Appetizers & Sides – FoodWatcher

Sourdough Semolina Parchment Crackers

These ultra thin and delicately crispy parchment crackers are made with semolina flour and sourdough starter for a yeasty, buttery flavor that’s perfect for your next charcuterie board. Homemade crackers are worth the effort, especially in the case of these parchment crackers that are almost supernaturally thin and crispy, made with the help of a […]

The post Sourdough Semolina Parchment Crackers first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

These ultra thin and delicately crispy parchment crackers are made with semolina flour and sourdough starter for a yeasty, buttery flavor that’s perfect for your next charcuterie board.

Homemade crackers are worth the effort, especially in the case of these parchment crackers that are almost supernaturally thin and crispy, made with the help of a pasta roller and a pizza stone.

Side view stack showing just how thin and crispy these semolina sourdough crackers are, stack sitting on a distressed wooden bread board.

Homemade crackers bring me great joy, from cheese to more cheese to everything seasoning.

But out of all the crackers I’ve ever made, these might just be my favorite (and if you know me, you know I don’t throw around terms like best or favorite lightly).

Imagine, if you will, the thinnest, crispiest cracker you’ve ever eaten, so thin it almost melts in your mouth. Lightly seasoned with little more than sea salt, the toasty, slightly yeasty flavor of the cracker serves as a perfect foundation for infinite topping possibilities (a smear of soft, ripe cheese and a dollop of pepper jelly is my personal favorite).

(more…)

Kale & Farro Salad with Sourdough Breadcrumbs

This hearty kale salad is anything but boring: tossed with tangy lemon and flavorful pecorino cheese and topped with nutty farro, crunchy sourdough breadcrumbs, and tart dried barberries. The addition of nutritious farro makes this salad suitable as a meal unto itself, perfect for lunch or a light dinner, though it’s also lovely served as […]

The post Kale & Farro Salad with Sourdough Breadcrumbs first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

This hearty kale salad is anything but boring: tossed with tangy lemon and flavorful pecorino cheese and topped with nutty farro, crunchy sourdough breadcrumbs, and tart dried barberries.

The addition of nutritious farro makes this salad suitable as a meal unto itself, perfect for lunch or a light dinner, though it’s also lovely served as a side salad alongside some grilled chicken or seared steak.

As our friend Richard used to say… it’s delicious AND nutritious!

Two dark gray bowls of Kale & Farro Salad with Sourdough Breadcrumbs on a dark gray background, loaf of sourdough bread in the background.

The base of this kale salad recipe comes from the Six Seasons cookbook, and it’s one we’ve made many, many times (it’s one of the few kale salad recipes I actually like).

While the original recipe is near perfect, we wanted to make it a bit more substantial and filling as a meal in and of itself, hence the addition of farro. We also used homemade sourdough for the breadcrumbs, added barberries, and tweaked the process a little bit (adding the cheese separately versus mixing it all together makes for more even distribution and less clumps). Also, twice as much cheese and garlic (as you do).

This recipe works with any kind of kale; the original calls for lacinato (the darker, dino-skin looking stuff); we used curly kale here since I love the texture and lift: it doesn’t collapse under the weight of the farro.

(more…)

Roasted Carrots with Basil & Carrot Top Pesto

Roasting carrots brings out their natural sweetness; when topped with a tangy pesto made with the parsley-like carrot tops (just say no to food waste!) it makes for a perfect seasonal side dish. The feathery carrot greens are blended with sweet basil, pine nuts, olive oil and vinegar to make a tangy green sauce that’s […]

The post Roasted Carrots with Basil & Carrot Top Pesto first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

Roasting carrots brings out their natural sweetness; when topped with a tangy pesto made with the parsley-like carrot tops (just say no to food waste!) it makes for a perfect seasonal side dish.

The feathery carrot greens are blended with sweet basil, pine nuts, olive oil and vinegar to make a tangy green sauce that’s a perfect compliment to the natural flavor and sweetness of the carrots.

Blue and white ceramic platter with pile of Roasted Carrots, drizzled with Basil and Carrot Top Pesto on a blue background.

We’ve been getting big beautiful bundles of carrots in our CSA lately, vibrantly orange and sweet, with plumes of feathery greens still attached that I hate to just throw away (yes, they’re edible just like beet greens or turnip greens). Add in bunches of fragrant sweet basil that came with our most recent share, and this recipe basically developed itself.

If you haven’t had them before, carrot greens have an earthy, parsley-like flavor that can be used in myriad different ways, including this unique and flavorful pesto-like green sauce. It’s somewhat similar to the carrot top pesto I served with this creamy carrot soup; the flavors of the sweet carrot and grassy pesto are perfect compliments to each other. You know what they say, if they grow together, they go together (actually, I don’t know anyone who says that, but in this case it totally fits).

(more…)

Panko Sesame Chicken Tenders

Crispy pan-fried chicken tenders coated with crunchy panko breadcrumbs and sesame seeds; they’re perfect dipped in a tangy sriracha mayo or sliced and served atop a crisp romaine salad. This easy dinner recipe is a sure crowd pleaser for adults and kids alike: with a coating of panko breadcrumbs and both black and white sesame […]

The post Panko Sesame Chicken Tenders first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

Crispy pan-fried chicken tenders coated with crunchy panko breadcrumbs and sesame seeds; they’re perfect dipped in a tangy sriracha mayo or sliced and served atop a crisp romaine salad.

This easy dinner recipe is a sure crowd pleaser for adults and kids alike: with a coating of panko breadcrumbs and both black and white sesame seeds that is then pan-fried to crispy perfection.

Panko Sesame Chicken Tenders in a bowl with lettuce and dipping sauce, bowls of salad topped with cut up tenders in the background

What’s for dinner?

Are you sick of that question yet?

Sometimes it feels like life is an endless cycle of figuring out what to cook for dinner, actually cooking it, cleaning up, then starting all over again.

Not to mention when you think a recipe is going to be easy and it turns into a 3-hour ordeal that’s mediocre at best (honestly if I’m going to cook for 3 hours straight the results better be phenomenal).

This isn’t one of those recipes, I promise. It really is quick. I clocked it at 45 minutes even though it’s probably less than that, but if there’s anything I hate it’s recipes that exclude the prep and cleanup in their staunch claims of “30 minutes or less!”

So, there you have one day’s dinner solved. It’s a start, right?

Plate with scattered Panko Sesame Chicken Tenders

This recipe is based on our sesame-crusted tofu recipe, which is one of our personal favorites (not to mention our all-time favorite way to prepare tofu). For those who cry ‘ew texture’ when it comes to tofu, giving it a miraculously crispy coating is a surefire way to make it enjoyable for everyone.

We love that tofu recipe so much, I wanted to see if the same idea could be applied to chicken too (spoiler alert: it can).

(more…)

Savory Cheddar Cheese Waffles

These savory cheddar cheese waffles are much more versatile than their sweet counterparts, no matter whether you enjoy them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We personally love them paired with fried chicken or dipped in ranch dressing (or both at once, if we’re being honest), but truly, the possibilities are endless. The perfect waffle is […]

The post Savory Cheddar Cheese Waffles first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

The perfect waffle is light and airy in texture with delightfully crisp edges, and these savory waffles are most certainly that. In fact, addition of cheese in this recipe takes that crispness to a whole other level. (You know that ruffly layer of crispy cheese you get when your grilled cheese overflows? That same magic is in effect here.)

Stack of three thick Belgian Savory Cheddar Cheese Waffles on a white plate, turquoise background and gold forks

I recently had a hankering for waffles, but was (as usual) undecided as to just what kind I should make. My initial thoughts were to try a sourdough waffle using my somewhat neglected starter, but I couldn’t decide between Belgian or Liege waffles (the kind that use pearl sugar inside for a really unique texture). I even toyed with trying out an olive oil waffle that uses oil in place of melted butter.

Flummoxed, I posed the question to my facebook group, whose opinions I value greatly (seriously, awesome folks over there, you should join us!) I ended up adding a few other waffle options off the top of my head, including both Belgian and Liege, olive oil, as well as a savory cheese waffle (because why not?)

Well, the cheese waffle blew the other options out of the water. Which really surprised me, but hey, I’m all for giving the people what they want.

So we ate waffles for dinner for three nights in a row, perfecting this recipe. And perfect it most definitely is.

(more…)

Cucumber & Feta Salad with Herb Vinaigrette

This simple and summery cucumber salad features a bold herb vinaigrette, briny feta cheese, spicy red onions, and pretty edible flowers to top it all off. In case you’re sick of pickles but your garden keeps churning out the cukes like there’s no tomorrow… this quick and easy lettuce-less salad is a great way to […]

The post Cucumber & Feta Salad with Herb Vinaigrette first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

This simple and summery cucumber salad features a bold herb vinaigrette, briny feta cheese, spicy red onions, and pretty edible flowers to top it all off.

In case you’re sick of pickles but your garden keeps churning out the cukes like there’s no tomorrow… this quick and easy lettuce-less salad is a great way to use up at least a few of them.

Cucumber salad garnished with edible flowers, in bowl with purple linen and red onions in background.

I may or may not have harbored a slight fixation with edible flowers this past spring, which lead me to fill my patio container garden with edible blooms in addition to my typical herbs. I meandered up and down the aisles of the nursery, phone in hand, googling various flora and fauna to see if they were in fact edible. While they didn’t have the chamomile flowers I was so hoping to find, I did end up with marigolds, borage (which I’ve grown and used before), and these gorgeous purple and white dianthus.

Needless to say, I was looking for an excuse to use some of my home-grown flowers in a recipe before the blooms withered in the summer heat, and this recipe is the result. Does it matter where the inspiration came from if the outcome is this delicious? I say not.

While I love that the purple and white of the dianthus matches the colors of the salad, I think marigold petals, with their peppery bite, would work equally well in this dish, as would arugula or radish flowers, or even herb flowers like chives or oregano (while I typically try to keep my herbs from flowering, when they do bolt I always try to put the flowers to good use).

Overhead, bowl with wooden spoon and cucumber feta salad with edible flower garnish

Regardless of its origins, this recipe is perfect in its simplicity. While the recipe itself isn’t all that different from our always-popular tomato cucumber salad, we made the dressing a little bit different by adding an assortment of fresh herbs in addition to the olive oil and red wine vinegar.

(more…)

Roasted Potatoes with Arugula Chimichurri

Golden brown roasted potatoes are tossed with a bright and peppery arugula chimichurri sauce for a fabulously flavorful side dish. No more boring baked potatoes: these little gems are roasted until golden brown and bathed in a tangy, arugula based green sauce that’s very similar to traditional Argentinian chimichurri sauce (just with arugula instead of […]

The post Roasted Potatoes with Arugula Chimichurri first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

Golden brown roasted potatoes are tossed with a bright and peppery arugula chimichurri sauce for a fabulously flavorful side dish.

No more boring baked potatoes: these little gems are roasted until golden brown and bathed in a tangy, arugula based green sauce that’s very similar to traditional Argentinian chimichurri sauce (just with arugula instead of the typical cilantro or parsley).

Shallow bowl filled with roasted potatoes tossed with arugula chimichurri, small baby arugula leaves scattered on top

It seems like every culture around the world has their own green sauce. From Italy’s pesto to North Africa’s chermoula to Argentina’s chimichurri, they all feature a base of primarily green herbs, mixed/chopped/blended into a loose sauce of sorts, usually with ample fresh garlic and a bit of acid, salt and sometimes heat. But the similarities end there: classic Genovese pesto includes pine nuts and cheese, chermoula brings in fragrant spices such as cumin, cayenne, and paprika in addition to tangy lemon juice. Chimichurri is typically cilantro or parsley-based, and notable in its use of red wine vinegar instead of citrus juice.

All these green sauces are ever so versatile, used on everything from meats and marinades to pastas and potatoes, the specific herbs used in each easily swappable for whatever seasonal greenery you have on hand.

In this case, we used a bag of gorgeous locally grown baby arugula from Caney Fork Farms (our CSA). Arugula, while not technically an herb, behaves like one in this recipe, lending a spicy, peppery green flavor to this distinctive green sauce that is most similar to Argentinian chimichurri.

While I’ve made arugula pesto plenty of times before before (I like using pistachios instead of pine nuts and a bit of parmesan and serving it on pasta or pizza), but pesto didn’t seem like the right moniker for this particular concoction, what with its notable lack of cheese and nuts. I ultimately decided it was the most similar to chimichurri with the addition of garlic, pepper flakes and red wine vinegar.

(more…)

Loaded Smoked Chicken Nachos

When the nacho craving hits, nothing satisfies quite like a mountain of hot and melty nachos. Our version is topped with savory smoked chicken and a creamy cheese sauce so flavorful you’ll be tempted to eat it by the spoonful. Way beyond your basic ballpark nachos, these loaded smoked chicken nachos are topped with all […]

The post Loaded Smoked Chicken Nachos first appeared on Love and Olive Oil.

Way beyond your basic ballpark nachos, these loaded smoked chicken nachos are topped with all the good stuff including pickled jalapeños and pickled red onions (pickles are the secret to next-level nachos), plus olives, fresh radishes and micro cilantro.

Overhead, sheet pan of Loaded Smoked Chicken Nachos with radishes, micro cilantro on a turquoise background

Ready for a little nacho history?

What we think of as nachos here in the US, a heaping mound of crispy tortilla chips drenched in globs of plasticky orange cheese sauce, looks nothing like the original nacho which originated in Northern Mexico in the 1940s. Invented by Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya as a simple and satisfying snack, the original nacho featured simple triangles of fried corn tortillas topped with melted shredded cheese and pickled jalapeño.

Heck, if I created such a brilliant snack I’d name it after myself too.

The “Nacho Special” eventually made it across the border to Texas in the 1970s, where it started to evolve into the ballpark snack we know today.

Closeup, Loaded Smoked Chicken Nachos topped with sour cream, cilantro, radishes and pickled onions

This recipe takes that original idea of chip, cheese, and pickled jalapeño (a perfect combination if there ever was one) and loads it up with even more goodness, including smokey shredded chicken, pickled red onions, black olives, sour cream and cilantro.

I mean, I’d argue that these nachos are less snack and more meal (and indeed, we thoroughly enjoyed a pan of them between the two of us for dinner).

The inspiration for this particular iteration of nachos comes from a Nashville bar called Bastion. Let me just say, their nachos are phenomenal, and I’ve driven across town more than once just to fulfill a craving.

(more…)

Crispy Roasted Potatoes with Black Garlic Aioli

Crispy, golden brown roasted potatoes served with a uniquely flavorful and oh-so-versatile black garlic aioli that’ll make your tastebuds sing with delight. Up your side dish game with these crispy roasted potatoes, served with a black garlic aioli (it’s savory, I promise I’m not dipping potatoes in chocolate pudding here, despite appearances). This post is […]

Crispy, golden brown roasted potatoes served with a uniquely flavorful and oh-so-versatile black garlic aioli that’ll make your tastebuds sing with delight.

Up your side dish game with these crispy roasted potatoes, served with a black garlic aioli (it’s savory, I promise I’m not dipping potatoes in chocolate pudding here, despite appearances).

Shallow bowl filled with golden brown crispy potatoes, with a dish of black garlic aioli and sliced green onions

This dish is little bit inspired by Spain’s famous Papas Bravas, which is a dish of crispy fried potatoes served with a garlicky aioli (the traditional Catalan version is literally just garlic and oil worked together by hand until creamy, though many modern versions include egg to help with the emulsification).

We’ve taken some liberties with our recipe, obviously, both by baking our potatoes until golden and crisp and serving them with a simple and delicious shortcut aioli made with Duke’s Mayonnaise and both fresh and aged black garlic for a unique and flavorful combination.

Fork dipping a crispy piece of potato into a dish of black garlic aioli

Making aioli from scratch can be tricky if you don’t have the right equipment, or the patience. Instead, we’ve opted for a shortcut aioli, using our favorite Duke’s Mayonnaise as the creamy, tangy base, and mixing in both fresh and black garlic—the fresh gives the aioli a perfect bite, while the rich umami notes of the black garlic provide incredible depth of flavor while mellowing out the sharper spice of the fresh garlic.

The result is a delicious and unique side dish that comes together in a jiffy, and perfectly compliments these crispy roasted potatoes (though its versatility certainly doesn’t end there).

(more…)

Goat Cheese & Heirloom Tomato Tart

It’s summer in a tart shell: with creamy basil goat cheese and juicy vine-ripe heirloom tomatoes nestled in a savory parmesan shortcrust. Peak tomato season is officially here! Make the most of it with this gorgeous (and delicious) goat cheese and tomato tart, with fresh heirloom tomatoes rather than roasted to really showcase their bright […]

It’s summer in a tart shell: with creamy basil goat cheese and juicy vine-ripe heirloom tomatoes nestled in a savory parmesan shortcrust.

Peak tomato season is officially here! Make the most of it with this gorgeous (and delicious) goat cheese and tomato tart, with fresh heirloom tomatoes rather than roasted to really showcase their bright flavor and gorgeous colors.

Heirloom tomato and goat cheese tart on a gray background surrounded by heirloom tomatoes

This is the first week we’ve gotten tomatoes with our CSA, and this tart was the first thing on my list to make (along with some caprese, of course, and luckily we have more than enough tomatoes for both).

We first made this tart last summer after a particularly successful farmers market haul left us with a stunning assortment of heirloom tomatoes.

We had planned to make two meals out of it, considering the recipe yields a full 9-inch tart. But the two of us devoured the entire thing in a single sitting. That’s how good it is.

Goat Cheese & Heirloom Tomato Tart on a marble plate surrounded by more tomatoes

What differentiates this tart from the countless other tomato tart recipes out there is this one is unbaked, leaving the tomatoes fresh and juicy and brightly flavored. Sure, baked tomatoes have their place, but when your vine-ripe summer tomatoes are this good, it’s a shame to subject them to heat.

The crust is also simply spectacular, adding grated parmesan to a standard shortcrust for an extra savory twist. Not to mention it’s dead simple, you don’t even have to roll it out (just dump the crumb mixture into your tart pan and press it into the bottom and up the sides).

(more…)