Heidi Swanson – FoodWatcher

Health Nut Vegan Chili

A special, triple-bean, vegan chili inspired by Jess Damuck’s new cookbook. It’s bold, flavor-packed and uses a technique to achieve the best texture of any chili I’ve eaten. It’s time to schedule a big chili night.

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There are a number of cookbooks this spring I’m wildly excited about and this exceptional vegan chili is from one of them. It is from Jess Damuck’s Health Nut: A Feel-Good Cookbook and I’ve been making it regularly ever since I saw an early version of the book last year. I’ll talk a bit more about the cookbook down below, but we’ll jump into the chili details first. Jess calls it her Very Good Vegan Chili. I double the recipe and cook it in the absolute largest pot I own – freezing the extra portions for later. It freezes brilliantly. The chili is bold, thick flavor-packed, and primed for lots of toppings.
bowl of vegan chili topped with sour cream and avocado

What I Like About This Chili

The two stand-out things I love about this chili are the flavor and the texture. Both are fantastic. Jess describes a chili full of “simmering on the stove all day” flavor, in minutes. Using smoked paprika and fire-roasted tomatoes absolutely contribute to hitting that mark. On the texture front, she has us puree a small amount of the chili with a hand blender, to lend a rich, creamy vibe when it is re-incorporated. This is a super clever technique I’ve used when making ribollita, but it never occurred to me to try it with chili. Total game changer!
marble table topped with bowls of chili and a skillet cornbread

Key Ingredients:

Beans: This is a triple-bean vegan chili. The beans are the stars. Jess lists a mix of black beans, pinto beans, and kidney beans. You can use canned beans or the equivalent amount of beans cooked from dried. Sometimes I use a blend of both depending on what I have on hand or in the freezer. I encourage you to experiment with different types of beans. One version I did that was extra good swapped Rio Zape beans for the pintos.
Chile Powder: Ok, here’s where you *really* need to pay attention. There is a wide range of “chile powder” out there. Chile powder can be pure, single-varietal chile powder, a blend of pure chile powders, or a blend of chile powder and other spices. Jess likes to use ancho chile powder in this chili, I tend to keep guajillo chili powder on hand lately, so I’ve been using that. If you have a chile powder you know and love, use it. The key: don’t go overboard. You can always add more, a bit at a time, but if you make your chili too spicy, it’s hard to go back. For a large pot like this one, Jess would use 4 tablespoons of ancho chili powder, I’ve been starting with 2 tablespoons of guajillo chili powder. Make notes so you can adjust in the future.
Tomatoes: As I mention in the recipe below, I make this with crushed tomatoes because that’s what I tend to keep on hand. Jess calls for diced in the original recipe. The key is: fire-roasted. It really brings some added depth and dimension to this chili.

Health Nut: A Feel-Good Cookbook

Take a peak at a few of the photo spreads from this book. As a life-long Californian I lost my mind (in a good way) when I first saw Health Nut. It has 70s California health food vibes throughout, and my co-op nostalgia kicked in hard. The fonts! The graphics! Omg the recipes!
opening page spread of health nut cookbook by jess damuck
chapter opener text and graphics from health nut cookbook by jess damuck

The sun-drenched photography is by Linda Pugliese and some amazing double-exposures by Roger Steffens. If real food with hippie vibes through an updated lens is where you want to be as a cook, track this book down. I know a lot of you were fans of Salad Freak, also by Jess, Health Nut is her follow up. You can follow Jess here.
photo of jess damuck in health nut cookbook
photos from health nut cookbook by jess damuck

Having a great chili recipe in your back pocket is never a bad idea. It’s legitimately the perfect go-to if you’re feeding a crowd. A chili like this one is both fantastic, and can accommodate the whole range of eaters – vegetarians, gluten-free, and dairy free. It’s great alongside this skillet cornbread.

More Chili Recipes

bowl of vegan chili topped with sour cream, lime, cilatnro and avocado

More Bean Recipes

Chipotle Cinnamon Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans
Homemade Refried Beans
Giant Chipotle Baked Beans
My favorite basic bean technique: How To Cook Beans
Best Bean Recipes

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Super Orange Citrus Rice

This incredible citrus rice is flooded with orange juice, flecked with celery and carrots, and boosted with a packet of French onion dip mix.

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This incredible citrus rice is flooded with orange juice, flecked with celery and carrots, and boosted with a packet of French onion dip mix. It’s beautiful, delicious, and if you’re in a rice or grain rut, it’s just the thing to get you out of it. This Super Orange Citrus Rice is also the perfect base for a rice bowl, and I love using leftovers the next day for a citrusy-y take on fried rice.

Super Orange Citrus Rice in a Serving Bowl
I cook rice a couple times a week. Half the time I’ll make it straight and simple – water, rice, and a bit of salt. The other times I like to mix it up with different broths, infusions, and favorite flavors, ingredients and textures. A lot of you know how much I love a good rice situation – I included a whole section of ideas in the back of Super Natural Simple. I also constantly revisit Bryant Terry’s Amazing Green Rice, this Congee with Brown Rice and Turmeric, and this herby rice situation. Recently, this super orange citrus rice has been in high-rotation. Here are the details! Super Orange Citrus Rice in a Kitchen on a Counter

Citrus Rice Inspiration

One of the things I love about flea markets, estate and yard sales is finding and browsing old cookbooks. I come across a lot of community cookbooks, and always have my eyes peeled for books that are special, unusual, and/or regionally specific. Today’s recipe was inspired by a cookbook I picked up a few years ago, published by Sunkist in 1968. It is cover-to-cover recipes that are citrus inspired – note the sub-title: lemons, tangerines – citrus treasures of the west – oranges, grapefruits.

A few of the recipes caught my attention. In particular, there is an orange rice recipe that calls for “instant minced onions.” I imagined that would add a nice seasoning element to a citrus rice. I tend to keep French onion soup mix on hand to make the French Onion Strata in Super Natural Simple, and have dehydrated onions in my pantry as well. Today’s recipe evolved from there. I love the way the onion helps counter the sweetness of the orange juice, keeping the whole dish squarely in the savory camp.
Super Orange Citrus Rice Surrounded by Plates and Ready to Eat

What Kind of Rice to Use?

I’ve been using brown basmati rice for this recipe. Short grain brown rice should also work, you might need to adjust the cooking time a bit though. I’ve tested a blend of half brown basmati with half white basmati and it wasn’t great. Unsurprisingly, the white grains really blew out and over cooked while the brown rice grains finished cooking.

The general rule of thumb here is yes, you can likely use your favorite rice, whatever it is. You should simply adjust the amount of liquid and cooking time according to whatever you typically use for 2 cups of rice. So, for example, if you’re using 2 cups of white rice, scale back the orange juice and water called for in the recipe from 4 cups to 3 cups (or 3 1/4 cups total liquid). Hope that makes sense. It’s a long way of saying you can likely make this with success with whatever rice you have on hand.

Super Orange Citrus Rice Surrounded by Plates and Ready to Eat

Make Citrus Rice into a Meal

You can easily add another hearty element to this rice and make a one bowl meal. You see the citrus rice pictured here topped with a bit of simply marinated, baked tofu. It’s just slabs of thinly sliced extra-firm tofu tossed in 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon wasabi paste, and 2 teaspoons soy sauce and baked until golden in a 375F oven. Wasabi paste can be tricky to come by, and when I’m out of it I’ll substitute a favorite curry paste or tobanjan paste. Throw some broccoli or cauliflower florets into the oven with the tofu for some added veg. And, you should absolutely use leftovers in this Herbed Rice Salad with Peanuts!

Alternately, I like to make a thin omelette with an egg or two, slice it thinly, and use that in place of the tofu. And before I forget, if your celery is extra leafy, be sure to make your own celery salt! It’s really wonderful on this rice, but also on all sorts of soups and salads.

Leftover Ideas

This recipe makes a good amount of citrus rice, and we often have leftovers. It’s SO good the next day, perfect for a quick fried rice for lunch, or easy dinner. The citrus element is really fantastic and unexpected if you aren’t in the know.

If you’re looking for more rice recipes I have so many ideas. Laugh/cry. Be sure to try this green rice, my favorite mushroom casserole, and this vegetarian take on paella. I also love cooking with quinoa, cooking with lentils. Enjoy! -h

More Citrus Recipes

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Skillet Cornbread

This skillet cornbread is rustic, custard-topped, and crusty-edged. It is bolstered with herbs and a bit of quinoa for an incredibly good accompaniment to chili or a favorite soup. Inspired by a legendary Marion Cunningham recipe.

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One of my favorite cornmeal recipes is Marion Cunningham’s Custard-Filled Cornbread from The Breakfast Book. My neighbor in San Francisco brought it to a Halloween potluck (to much fanfare), and it occurred to me it was the same cornbread Molly writes about in A Homemade Life. Everyone in my family now loves this cornbread, and it has shown up at many family gatherings over the years. It is one of those recipes, so spot-on, I thought I’d never change it, tweak it, or make it any other way. There was no need. Keep it simple, leave it alone.
skillet cornbread with a slice removed

Skillet Cornbread: The Inspiration

Narrator voice: she was unable to leave it alone. I eventually did an alternative version good enough to share. I took the general approach to Marion’s custard cornbread, introduced a cast-iron skillet, and a few ingredients that pair nicely with corn – herbs, quinoa. My hope was that it would result in something unique and special. And wow, did it ever work out!

skillet cornbread after baking

I hope you’ll agree, the results are impressive. A rustic, minimally structured, custard-topped, crusty-edged, herb-scented corn-quinoa skillet cornbread. The recipe yields enough for a small crowd. Each piece is dense and moist, rich with ribbons of varying texture. It’s quite special and, if you are a cornbread aficionado, worth a go.

skillet cornbread cooling on a blue hot pad

Let me know if you try it out – it’s perfect for picnics, potlucks, family meals, chili night,Thanksgiving and the like!

More bread recipes:

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Vegetable Pot Pie

This hearty vegetable pot pie is made with a flaky, all-butter pie crust encasing a creamy, herbed potato, carrot, pea and onion filling. A homemade savory pie like this is such a treat! There are a couple tips you should know to help you take it from good to exceptional.

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I know a lot of people make vegetable pot pies with store-bought puff pastry, but over the years I’ve come to believe a homemade pie crust is, by far, the superior way to go. It makes the whole pot pie endeavor worth it. These pies are rustic and creamy, often lovingly constructed. A great pie crust lends butter-kissed backbone and structure. A flaky, decadent counterpoint to the classic, creamy, vegetable filling. Let’s make a pie!
vegetable pot pie on a cooling rack with a slice on a plate nearby

Vegetable Pot Pie: Real Talk

My main piece of advice here is this. If you’re are aiming to make a vegetable pot pie from scratch, plan ahead. Going from start to finish in one go can be a bit of an undertaking – pie dough, filling, assembly, bake, etc. But! If you keep pie crusts at the ready in your freezer, and make the filling a day or two in advance, pulling this pie together is an absolute breeze.

Pro Tips:

There are a few things I do as I’m making pot pies to level them up. Little details to help delineate my pie from your average vegetarian pot pie.

Homemade pie crust: Per the opening paragraph, I’ll go to the mat encouraging you to make your own pie dough. Make a few rounds of dough and keep it in the freezer for months. The flavor! The flakiness! Once you nail down the pie dough making process it’s hard to go back to a store-bought crust. Can you use a store-bought crust for this recipe? Yes, absolutely. Will it be better with a homemade pie crust? Yes, absolutely.
Caramelize your onions: Really go for it. Most pot pie fillings have you sauté onions until tender in the beginning. I have you go well beyond that. By browning the onions and celery you’re developing more depth and flavor as the base of your filling.
Lemon zest: Sprinkle your pie plate with lemon zest before lining with the pie crust. Add some to your filling as well. The zest combines with the butter from the crust to perfume the whole situation. The brightness of the zest really brings something to the filling as well.

Vegetable Pot Pies: Common Mistakes

There are a number of common pitfalls to avoid when making a pot pie.

Cool your filling completely: When you go to assemble your pie, it’s important that your filling is completely cold. Adding a warm filling is going to melt the butter in your crust prematurely and can contribute to a soggy pie bottom in the end. You want a golden, structured bottom crust. The solution? If you’re in a rush, spread the hot pie filling across a large plate, and place in the refrigerator, stirring now and then until cool.
Place pie on baking sheet: This is one mistake I still make too often, unfortunately. Placing your pie on a baking sheet while baking will protect your oven from any spills, overflows, or melted butter. It makes clean up much easier and you won’t have things burning onto the bottom of your oven.
Keep an eagle eye on your crust: I love a deeply golden, rustic pie crust. But the edges of a pie can get dark while the center is still underbaked. A problem! Have tinfoil strips or a pie shield ready to protect areas of your pie until the rest of the pie catches up. If you want to up your pie game over time, a basic pie shield is a great, inexpensive purchase!

Pot Pie Leftovers:

Refrigerate leftovers, covered, for up to 5 days. Reheat in a 350°F / 175°C oven, covered in foil, until filling is completely hot.
a slice of vegetable pot pie on a plate with a fork

Can I Make Pot Pies Ahead of Time?

If you want to make a pot pie ahead of time, make the filling in advance and refrigerate or freeze until ready to assemble the pie. Thawing first, of course. Make the pie dough ahead of time as well. You’re going to have more success baking the day you want to serve the pie.

Vegetable Pot Pie Variations

Make it spicy: Add a couple teaspoons of your favorite curry powder (or to taste) to the filling. You might also add some to the pie crust as well.
Explore different vegetables: Use what you have and love! Or explore what is seasonal. Great vegetable options include: sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, shredded cabbage, pumpkin, and corn. Roasted cherry tomatoes add an amazing burst of flavor.
Coconut milk: Use coconut milk (full fat) in place of the heavy cream for a different flavor profile.
Pesto: Skip the other herbs in the recipe and stir a couple tablespoons of pesto into your filling at the end. Or dollop it on top of the filling as you’re assembling your pot pie, before putting the top crust on.

More Pie Recipes

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Strawberry Scones

These strawberry scones check all the boxes. Made with juicy sweet strawberries, they’re tender and rustic with golden craggy edges and a sugar-crusted top.

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There are some things to know before you jump into making these strawberry scones. First, the foundation of a great scone is a good recipe and cold ingredients. The cold ingredients will make the dough much easier to work with. Second, let your scones bake long enough, really keep an eye on things. For the scone style you see here, you don’t want pale. Much of the flavor happens as the sugars, and butter, and edges of each scone brown. Lastly, scones made with fresh fruit are best warm from the oven. Bake just before you want to enjoy them whenever possible. Or do a quick reheat.
strawberry scones on a baking sheet

Strawberry Scones: The Ingredients

A few words about the ingredients I use here and why.

Flours: Most scone recipes use all-purpose flour exclusively. But I find that adding a percentage of whole wheat flour can really anchor a scone and bring flavor dimension. Don’t worry, you won’t run into any dreaded whole-wheat dryness with these. The whole wheat flour really lends rustic farmhouse vibes in the best way possible with a tender crumb. Now when I go back to tasting more conventional scones, they end up tasting too one-dimensional to me.
Sugar: I’ve baked these scones with a rotating cast of sugars over the years. Different amounts, different types. I feel like this recipe needs the sharp edge of white sugar to balance the other ingredients in these scones – for example, the tangy buttermilk or sour cream. Just sweet enough is what I was after here, and for whatever reason the brown sugar tend to get lost. And a blend didn’t do the job either.
Other: I use quite a bit less baking powder and baking soda than other scone recipes. You don’t really need more than the amount in this recipe, and the buttermilk neutralizes any residual off flavor from the leavening agents.

strawberry scones on a baking sheet

Variations:

The recipe below is for classic strawberry scones with a bit of zest. Aside from the zest, they’re straight-forward, direct, a good scone foundation. That said, I often switch them up with one or two of the following:

citrus: zest of one lemon or lime (mix into wet ingredients)
rosemary: I love the combination of strawberry and rosemary. Finely chop 2 five-inch sprigs of rosemary – 1 1/2 teaspoons or so. (Add to dry ingredients)
black pepper: black pepper and strawberry are a classic combination. Add scant 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper to dry ingredients. Adjust with more in future batches if you love it.
poppy seeds: add 1/3 cup to dry ingredients.
toasted almonds: be sure they’ve cooled completely. (Add to dry ingredients)
crystalized ginger: adds jolts of chewy ginger sugar. Chop it small and add it along with the wet ingredients.
icing: lot of people like an iced drizzle over their scones. If you would rather have a drizzle top, here’s the plan. Use lemon zest in place of the orange zest called for in the recipe. Skip the sugar sprinkle, but do the egg wash. Allow scones to cool completely after baking, and use the salted lemon glaze from this glazed lemon cake recipe. Or do half and half so you can enjoy the sugar-topped scones warm.

Making Strawberry Scones By Hand

The recipe below assumes you have an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, but making them by hand is also possible and will save you some dishes! To make these scones by hand, watch the above video and reference these instructions:

Mix the dry ingredients well and then turn out into a pile on your counter top. Sprinkle the cold butter across the flour mixture and use your hands to rub the butter into the flour until it is evenly distributed throughout. You can use a dough scraper (or pastry cutter) to chop through the pile a bit and break up any butter lumps. You want the mixture to be sandy, with tiny pebbles.
Shape: Wrangle the flour mixture back into a pile with a dough scraper and make a well in the middle (the way you do when making homemade pasta). Pour the wet ingredients into the well and use your dough scraper to fold and mix the flour into the wet ingredients. Keep going until there is no dry flour left and a dough has started to form. At this point sprinkle the berries across the top, and fold them into the mixture as well.
Gather the dough into a ball and proceed with the recipe as written – slicing the dough into wedges and so forth.

More Scone Recipes

More Strawberry Recipes

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Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies

The perfect bite-sized chocolate chip cookie. Tiny, thin, golden, crisp, a bit nutty with plenty of shaved chocolate.

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I recognize the lead photo for this post makes these chocolate chip cookies look enormous. They are not. In fact, one of these cookies is about the size of a half-dollar, you might be able to fit a dozen of them in the palm of your hand. And while the photo might be a bit misleading, the trade-off is that you can see all the flecks of shaved chocolate, oats, and walnuts that are packed into every tiny cookie. The grains of sugar on top? They give the cookies just the right amount of crunch. These are the perfect bite-sized cookie, and each batch makes nearly twelve dozen of them.

itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookie

Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies: The Concept

I started working on this recipe over the summer (it took a few tries!). I knew I wanted my cookie to be tiny. I wanted it to be thin, and I wanted it to be golden, crisp, nutty, with plenty of chocolate. I started shaving the chocolate early on, instead of using chips or chunks. It ended up being one of the things that makes these cookies unique -and it allows you to press the dough near flat.

chocolate chip cookie on parchment paper

The recipe doubles easily, and I can’t resist mentioning that ice-cream sandwiches made with them are tres cute and tasty. The key is resisting the urge to use too much dough when you’re shaping them.

itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookie on parchment paper

Variations:

There have been some great substitutions and variations in the comments. I’ll call out a few that caught my attention.

Susie says, “These cookies were AMAZING!! I used date sugar instead of the cane sugar, and they turned out just fine. I gave some to my best friend, and she said, “I’d pay MONEY for these!” “
Leigh went the coconut route, “I made these tonight replacing 1/2 cup of the oats with a mixture of toasted coconut and toasted wheat germ.”
Sassy reports, “I added raisins and Craisins to half the batch. Yum yum!”

chocolate chip cookie dough balls on parchment-lined baking sheets

More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

Or browse all the cookie recipes. I especially love the classics like these shortbread cookies, these limoncello macaroons, these ginger cookies, or these special snickerdoodles. Have fun baking!

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Tortelli with Brown Butter

A simple tortelli pasta recipe featuring plump, ricotta-stuffed tortelli tossed with brown butter balsamic sauce, arugula, pecorino cheese, and lemon zest.

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The first time I cooked this simple tortelli pasta was years ago, 2010. We rented an apartment in Rome’s Testaccio neighborhood for a month, and would spend our days exploring the city on foot. One of the charms of Rome is the neighborhood bakeries, pasta shops, and produce markets. I particularly love the pasta shops and this is one of the impromptu lunches I threw together after scoring a dozen beautiful fat-bellied ricotta tortelli. For good reason it has remained a staple in our pasta repertoire.

tortelli pasta in a bowl with brown butter sauce, arugula, and cheese

This pasta couldn’t be simpler. Toss cooked tortelli in butter that has browned in a skillet. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar along with a good amount of lemon zest. Finish with a few handfuls of arugula and generous layer of shaved pecorino! This pasta is so good I included a version in Near & Far.

fresh tortelli pasta in a tinfoil container

A Few Tips

A few things to keep in mind if you want to bump this recipe from “really good” to “absolutely great.”

Use a great tasting balsamic vinegar. It makes a real difference in t a recipe with this few ingredients.
A good quality stuffed pasta is what you’re after here. There’s not much to hide behind, so – the better the pasta, the better the outcome.
When you zest the lemon avoid the bitter white pith.

detail photo of rome neighborhood

Tortelli: Variations

Pasta shape: Tortelli can be tough to find in the U.S. Feel free to substitute ricotta ravioli or tortellini in this recipe. Or shape your own tortelli using sheets of this homemade pasta.
Winter / Fall: Pumpkin filled pastas work beautifully in this recipe as well. The brown butter and winter squash combination is a classic pairing. And in this scenario an introduction of blanched or roasted broccoli or radicchio is nice in place of the arugula – especially in the fall and winter months.

rome

More Pasta Recipes

Favorite Pasta Sauces

Other Favorite Italian Recipes

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Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Classic peanut butter cookies flecked with oatmeal and baked until golden. Double down on the peanut front with hand-chopped peanuts and chunky peanut butter.

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This is a peanut butter butter cookie flecked with oatmeal and baked until golden. A cookie for the peanut butter lovers out there. Anchored squarely in the PBC zone, the oatmeal is an accent. A hearty, chewy bonus ingredient that levels up a classic cookie. Toasted at the edges, soft and fudgy textured in the center, they’re a peanuty dream. Especially dunked in coffee.
peanut butter cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies: Ingredients

A few notes related to the ingredients in these cookies. The ingredients are all quite straight-forward, and you might have them in your pantry currently.

ingredients for making peanut butter cookies arranges on a counter including sugars, butter, chopped peanuts, and baking soda

Peanut Butter: For these cookies, my preference is all-natural peanut butter. I go into more detail down below. That said, if you already have peanut butter on hand, use it! One peanut butter I grab when I see it is this one (not sponsored, just a fan). It’s dark roasted, organic, made simply with roasted peanuts and a bit of salt, with good flavor. Note that it isn’t the “no-stir” variety.
Brown Sugar: You can use whatever brown sugar you have on hand to make these cookies. The cookies you see pictured here were made with light brown sugar, but I often make them with dark brown sugar.
Peanuts: This recipe doubles down on the peanuts, it’s all about the peanut flavor. In addition to the peanut butter, you’ll add about a cup of well-chopped peanuts. Use whatever peanuts you like to snack on.
Oatmeal: Look for old-fashioned rolled oats. Not instant oats.

a peanut butter cookie on a baking sheet made with oatmeal

Can I use Natural Peanut Butter in Peanut Butter Cookies?

Yes, you can absolutely use natural peanut butter in this cookie dough. The cookies you see pictured here were made with natural peanut butter. If you aren’t sure what type of peanut butter you have, check the ingredient list on the back of your jar. I like to see peanuts, and maybe a bit of salt. In contrast, a lot of peanut butter cookie recipes will suggest using more processed peanut butter. The ingredient list for these types of peanut butters will often have added sugars, oils, and/or stabilizers. That said, use what you have. With a more processed p.b. the texture of your cookies might a bit more fudgy, and with the natural peanut butter it’s sometimes a shade more crumbly.

The Key: I’ve found the key to using natural peanut butter is stirring it until it is well blended and completely uniform.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies: The Technique

Simple to make, these cookies are a basic drop cookie.

Mix the wet ingredients: Cream the butter, sugar, and peanut butter in an electric mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla.
Dry ingredients: Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in stages to the wet ingredients. Stir in the peanuts and oats by hand (above).
Shape: Scoop the dough onto a baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes.
Criss-cross: Press the tops of each cookie with the tines of a fork twice, in a grid design (above).
Bake: Put the cookies in the oven, bake and then cool.

a peanut butter cookie on a baking sheet made with oatmeal

More Cookie Recipes

Shortbread Cookies
Chocolate Cookies
Triple Ginger Cookies
Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
Snickerdoodles
David Lebovitz’s Great Chocolate Chip Cookies
all cookie recipes

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Grapefruit Sorbet

This grapefruit sorbet is inspired by the Paloma cocktail. It is blushingly tart and sweet, a straight-shooting sorbet made with fresh grapefruit juice spiked with a bolt of tequila.

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This beautiful grapefruit sorbet is a frosty dream inspired by the paloma cocktail. It’s a straight-shooting sorbet made with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice spiked with a kiss of tequila. The perfect jolt of citrusy sweetness to finish a meal.

sorbet served in a white cup on a marble counter

Grapefruit Sorbet: The Technique

Citrus juice that has been heated tastes different than juice that hasn’t. To keep this sorbet bright and fresh tasting I cook just a portion of the citrus juice with the sugar – and only long enough to let the sugar dissolve. I find this keeps the flavor more clear, direct, and (in my opinion) better!

Sorbet Variations!

You can take this grapefruit sorbet in a number of subtly different directions, and I’ve noted a few of them in the headnotes down below. That said, you should play around and take notes.

Citrus options: The base in the recipe below is made primarily with fresh grapefruit juice, rounded out with some orange juice. Feel free to play around with your citrus varietals. I used a lot of ruby red grapefruits, and navel orange juice plus a couple small blood oranges. That’s how you get that blushing color.
Tequila and salt: Play around here as well. I like to introduce a whisper of smoky flavor into this sorbet. It’s cuts into the inherent sweetness, and you can do it in two ways here – mezcal or smoked salt. If you use a smoky noted mezcal in place of the tequila called for, you’ll get it. Alternately, you can play around with a smoked salt. A subtle smoky backdrop works really well alongside the grapefruit notes, but don’t go overboard. Think of the smoky flavors as seasoning.
Ginger-spiked: Spiking this grapefruit sorbet with a kiss of ginger juice is another idea. It lends a bit of kick and spice, and stays with you for a bit. Grate a little knob of ginger on a Microplane, and then press any fresh juice against a strainer. Add the fresh ginger juice to the other citrus juices.

More Sorbet and Ice Cream Recipes

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Easter Brunch Ideas

A collection of all-star Easter brunch ideas ranging from a favorite breakfast casserole recipe to the best waffle recipe I know. All worth making year-round as well!

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I know many of you are on the hunt for good Easter brunch recipes right now. Here are a few favorites. I’m highlighting them here for Easter, but they’re all a part of my year-round repertoire. For brunch I love family-style dishes like breakfast casseroles and frittatas equally as much as a waffle or omelette bar. I mean, who doesn’t love a DIY toppings situation? You’ll see a mix of all this down below along with favorite drinks and a handful of menu ideas. Have fun planning!

Easter Brunch Ideas

I limited this recipe list to long-time favorites. Real go-to options, the brunch all-stars. Be sure to browse the list of menu ideas down below if you need inspiration on that front!

Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole: A top contender for Easter brunch. Breakfast casseroles are a thing for good reason. You can prep them the day before. They’re great for serving a crowd, and they’re endlessly adaptable. This is my take on the popular Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole. It’s a deep-dish merging of grated cheese, bagels, eggs, plant-based sausage along with the crunch and savoriness of everything bagel seasoning. The bagels that break through the top get beautifully crunchy and kissed with oven-toasted cheese. Give it a try!
Fregola Sarda: It’s a favorite recipe from Near & Far. The perfect lunchy, brunch dish, and it’s made with fregola. Fregola is a beautiful, tasty Sardinian pasta made from hard durum wheat flour – rolled, sun-dried, and toasted to a mix of shades of yellow, gold, and brown. The pasta is rustic and nutty, each grain with a raggy surface adept at catching flavor. So good!

Deep Dish Quiche: The deep dish quiche of your dreams. It’s made with a flaky all-butter crust. The filling is silky smooth and creamy, while still being perfectly sliceable. Switch up the add-ins based on the seasons – roasted cherry tomatoes in summer, winter squash later in the year.

A Tasty Frittata: I love a good frittata as part of a brunch spread. You can pre-bake them a bit ahead of time which opens up the oven for other dishes if needed. This is a tasty, super adaptable frittata recipe made with potatoes, onions, and eggs drizzled with a cilantro chile sauce. Don’t skimp on the sauce!

The Best Waffles: You’re looking at the waffles I make for (literally) every family brunch, and they’re perfect for an Easter brunch gathering. You can set up a toppings bar, and let people make their own, or pre-make them and hold in a warm oven. If you’re a waffle fan, please give these a try. Everyone needs a solid waffle recipe in their back pocket, and I’m quite sure these are the end of the waffle conversation for me. Enjoy!

Red Fruit Salad: Red fruit salad, and arguably so much better than old-school fruit salad! It’s perfect as spring rounds the bend into summer. A simple, seasonal fruit salad made with plump strawberries, sweet cherries, lemon zest, and coriander brown sugar. Five ingredients. So good. If cherries aren’t quite in season where you are, go with 100% strawberries.

Classic Pancakes: If you’re more of a pancake family, this is a classic pancake recipe that delivers a beautiful, classic stack with impossibly tender crumb and golden edges. It has been a favorite go-to since I first posted it in 2006. The pancakes have lightness and lift, and good color. The recipe is also endlessly adaptable based on what you have on hand.

Sheet Pan Frittata: If you like to serve family style, a sheet pan frittata is another great option. You don’t need much to make a great one. This one starts with a dusting of lemon zest (key!) across a sheet pan, and uses a simple egg, cream, salt and pepper base.

Tofu Scramble: This tofu scramble is fast, savory, and flavorful egg-free brunch option. Made with spinach, curry powder, nutritional yeast, garlic, and onions, this is the version we’ve been making for years! Also, super adaptable to whatever vegetables and seasonings you have on hand.

Skinny Omelettes: Setting up an omelette “station” with a range of toppings works great if you have a casual brunch situation. People can make and customize omelettes to their liking with fillings like caramelized onions, pesto, herbs, choice of cheeses, etc. These omelettes are made with eggs cooked crepe-thin and stuffed. A delicious and lighter alternative to heavy, cheese-stuffed omelette recipes – great for lunch and brunch.

Easter Brunch Ideas: Breads & Cakes

Braided Onion Bread: Every Easter brunch spread welcomes a statement piece. This is one of my favorites. Made with a rich, buttery, yeast-based dough, each of the four strands in the braid is stuffed with a caramelized onion and grated cheese mixture. If you’ve never baked a braided loaf before, I’ll admit that stuffing the strands adds a layer of complexity, but the whole process is incredibly forgiving if you commit and keep going. Give it a try!

Glazed Lemon Cake: A sunny, bright addition to any Easter spread. This lemon cake is moist, fragrant and topped with a salted lemon glaze. It is made with lots of lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice. You don’t need a mixer, the olive oil based batter comes together quickly, and you’re not much longer than an hour from having a beautiful cake to share.

Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread: This oatmeal bread wins the award for best toast. It’s a hearty oat-flecked loaf with a buttermilk base studded generously with melty cubes of cheddar cheese and punctuated with thin slices of jalapeño pepper. Where the cheese touches the pan it turns to golden-crispy perfection.

Cinnamon Rolls: If making these cinnamon rolls for Easter brunch, I’m going to make a suggestion. Swap out the cinnamon for citrus. Like, use the zest of a lemon or two in the filling and a tablespoon or so of lemon juice in the icing along with the heavy cream called for as the liquids in the icing.

What To Make with Extra Eggs

If you find yourself with extra cartons of eggs after Easter, here are some ideas.

Deviled Eggs: I love these so much – beautiful and delicious deviled eggs made with an herb-flecked filling and topped with toasted almonds.

Egg Salad: My go-to egg salad, and what I turn to when craving an egg salad sandwich. This post talks you through all the little tweaks and tips that go into making the perfect egg salad sandwich. Served on garlic-rubbed toasted bread with chopped celery, onion, and whole-grain mustard.

Shredded Egg Salad: A fun alternative to classic egg salad (above). This one is made by shredding hard-boiled eggs on a box grater. The resulting shredded egg salad is light, fluffy, and bright. Pictured here on avocado toast with scallions, pickled red onions, a pinch of curry powder and sesame seeds.

Easter Brunch Menu Ideas

Here are a few sample menus to start with. When I say toppings bar, I just mean putting out a range of different topping options. It’s a great way to let everyone make omelettes or waffles exactly the way they like it.

Menu #1

Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole
Strawberry Salad
Ginger Grapefruit Juice

Menu #2

Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread
A Tasty Frittata or Skinny Omelettes with Toppings Bar
Iced Green Tea
Glazed Lemon Cake

Menu #3

Breakfast Bruschetta + Toppings Bar
Herb Cream Cheese Scrambled Eggs
Pineapple Coconut Water

Menu #4

Waffles with Toppings Bar
A Tasty Frittata
Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk

Easter Brunch Drink Ideas

Freshly squeezed juices, or homemade drinks are an easy way to make a brunch menu feel extra special. Here are a few favorites from past brunches.
Pineapple Coconut Water: A beautiful shade of Easter yellow, this beauty is always first to go at any brunch spread. Freshly juiced pineapple is at the heart of this quencher – made with coconut water, lime, and straight ginger juice. It’s invigorating, fragrant, hydrating, and that pure, intense shade of yellow that somehow tips us off to its strength and vitality before ever picking up the glass.

Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk: As good as it sounds. Ripe strawberries plus fresh almond milk were made for each other. And yes, you can use frozen berries!

Iced Green Tea: As good as it sounds. Ripe strawberries plus fresh almond milk were made for each other. And yes, you can use frozen berries!

Ginger-kissed Grapefruit Juice: This grapefruit juice will jolt you to attention. It’s just the thing if you’re looking for something bright, invigorating, spicy, and full volume citrus. Steep grated ginger in a bit of sugared water, and then strain it into a lime & grapefruit juice blend.

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