Vegetarian Recipes

PASTA WITH ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, CHORIZO + WINTER PESTO

She told me about what she thinks about her body; that people at her table are talking about getting married. She listens to my feedback about her effort at soccer practice and asks me to speak in a more calm voice (I wasn’t yelling for the record, but I do get passionate when I want to make a point. That point being: please act like you want to be there). He wants me to listen to the fart joke in his audio book or the techno song that he likes, even though it “feels stressful” (it does). He tears up over feeling like everyone at school just argues over football rules everyday and remarks he wants to live with us forever. I get so much from them at bed time, like everyone is ready to unload, and maybe this is a season, and one I’ll miss if it is, but when did they become people? Messy ones who still need to be reminded to put their clothes away 385798410 times, but these complicated feelings over friendship and motivation and little and big questions are pretty remarkable. I am planning some travel for a few book events, and it struck me how much I really love the ages of our kids. It’s so much easier now – they’re more flexible to take along, their thoughts are interesting and funny. I’d want to be both of their friends if I got to go back to elementary school. Curran is turning 10, I’m turning 40, a book that feels like it took forever to make it finally coming out this Spring and in a good way, it feels more like New Years than January did. At a glance, zooming out, asking questions and reorienting perspective. Here we are, and isn’t that just amazing.

All those memes about how people hate that bloggers write musings instead of just post recipes. It’s not always for you, dearest recipe searcher, sometimes the writing is just as much the connection as the food is, so you’re going to have to bear with me. Many people I know who connect through making people food, are also writers and thinkers and communicators, so it’s a package deal, folks. It’s pillow talk and pasta over here.

Speaking of the cookbook! Most every recipe in there has a photo except for, maybe 4? There are factors that contribute like page count and price etc. so a few final shots just didn’t make it in. Unfortunately, no photo usually means less intrigue and the recipe can get overlooked, so I’m going to highlight one of my favorites here. I love pasta with lots of bits in it and this one is heavy on the bits. My kids will eat this, picking around the extra kale and Cleo won’t actually like it, but they eat it. Either way, I do think you should put this one on your list soon.

I also wanted to post a few dates for some cookbook events coming up around the time of publishing. If you live in any of these areas, I would really love to meet you! If more get added, I will include them here as a landing page.

April 30th – Kitchen Lingo in Long Beach, CA 6pm
May 3rd – Vivienne’s in Portland, OR 5pm
May 5th – IG with Aran Goyoaga of Cannelle et Vanille
May 6th – Book Larder in Seattle with Ashley Rodriguez, WA 6:30 pm
May 9th – HOM in Dana Point, CA 6pm
May 15th – Preorder Incentive Class at 12pm PST with Laura of The First Mess
(sign up!)

June 22st – Olivia and Daisy in Carmel, CA 1pm

PASTA with ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, CHORIZO + WINTER PESTO

Serves 4

A dish that has excellent ROI with your cooking time, it is filling and textured and has lots of vegetables. You may end up with more kale pesto than you need for this recipe, but it has lots of other uses, such as with eggs, atop roast potatoes, or as a veggie sandwich spread. We don’t want the fresh sausage-like chorizo in tube form; instead, look for a dry chorizo, typically from Spain, not Mexico, that you will find in a well stocked cheese and deli section. It looks like salami.
I do think sucessful dinner prep takes a bit of planning. The pesto can be made a few days in advance to save time. Vegetarian? Replace the chorizo with some chopped, sun dried tomatoes.

Printed from Around Our Table by Sara Forte

FOR THE WINTER PESTO
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup cilantro or parsley
1 packed cup lacinato kale, deribbed and chopped
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

FOR THE CAULIFLOWER
1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

2 oz. dried chorizo, cut in 1” ribbons
1 small bundle lacinato kale, deribbed and cut in ribbons

12 oz. any short pasta
half of one lemon

grated parmesan, red pepper flakes, fresh parsley, for garnish

Make the kale pesto. In a food processor, pulse the garlic, pine nuts and lemon juice together. Add the cilantro and/or parsley, chopped kale, salt and pepper, and run it again until well chopped. With the motor going, drizzle in the olive oil and parmesan cheese. Set aside.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Preheat the oven to 425’. On a rimmed baking sheet, pile the cauliflower, and drizzle it with the olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Toss well to coat and roast for 30 minutes until the edges are toasty. To the baking sheet, add the chorizo and kale ribbons, toss everything to coat. If the sheet looks dry, add another drizzle of oil. Roast an additional 3 minutes to warm. Set aside.

Cook your pasta according to instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot with a few heaping spoonfuls of the pesto and a giant splash of the pasta water. Stir to mix, we want it generously sauced. Add the contents of the baking sheet, squeeze of fresh lemon and stir again. Add more pesto if you’d like or more pasta water to loosen things up.

Serve portions with a generous sprinkling of parmesan, red pepper flakes, a grind of pepper and some fresh parsley.

Vegetarian Recipes

Homemade Kimchi

Once upon a time, I auditioned for one of those reality food shows, and my kimchi spring rolls got me to the next level of auditions (If you haven’t tried them yet, I posted a budget-friendly version here on the blog!) Why would a recipe like that get me flown to Los Angeles, you ask? Well, the judge asked me how I made my kimchi, and apparently, I aced his test; it’s not simply pickled; it’s fermented! I’ve always loved fermented foods, and this Homemade Kimchi is easy, vegan, budget-friendly perfection—the longer it sits, the better it gets! However, the process is super important, so let’s dive in!

Easy Recipe for Homemade Kimchi

Kimchi is a spicy, tangy, and veggie-packed Korean side dish made by fermenting fresh vegetables (think of it like pickles with a probiotic boost!). Instead of vinegar, the magic happens through lacto-fermentation, where good bacteria (the kind that’s great for your gut) naturally preserve the veggies and build the signature sour-savory flavor. I love serving it on rice bowls, tucked into wraps, or eaten straight from the jar as a quick snack. 😋

When I was in my 20s, I took a holistic nutrition course with a Naturopath Doctor in Indonesia. On my sojourn, I had a very long layover in South Korea, where I swear I ate 100 different kinds of kimchi. It helped me pinpoint the veggies I love most in my homemade recipe, but you can use just about any hardy vegetable you have on hand; I like to do a seasonal version as well, using raw pumpkin or butternut squash in the fall. Veggies like cucumbers and zucchini can be used, but because of their super high water content, they turn too mushy for my liking. Cabbage truly helps the texture no matter what else you add, so be sure to pick out a nice fresh head of cabbage!

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Homemade Kimchi Recipe

This easy Homemade Kimchi recipe is made with fresh veggies and simple ingredients. Tangy, fermented, and budget-friendly—no special tools required!

Step-by-step photos can be seen below the recipe card.

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Korean

Total Cost $6.41 recipe /$0.17 serving

Prep Time 30

Fermentation 2

Servings oz (3 x 12 oz jars, 1 oz per serving)

Calories 11kcal

Author Jess Rice

Equipment

3 12 oz Canning Jars
Food Processor
Large Mixing Bowl

Ingredients

1 Tbsp agave $0.14*
1 jalapeno seeded, $0.41
1 red bell pepper seeded and divided, $1.48
½ red onion divided, $0.54
2 inch piece fresh ginger peeled, $0.24
2 large cloves garlic $0.06
½ green cabbage mine was about 1 ¾ lbs, $1.66
¼ red cabbage mine was about ¾ lb, $0.86
4 green onions $0.48
2 ribs celery $0.30
2 carrots $0.16
1 Tbsp sea salt $0.08

Instructions

Begin by sanitizing your workspace and running three 12 oz canning jars through your dishwasher on high heat to sanitize them. Alternatively, you can also sanitize your jars by submerging them in boiling water and then allowing them to air dry.
Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine agave syrup, 1 jalapeno (seeded), ½ red bell pepper (seeded), ¼ red onion, peeled ginger, and garlic cloves.
Pulse vegetables and agave in a food processor until all vegetables have been broken down into a paste-like consistency, with any visible vegetables all being the same size, minced. Set aside.
Prep all the vegetables: roughly chop or slice both cabbages, roughly chop the green onion (discarding only the very tip of the root), dice celery, julienne carrots, remaining ½ red bell pepper, and remaining ¼ red onion. This step is a great time to practice your knife skills or skip laboring over cutting everything and just chop it up coarsely. Kimchi is very forgiving, and it’s fun to have a lot of different shapes that will contribute to the texture once it is fermented later.
In a large mixing bowl, combine all prepared veggies and salt. With clean hands, massage the salt into the prepared vegetables until they are all very soft. (It’s arm day, y’all! Use those muscles, and don’t stop!)
After at least 10 minutes of massaging the vegetables and salt, add the prepared, processed vegetable and agave mixture. Continue to massage the vegetables and the spicy-sweet processed mixture together for another 5-10 minutes, or until a significant amount of water is released from the veggies, and you can see it pooling at the bottom of our bowl.
With clean hands, spoon your mixture into jars and push it down firmly with the spoon once full. You should see a significant amount of liquid brine rising to the top, covering your vegetables whenever you push it down with the spoon (or clean fingers!) Don’t waste the brine; top off the jars as much as you can to cover the veggies.
Place lids on jars loosely and wipe down the jars. Transfer the jars to a dark place in your kitchen for 24 hours. I like to place my jars in a spare Tupperware container and keep them under the sink, so they are contained and in a warm(ish) place to help with the early fermentation process.
After 24 hours, carefully “burp” each jar by simply removing the lid to allow some of the naturally occurring gasses to escape. If your kitchen is particularly warm, you may want to burp your kimchi after just 12 hours to avoid a small (potent!) explosion. 🙂
After the initial 24-hour fermentation period, burp your kimchi every 8-12 hours until you see consistent, active bubbles every time you open the lid. Once you see a lot of bubbling on a regular basis, you can screw the lid on tight and transfer the jars to your refrigerator. It’s done!

See how we calculate recipe costs here.

Notes

*I like to add a little agave to balance the flavors of my homemade vegan kimchi, but I also find it helps speed up the fermentation process and helps create more brine. The touch of agave helps the enzymes from the healthy bacteria really get going! Personally, I wouldn’t skip it. But it is a very small amount of sweetener when considering the high yield on this recipe, so you could omit the agave altogether if you don’t have any on hand.

The total amount of time for fermentation to take place can depend on various factors, such as the temperature of your kitchen. Keep burping the jar every 8-12 hours after the initial 24-hour (or 12-hour) fermentation period until you see consistent bubbles.

Nutrition

how to make Homemade Kimchi step-by-step photos

The ingredients to make homemade kimchi.

Gather all of your ingredients. Before starting, completely sanitize your workspace and run three 12 oz canning jars through your dishwasher on high heat to sanitize them. Or, you can alternatively sanitize your jars by submerging them in boiling water and then allowing them to air dry. I’ve also shared more on this below the step-by-step photos for reference.

Jalapeno, red bell pepper, red onion, ginger, and garlic in a food processor.

Prep the veggies: While you wait for your jars to sanitize, you can get started on the vegetables. Add 1 Tbsp agave syrup, 1 jalapeno (seeded), ½ red bell pepper (seeded), ¼ red onion, 2 inch peeled fresh ginger, and 2 large garlic cloves to a food processor.

Processed vegetables in a food processor.

Pulse them in the food processor until all the veggies break down into a paste-like consistency. Any visible veggies should roughly be all the same size, minced. Set this mixture to one side for now.

Sliced green cabbage, sliced red cabbage, sliced green onions, chopped carrots, red bell pepper and red onion on a wooden cutting board.

Now roughly chop or slice ½ green cabbage and ¼ red cabbage, roughly chop 4 green onions (discarding only the very tip of the root), dice 2 ribs celery, julienne (thinly slice) 2 carrots, remaining ½ red bell pepper, and remaining ¼ red onion. You can also chop up everything coarsely if desired (this recipe is very forgiving!)

Prepped kimchi veggies in a mixing bowl.

Massage the vegetables: Add the prepped vegetables to a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp salt. With clean hands, massage the salt into the vegetables until they are all very soft (about 10 minutes).

Processed vegetables and prepped vegetables in a mixing bowl.

After at least 10 minutes of massaging, add the processed vegetables and agave mixture from your food processor to the bowl.

A hand massaging salt into prepped vegetables in a bowl.

Massage the vegetables with the spicy-sweet processed mixture for a further 5-10 minutes or until a significant amount of water has been released from the veggies.

You should see it pooling at the bottom of your bowl, as shown in the photo above.

Prepped and massaged kimchi vegetables in a mixing bowl, with a spoon portioning some into a glass mason jar.

Add to jars: Again, with clean hands, use a spoon to add your veggie mix to the sterilized jars.

Extra vegetable brine being added to a jar of homemade kimchi.

Push the mixture down firmly with your spoon once full (a significant amount of liquid brine should rise to the top, covering the homemade kimchi as you push down).

Don’t waste any of the brine from the bottom of the mixing bowl! Try to top off each jar with as much as you can. You ideally want all the veggies to be submerged in the brine for fermentation.

Lids added to three jars of homemade kimchi.

Ferment: Place the lids on the jars loosely and wipe down the sides of the jars. Now, place the jars in a dark place in your kitchen for 24 hours. (I like to place my jars in a spare Tupperware container and keep them under the sink so they are contained and in a warm(ish) place to help with the early fermentation process.)

Once it’s been 24 hours, carefully ”burp” each jar by removing the lid. This allows some of the naturally occurring gases from the fermentation process to escape the jars. If your kitchen is quite warm, you may want to ”burp” your jars after 12 hours, not 24, to release the gases and avoid any small explosions!

After the initial 24-hour fermentation period, you want to burp your jars every 8-12 hours until you see consistent and active bubbles whenever you open the lid. As soon as you see lots of bubbling on a regular basis, screw the lid on tight and transfer the jars into your refrigerator. Now it’s ready to be eaten!

Overhead view of homemade kimchi on a bed of white rice.

What is lacto-fermentation?

I mentioned lacto-fermentation earlier, but I just wanted to touch on what that actually means. It’s a natural preservation process where good bacteria (lactobacillus) feed on the sugars in the veggies and produce lactic acid. That acid gives kimchi its tangy flavor and helps keep it safe to eat. This is the same process used when making sauerkraut and dill pickles. But before that can happen, we need to salt the veggies.

Salting helps draw out moisture, slows the growth of harmful bacteria, and creates a brine that sets the stage for fermentation. So, yes, all that massaging the veggies isn’t just a good workout—it’s vital for the lacto-fermentation process!

CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN! Whether you’re experimenting with this recipe, sauerkraut, pickling, brewing beer, or making kombucha, you want to make sure you’re always working with clean materials when it comes to fermentation. We are trying to promote healthy bacteria, not the bad kind!
Sanitize your jars. Following on from the previous point, you must sanitize your jars before starting this recipe. Run them through the dishwasher on high heat, submerge them in boiling water and let them air dry, or give them a bath in a food-grade hydrogen peroxide and water mix (follow the label for the correct ratio and instructions).
Keep it submerged. You can use the rough ends of your cabbage and red onion or the butts of carrots to help keep the prepared vegetables submerged in the brine during the fermentation process. Just put the lid on top after you add the rough vegetable ends. Before you get to the refrigerator step, discard those pieces of veggies that didn’t go beneath the brine. If you skip this tip, you can scrape off the top of the kimchi if it doesn’t sit underneath the brine. (Sometimes this happens if you are short on brine.) Everything underneath will be fermented just right and safe to eat!
Don’t tighten the lid during fermentation. Make sure to leave the lid loose while your vegetables ferment. Tightening the lid too early can lead to pressure buildup (and possibly a kimchi explosion…not fun!)
Use a sea salt with no additives. Stick to plain sea salt with no additives. Additives can interfere with fermentation, and I want you to give those good bacteria the best chance to thrive!

Serving Suggestions

I love piling this recipe for kimchi on scrambled eggs…it adds just the right kick to a simple breakfast. For lunch or dinner, I’d toss it into fried rice or add it to an easy rice bowl (our Bibimbap recipe is perfect for this!). And, of course, I couldn’t make my kimchi spring rolls without it. Or, if you want a comfort food twist, it’s amazing in quesadillas with some melty cheese. You can also spoon it over grain bowls, stuff it into wraps and sandwiches, or add it to any salad for an extra punch of flavor.

How to Store

This recipe can last for several months in an airtight jar in the fridge. Be sure to use clean fingers or utensils whenever you grab some, as introducing new bacteria can shorten its life span or throw off the flavor. Also, make sure the top layer is always submerged under the brine to keep everything fresh and safe. If anything starts to look or smell off, it’s best to toss it and start a new batch.