Category Archives: Side Dishes

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Easy Spring Salads that Transition to Summer

Honoring the abundance of asparagus with a new recipe each spring is a Sacred & Delicious blog tradition—and today I offer you a flavorful and colorful White Bean and Asparagus Salad. As with many of my recent recipes, this recipe is open to variation. (See my postscript below if you’re looking for more asparagus recipes.)

Here are some easy variations you can make to this recipe:

  • For readers who shy away from beans, you can switch out the beans with quinoa or rice and still have a tempting dish.
  • Serve it as a side dish with a bowl of soup for a complete meal, or just eat lots of bean salad! I suggest either my recent recipe for Sweet Potato and Spinach Soup or my favorite summer Carrot Soup, which you can find in Sacred & Delicious: A Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook.
  • If you don’t like cilantro, the salad will be equally delicious with fresh basil or dill.
  • Adding mint made the dish sing for me but the recipe still works well without it.
  • If you avoid garlic, substitute fresh ginger.
  • Serve it warm or cooled, whatever suits your taste—though I think it’s best when just a little warm or room temperature.
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Healthy Comfort Food: Creamy Vegan Casseroles

Today’s multi-use recipe for a Broccoli, Carrot, and Fennel Casserole got oohs and aahs at our table recently, so I promise you won’t want to miss this one! If casseroles aren’t your thing, you can serve it as a veggie side dish or make it a one-dish meal and serve the vegetables with rice or quinoa.

Loyal readers, have you noticed that I enjoy creating dishes that lend themselves to slightly different approaches? You could even turn this into a soup by adding some delicious homemade stock. All these options give you greater flexibility if you’re comfortable enough in cooking to adapt the directions ever-so-slightly to suit your preferences.

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Delicious Vegan Casseroles for the Holidays

I rarely make a casserole for the two of us, but when it comes to convenience, there’s nothing quite so simple as this Easy Vegan Squash Casserole. It’s the kind of dish that you can make the day before and pop into the oven while you’re cooking other parts of your holiday menu. It’s a perfect addition to any potluck and a delicious way to balance all the season’s sugary meals!

Of course, every recipe on my blog is always gluten-free. (This Reimagined Green Bean Casserole is also awesome and worthy of your Hanukkah, Christmas, or New Year’s table.)

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Tofu for Brunch, Lunch, or Dinner

Whether you are vegetarian, vegan, or a flexitarian who wants to eat less meat to do your part for the environment, tofu can be surprisingly delicious—as you will learn when you make this recipe for Savory Scrambled Tofu. It’s a perfect dish for any late-morning brunch, lunch, or dinner.

Because tofu is especially easy to work with, I will often add it as the protein alongside a simple vegetable soup, such as my now-famous Asparagus Soup or Carrot Soup with Coconut Milk (Sacred & Delicious page 99). But’s this scrambled tofu is also a lovely brunch centerpiece with a little avocado toast on the side.

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Update a Favorite Recipe with Vegan Tapenade

After cooking my Elegant Green Beans recipe every week for more than a decade, I thought it might be fun to try something a little different this week. Imagine that! And so, my friends, I present you with Green Beans with Vegan Tapenade, a warm zesty side dish that can double as a salad come spring and summer.

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You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love Kugel!

This year Labor Day and the first evening of the Jewish High Holiday season happen to coincide on September 6, which calls for celebratory food—like this utterly scrumptious Updated Noodle Kugel. Whether you’re going to a Labor Day potluck or preparing food for Monday’s Erev Rosh Hashanah family dinner, the beginning of the Jewish new year 5782, this dish will be a sure crowd pleaser.

I developed this recipe especially for my friends and readers who follow a gluten-free, lactose-free diet. And let’s be honest: as I approached my birthday, I was craving favorite childhood dishes that I hadn’t tasted since I went gluten-free!

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Love Your Greens—As Sides or Entrées

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that kale and other greens are among Mother Earth’s superfoods—and today’s recipe for Kale and Beets with Spiced Pecans will help you take advantage of your favorite greens deliciously!

Did you know that there are at least 10 different types of kale?

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Can’t Get Asparagus out of My Mind!

That’s the sum of it: organic asparagus spears are still available so I’m using them every which way, whether as an Asparagus & Sweet Potato Side, in a simple gluten-free Asparagus & Sweet Potato Pasta, or as a topping for Baked Spaghetti Squash with Chickpeas & Veggies (recipe coming soon on this blog). And of course, my now famed Asparagus Soup (Sacred & Delicious, page 92, made perfect with Easy Vegetable Soup Stock (Sacred & Delicious, page 90). After all, asparagus is the culinary herald of springtime, and it must be eaten with reverence!

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Sweet Potato Latkes for the Season of Light

When we were children, my brother and I looked forward to Hanukkah with great anticipation. The excitement was all about opening gifts, because Hanukkah had become the gift-giving time of year for modern Jewish families—likely because, falling as it did sometime in December, this Jewish holiday always had proximity on the calendar to Christmas. Rick recalls sneaking into the den closet to examine the wrapped presents hidden there. I fondly remember the Hanukkah when I was given my first

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