Recipe Roundup: Spring is here.
- adalisab
- Mar 14, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 30, 2023
Hello!
Ada here. There are some new Vrdnt vegetables trickling in which should certainly help inspire some newness in the kitchen. The threat of hard frosts is almost behind us completely(as far as statistics go), and it's hard to not feel hopeful and optimistic about the season ahead. Spring buds on my peach tree, and love, is in the air!
By the time you get this e-mail, I'll be just-married, hiding away in West Texas with my husband (whoah!) on a mini-moon. And in the spirit of ease, I'm not going to share specific recipes this week. Instead, I'm going to just share some of my go-to internet sources for recipes so you can do your own exploring and I can do my own honeymooning :).
Beware, some of these sites have paywalls or limits to the number of free recipes you can see per day. But the sites are some of my favorites, so I thought I'd share anyway in case you're looking to invest some moolah in recipe content. Another general warning when scouting the internet for recipes: not all food blogs are created equal. The recipes from some sites/blogs have undergone more testing than others. If you're okay with a gamble, give any ole' recipe a try! But if you're looking for a guaranteed home run, consider the number of reviews a recipe has or the testing it's undergone.
From highly produced Bon Appetit and Epicurious cooking videos to the random grandmaw in her cute kitchen, Youtube has cooking inspiration from around the globe. If you enjoy a particular type of cuisine and would like to learn more about it, chances are you can find an awesome Youtube channel that focuses on that type of food.
The author of this site (and several cookbooks), Heidi Swanson, was the first person to deeply inspire me in the kitchen back when I discovered her blog in early college. Heidi gets a spot at the top of this list because her website and recipes are oh-so-nostalgic to me. They're all vegetarian, and so are a perfect resource for CSA Members.
This powerhouse of a website (and food magazine) is hip and popular for a reason. The recipes really are great... so creative, enjoyable to read, and usually very approachable. They just instituted a 5-recipe (or something) a day limit, which is a bummer. But also, maybe 5 recipes a day is plenty for you.
Epicurious actually just sorta merged with Bon Appetit. Both are owned by multi-media conglomerate Conde Nast, and while I don't fully understand the relationship between the two sites, I know that Epicurious also just started limiting the number of free recipes you could see a day. Boo. But they're still listed here because, like BA, they've got a HUGE catalog of incredible, tested, recipes.
A great catalog (of easily searchable) recipes, as well as plenty of content about how to clean almost any kitchen appliance, blender and toaster recs, and thoughtful food narratives. The kind of stuff you don't know you're interested in reading until you realize you've spent 10 minutes reading about the art of decluttering your pantry.
Another paywall, another print media company trying to figure out how to stay afloat. My late stepmom gave me a subscription to Cook's Illustrated years ago, and the publication will always remind me of her. Amazing recipes with a focus on the science of cooking - the kind of knowledge that truly empowers.
The Splendid Table is a podcast I like to listen to, which has a great collection of recipes on its website. I love the conversations that happen on this podcast, and the resulting recipes, which stem from interviews with chefs, farmers, writers, poets, moms, dads... you name it. For the same reason that people love The Great British Bakeoff, I love this podcast. It's sweet, inspiring, and easy on the ears.
Like 101 Cookbooks, Smitten Kitchen is a website I find myself going back to again and again, for the past 15 or so years. (What!? That makes me feel old.) But yes, it's got the feel of an ole' fashioned food blog, but there is some serious production value behind it. The blogs Love and Lemons and The Homesick Texan fall in this same category for me.
"Good cooks know-how. Great cooks know why." is Serious Eat's tagline. This website has well-tested recipes, easy search tools, and lots of science behind it all. It's a great place to go to learn new cooking techniques, knife skills, etc.
Food 52 is a wonderful (and LARGE) collection of recipes that are tested by a team of editors. The recipes span different types of cuisines and are searchable by meal type, ingredient, or region of the world. Many of the recipes are accompanied by beautifully written narratives, too.
Definitely a paywall situation here. My subscription sadly lapsed, and each time I come across a recipe that I wish I could read, I think of renewing. (But then don't.) But I should! I love the highly-tested, highly-used, highly on-food-trend NY Times recipes. They span from a laughably simple saute to an incredibly complex, 12-hr braise.
When it feels like I have nothing to cook, I often turn to Google and simply list off the random hodgepodge of ingredients that I have between my fridge and pantry. For example, the search "chard, potatoes, rice, ginger" gave me ideas to cook a curry, fried rice, latkes, and a gratin. Googling random ingredients that beg to be used is just a good place to start, to see what feels right and sounds tasty. On that note, if I'm cooking something new, I will often read about 2-4 recipes of that dish to understand the similarities. From there, I make it my own, and riff based on what ingredients I have and how much I feel (or don't feel) like cooking at the time. If you don't already do this, give it a whirl! It's a great way to gain a little freedom in the kitchen and untether yourself from a specific recipe or rigid ingredient list.
Be well, and happy cooking!
Ada
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