A captivating salad, a simple lemony mix of crunchy celery (extra points for celery with leaves!) and creamy chickpeas, held together with a touch of feta. Perfect for a light spring lunch or supper but also, garnished with tomato and avocado, makes an impressive platter for a potluck or dish to share. Very spring-y! Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Short story here. It was the day before Thanksgiving circa mid 2000s. I was up to my elbows in green beans and pie crust but took a break to check email. "Get it RIGHT!" shouted a local reader of Kitchen Parade , then still published in print in my hometown newspaper. "Your last recipe," she wrote, "called for a stalk of celery. Unless you mean the whole damn bunch, it's a celery rib not a celery stalk!" Okay, then. Happy Thanksgiving to you too, ma'am. But she was right! So I thanked her for the correction and wished her a very happy Thanksgiving. (And also felt a real sadness f

How to Create a Colorful Instagram-Friendly Platter of Raw Vegetables All you need to know about vegetable crudités, those simple-to-stunning plates and platters of raw colorful vegetables served everywhere from casual parties to formal receptions but also, in simple form, at family tables. Let's talk vegetable crudités – the meaning of the crudites, what they are, how to pronounce the French word and more. Plus for anyone wondering which vegetables work well for crudites and looking for ideas to present them beautifully? Here I share my very best tips for for choosing, cleaning, cutting and displaying fresh vegetables in Instagram-friendly fashion.

Whew, say THAT three times. Or don't, because by the time you have, today's fresh winter salad could be on the table, just bitter greens (curly endive is pictured) plus juicy oranges, s'more salad fixin's all tossed with a long-time favorite no-oil salad dressing, Orange & Cumin Vinaigrette . Low Carb. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. I swear, since Christmas, you could count on one hand how often I've cooked vegetables. But vegetable soups? and raw salads? #NoGettingEnough My raw salads follow no recipe, per se, although there is a formula . Greens of some sort, often arugula. (Any other fans of Trader Joe's arugula?!!) Chopped vegetables, whatever's on hand. (It's winter so think carrot, cabbage, fennel, cauliflower, broccoli, bell pepper, Brussels sprouts, radish, small tomatoes, zucchini, that's just since Christmas.) Parsley or cilantro if they're handy. Green onion, always! Salt, pepper and a splash of good vinegar.

Today's chopped salad recipe: An addictive combination of finely chopped broccoli, cauliflower (both or one or the other) and dried fruit, nuts and seeds, bound by a citrus dressing. Great for home as a "refrigerator salad" that keeps for a good week or more but also a great salad to take along to potlucks and parties, ensuring at least one plant-based, satisfying choice. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. "I bought a food processor," my sister announced back in November. "We really like this salad recipe I tried. It's great! But you really can't chop everything fine enough by hand." So curious, I was! What super-special salad recipe would rouse such serious kitchen appliance-temptation?! Turns out, it's just broccoli, cauliflower, dried fruit, some nuts and seeds, all chopped finely and tossed in a no-oil citrus dressing. Since I already owned the all-important food processor, there was

Today's quick 'n' easy 'n' versatile salad, just a thick slice of iceberg lettuce topped with summery BLT-ish vegetables and a drizzle of Homemade Thousand Island Dressing. Surprisingly filling! Low Carb. Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Please oh please, don't mock. Every year, I fall in love with a new vegetable, or well, better put, I experience a long-familiar vegetable with new appreciation. In 2017? Iceberg lettuce, ha! It all started when for the first time in years, I made a batch of homemade salad dressing, the oh-so-lovely Thousand Island Dressing . One batch led to another and another, warranting a "3x5 recipe", the card stock I'm re-instituting for house specialties and meal standards, all kept handy in a wood 3x5 recipe box from my childhood. So yeah, 3x5 cards in digital 2017? Again, don't mock! :-) Anyway, iceberg "wedges" taste great but are awkward for loading up with other ingredients. Enter ice

Zucchini Noodles? Thing is, they're achieving ritual status here in my kitchen. Yours too? Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. #TwoThings. #1 Come summer, there must be some a magic moment when the zucchini and basil gods collude. How do I know? Because I made this supreme little summer chilled zucchini noodle salad for the first time on July 11, 2016 and for the second time, entirely by accident, on the same date exactly one year later. But the timing isn't really an accident, is it? That's because every year about the same time, the zucchini reach exactly the right size for spiralizing (not too small, not too big though definitely not baseball bats) and the basil is beginning to flower and needs cutting back to ensure the plants will continue to produce basil leaves well into fall, so naturally, hello pesto! (For the record, I'm totally in love with my extra basil-y, vegan pesto, Homemade Fresh Basil Pesto Without Ch

Today's easy kohlrabi recipe: How to roast kohlrabi, a simple way to cook kohlrabi, just cubed and oven-roasted. Low carb. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free. Whole30 Friendly. And delicious! Easy. Simple. Healthful. And tastes good! In short, Roasted Kohlrabi is a win-win-win recipe. Raw Kohlrabi: Like Apples! Until now, I've only eaten kohlrabi raw, almost like apples except peeled and sliced. Raw kohlrabi is so full of flavor, moisture and most importantly for pre- and post-supper munchies, crunch. Ha! Isn't it funny that my favorite way to eat kohlrabi is paired with apples! You'll love Kohlrabi & Apple Slaw with Creamy Coleslaw Dressing ! First Time to Try Cooking Kohlrabi So this is the first time I cooked kohlrabi, except for tucking some into this Warm Root Salad with Horseradish Vinaigrette where the kohlrabi flavor was mish-mashed with the other root vegetables. And drum roll ... Roasted Kohlrabi sta