Vegetable Sides

Spring Panzanella

I was looking for something with more vegetables to add to Easter brunch, and this pretty salad was perfect! I adapted this from a BA recipe. The original called for a buttermilk dressing, but that seemed heavy for such a light salad, so I went with a simple lemon vinaigrette instead. I did actually do this with gluten-free bread, and it was pretty good! I’ll probably make it with regular bread next time, as I’m sure that’s a bit tastier, and just skip, but it was nice either way, and looked pretty on the table. The leftovers tasted fine, but the veggies predictably lost their bright green shades.

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Smothered Green Beans

I can never get enough of green beans cooked this way, and while it’s more common to see them as a BBQ side simmered with bacon or salt pork, this is actually my favorite. An onion, some garlic, and I like a bit of celery too. The flavor comes from apple cider vinegar and smoked paprika. I would love to tell you where I got this recipe, but it’s almost 30 years old, and with so many adds and changes, I honestly have no idea. That said, if you look up smothered green beans, especially Southern-style, you’ll find all kinds of variations on this. I don’t know why I’ve never posted it – but I am making an effort to start to include my older “recipes by rote” so I don’t lose them!

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Deviled Egg Potato Salad

A really popular take on potato salad that we serve at a lot of our cookouts! It’s easy and can be made ahead of time. I’m not a huge fan of potatoes in general, but even I’ll eat this (probably because I love deviled eggs). We had this for a small Fourth of July cookout.

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Green Bean Casserole

I have a few Thanksgiving recipes that I haven’t ever gotten around to adding, and in the chance I lose them, I figured better to post them! As much as I love green beans, I cannot stand, “cream of xyz” soup in recipes. After mashing together a lot of different recipes, this one seems to do the trick, with a really nice, earthy flavor of mushrooms without the soup. With a caramelized onion topping tosses in breadcrumbs, is a nice take on an old favorite!

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Zucchini Chips

Much like our green beans, our squash is out of control this year too, and we were looking for ways to use it up.  I found a few different suggestions out there for zucchini chips, and decided to give one a go – they are AWESOME.  Seriously, if you have a ton of extra squash, this is an awesome use for it.   I found this on a blog call Add a Pinch and I made no changes.  You can definitely play around with it and make all kinds of flavors, though.  I do think without a mandolin slicer, this would be a serious pain, but you could still do it.

zucchinichips

Recipe!

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Dilly Beans

We grew green beans for the first time this year, and holy smokes are they prolific!  They are definitely one to plant again.  But like any heavy producing veggie in the garden, when you end up with a glut of them, it can be hard to use them all up.  I decided to try refrigerator dilly beans.  I got the basics from Cooking Light’s recipe for spicy dill beans, but I toned the spice down.  Last year I overdid it a bit and the pickles were all kind of too hot for us.  They would make a cute summery food gift if you wanted to take the final step and actually can them.

dillybeans

Recipe!

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Peas with Prosciutto

Found somewhere in the depths of Pinterest, this was another very simple and pretty Easter size capitalizing on Spring veggies (okay, I had to use frozen peas =/ But still). The salty prosciutto went well with the ham, of course. Definitely a side I would make again for a crowd, quick and attractive.

peasprosciutto

Recipe!

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Roasted Baby Spring Vegetables

This was a very pretty side dish for Easter.  Roasted veggies are always great, and I really liked the touch of white vinegar.  This is a Cooking Light recipe, and the only alteration I made was to use baby purple potatoes instead of fingerlings, and to lower the cooking temp to 400 to accommodate other dishes I had cooking (it was originally 500, which seems pretty high to me).  We enjoyed this and the leftovers also make a nice lunch.

springveg

Recipe!

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Garlic Herb Spaghetti Squash

This isn’t really a recipe, just a tossed together seasoning for spaghetti squash.  I intended this to be a side to zucchini lasgana, so was thinking garlic-y flavors.  I roasted the squash for about 40 minutes, let it cool, scraped it out, and then tossed it with 2 crushed garlic cloves and some basil and parsley.  Topped it off with salt and pepper and it was pretty good (but very garlicky).

garlicherbsquash

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Garlic Zucchini Spirals

So I pretty much refuse to refer to veggies cut with a spiral-cutter as “noodles,” but that doesn’t make them any less awesome.  This was a great side dish, and if you were so inclined, you could make a main dish out of it as well.  Standby, we may even be trying this in March. 😉  Anyway, this is a prep method we will definitely continue to use.  This was tossed with garlic, red pepper flakes, and a little bit of parm to go with a main dish.

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