I’ve mentioned before that I’m always on the hunt for good side dishes that are different than our usual rice, potatoes or pasta (not that there’s anything wrong with those.) When looking for something to go with a fish dish, I found a couple of recipes using quinoa, a whole grain that we had never previously cooked, eaten or even knew existed.  If you’ve never had it before either, it’s actually pronounced “keen-wa,” not “kin-o-ah,” something I did not discover until I saw the helpful pronunciation on the package and had repeatedly mis-pronounced it.  We combined elements from several recipes and ended up with a pretty interesting side dish (don’t you hate it when people describe food as “interesting”  — what does that mean?  Good?  Terrible?  “Interesting” could describe either one.)

Continue reading “Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa”

Sometimes I think that side dishes are the bane of my existence.  Sometimes, I’m also a little overly dramatic.  But I do find that we get bored with the same old side dishes, and I’m often looking for new and different recipes to accompany our protein main courses.  This side is one of my most successful discoveries yet.  The ingredients are really simple — grilled eggplant and bread, combined with tomatoes and basil — all dressed with a nice balsamic vinaigrette.  The result tastes like something you would maybe have for lunch with a nice glass of vino bianco at a quaint trattoria off the square of a little town in Italy (except it would be better there because everything is Better In Italy.)

Continue reading “Panzanella (Eggplant, Tomato & Bread Salad)”

As self-described foodies, we spend a lot of time looking for interesting recipes and different ways of cooking food. Dan recently came across a photo of “Hasselback Potatoes” and was immediately intrigued.  We’d never seen or heard of this type of potato dish before, but liked how they looked and decided to research some recipes.  We were surprised to discover how easy they are to make, considering how complicated and fancy they appear.   And they taste as good as they look — sort of like gourmet home-fries.

Continue reading “Hasselback Potatoes”

We don’t cook burgers at home all that often (not sure why — maybe because we don’t eat a lot of red meat, so when we do, we prefer to have steak.)   But Spring is definitely in the air around here, which means the daylight lasts a little longer and we’re even more inclined to cook on the grill (not that darkness has ever stopped Dan from grilling.  Or snow, wind, or rain for that matter), and we were in the mood for burgers.   Dan asked me to find an interesting side dish, so I consulted one of our Bobby Flay grilling cookbooks. Whether you’re a fan of Mr. Flay or not (we are), he has created some of the widest varieties of side dishes in any grilling cookbook I’ve seen.  It didn’t take long for me to choose this Grilled Potato Salad as the perfect accompaniment to our cheeseburgers.  It sounds a little strange to have the “salad” (as in greens) part in the same dish as the potatoes, but the dressing really ties it all together and it works very well.

Continue reading “Grilled Potato Salad with Watercress, Green Onions and Blue Cheese Vinaigrette”

If you’ve spent any time here at FoodieLawyer, you know we are big fans of Ina Garten.  The woman is a genius when it comes to food.  She came up with one of our favorite side dishes for homemade Tex-Mex:  guacamole salad.  It’s healthy, fresh and delicious.   A friend of ours who first made this salad for us loves it so much that she would sometimes make a batch to eat for lunch all week.  It’s that good! Continue reading “Guacamole Salad”

 If you’re familiar with Tex-Mex cooking at all, you know that pico de gallo is a staple of this type of cuisine.  Even though we don’t cook Tex-Mex all that often at home, we certainly eat a lot of it at local restaurants.  We never really considered making homemade pico, until we found the recipe for “Disappearing” Pork Tenderloin, which includes pico de gallo as a topping for the pork.  One of the great things about pico is how versatile it is — you can use it with many different dishes (not all of which are traditionally Tex-Mex), from pork tenderloin, to tacos, to fish.  Delicioso!  Continue reading “Pico de Gallo”