This year has been a bit of a cooking lull for me. At the end of the day, or even at the end of a week, or on the weekends, where it seems there should be a bit of a pause, there just doesn’t seem to be enough time or unspent energy to try out…
Category: Lunch and Dinner
BBQ Seitan Steak Fajitas
Food can transport us to other warm, pristine places, and fond times, with such authenticity that we can even forget or at least more easily ignore all the storms brewing in our lives, whether they be an ugly winter storm or an internal maelstrom. My trip to Spain over the holidays is still fresh in…
Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
We are well into soup season and with the amount of the stuff that I’ve already consumed it’s inevitable that I’d start to tire of some of the standard options, but there are certain classics whose appeal never seems to fade. Tomato soup was a fixture of my childhood, a feature player at many mealtimes,…
Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Brown-Butter Sauce
The magical thing about making pasta, particularly from scratch, is how it can feel and taste so luxurious, and make you feel like a Michelin star chef, or at least an accomplished and prestigious home cook, but also be one of the easiest and most affordable dishes you can make. And while there is much…
Radicchio Salad with BBQ Chick’un and Chickpeas
Have you ever had the experience of trying a particular food for the first time and wondering why you haven’t been eating it your whole life? That was my experience with Radicchio. I’d see it in the grocery store, sitting in the produce bins, all shiny, fresh and red hued, and passively acknowledge its existence,…
Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Salad with Roasted Asparagus
So, Toronto got hit with its first official snow fall on Sunday, and yes, it’s late November, but it still somehow took me by surprise. I felt a momentary sensation of delight upon opening my blinds Sunday morning and seeing the world caked in pristine, flaky white layers, but then it gradually gave way to…
Roasted Carrot Soup and Carrot Top Pesto
Carrots are one of my favourite vegetables, and one of the few I could be coaxed into eating during my fussy childhood days. I’m partial to raw carrots, which are quick and easy to consume en masse as a snack, so I’ve probably eaten more carrots over the years than any other food. Yes, I…
Beefless Wellington
One of the virulent and persistent questions vegans receive is why there are so many mock versions of meat dishes in plant-based cuisine. It seems to almost have replaced the “where do you get your protein from” question. The accusation is that vegans always on some level crave or desire to eat meat because we’re…
Apple, Fennel and Endive Salad with Lemon-Garlic-Dill Dressing
I do enjoy a good salad, but it’s easy to fall into a rut especially when you’re using salad as a quick fix. Throwing some spinach or kale in a bowl, topping it with some nuts and store-bought dressing, might make for an easy lunch, but it’s a formula that does grow stale with time….
Sun-dried Tomato and Sausage Polenta
Do you find that some foods just never get the attention or love they deserve? Do you have a personal favourite that you feel falls too far beneath the radar? For me, one of those foods is polenta. While polenta is a popular food with hundreds of years of history behind it, I can’t think…
Plant and Pine 