~recipe & photo updated in 2007~ Scary thought but this has been a summer favorite for 14 years - the original recipe card is dated July 1991! Like Swedish Beets , it's made ahead and refrigerated until serving time. It makes a lot so lasts a few days. Does this recipe stray from A Veggie Venture's intent? Heavens, it's even called a 'salad' -- that's no 'vegetable'! Hmmm. Decision time. Here it is: the main ingredient is a vegetable. Since A Veggie Venture's real intent is to help us get out of a rut, look for similar recipes in coming weeks, especially since they're so well suited to relaxed summer cooking and eating. Are we agreed?! PHOTO UPDATE 2007: The dill in my small herb garden is very sad-looking but the basil, now the basil is happy -- and so is this salad, with basil as a substitute for dill. SUMMER DILL SALAD Active time: 15 minutes Time to table: 2 hours Makes 6 cups Water to cover 1 teaspoon table salt 2 pounds frozen peas 1/

Tonight was a special supper, a one-dish meal, fish and vegetable all in one. It's available here , as a Kitchen Parade extra.

One of my favorite recipes on all of A Veggie Venture, pickled beets made with canned beets. They're just delicious! Especially in summer, keep a jar of these on hand in the refrigerator, ready to add to salads at lunch, to plates at supper. They even just look pretty, all ruby-aglisten, waiting to be eaten! These are "refrigerator pickles" and keep for several weeks in the refrigerator without hauling out the home-canning gear. Great for Meal Prep. Weight Watchers Friendly & Freestyle Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Skip Straight to the Recipe Since first making Swedish Pickled Beets back in 2005, I keep a big jar in the refrigerator nearly all the time. It's just so convenient to grab one or two small beets for a quick salad or a vegetable snack. Plus I've become a huge fan of beets, this might have been the first recipe to turn me into the "beet queen"! Mostly, my beet recipes start with fresh beets so it

Pretty good! And easy! And fast! Thus: a keeper! Cooking the spinach in the lemon and honey -- vs adding them afterward -- inserts a brightness I've not noticed before. And I really liked the underlying bite from the red pepper flakes. LEMON & HONEY GLAZED SPINACH Active time: 20 minutes (including 7 to clean farmer's market spinach) Time to table: 20 minutes Serves 4 with small portions, 2 with generous portions 1 pound spinach greens (see ALANNA's TIPS) 1 tablespoon olive oil (see TIPS) 1 tablespoon garlic (from a jar!) Zest of a lemon Juice from about half a lemon 1 tablespoon honey (next time, try doubling) 1 teaspoon kosher salt Red pepper flakes Salt & pepper Clean greens well, removing tough stems. (See TIPS.) Heat a large skillet on MEDIUM HIGH. Add olive oil and let heat. Add garlic, zest, lemon juice, honey, salt and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, then stir a bit. Add about half the greens and stir well continuously. As the greens b

Wondering what to make with that door weight called a rutabaga that showed up in your CSA box? LOL, start here, a silky-smooth mash of apples and the golden-colored root vegetable called rutabaga (or swede, a much prettier name, yes?). It has gorgeous color and is a lovely side dish or better still, an "under dish". Real Food, Fresh & Seasonal. Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Vegetarian. Naturally Gluten Free.

Tonight's Lesson: No matter what your mother used to say, it's perfectly okay to "play with your food". On Saturday, I made an early trip to Soulard, the big St Louis farmers market. My favorite farmer is Charles, who has the best rhubarb, spinach and basil in the market. This week his stand also displayed bundles of greens tied with string. 'Poke' read the hand-written sign. I wondered out loud, What in heavens is poke? and another shopper answered, Don't you know that old song, Poke Salad Annie? (I didn't but listened to it here .) There was no leaving the poke behind! No matter that I hadn't a single clue how to cook it. Online I learned that 'poke salad' is a citified 'poke sallet', that Harlan County, Kentucky holds an annual Poke Sallet Festival , and that most recipes call for a 'mess of greens' and specify cooking the tender-looking shoots in fresh water three times, then cooking them with onions in a 'heap of b