risotto as it's made back in Italy. Gather your saffron, shallots, white wine, and Parmesan.