Oddly enough the fall is more about salads for me than any other season. Our social schedule seems to pick up a bit, life isn’t the laid back days of summer anymore, and the holidays are right around the corner. So when it comes to easy, quick, healthy meals I can throw together on a weeknight or before we run to an event on the weekends – salads is our choice.
It’s the peak of summer harvest here in the Pacific Northwest. Gardens are over-flowing with the bounty. Local farmers markets are saturated with the vivacious tastes, smells, and colors of the season. Co-workers bring in boxes full of produce, letting the bright colors seep into the office, laying out the summer bounty in the break room, making the donuts seem sad and desperate. Neighbors drop off baskets overflowing with greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and purples so deep and rich you can hardly believe it.
Your mind starts to race as you think of all the recipes to be explored. Your heart quickens as you dream of the canning to be done; to capture the tastes to be savored on a cold winter day as you open summer captured in a jar. You start to salivate as you think of sitting down to a meal, oh the cooking to be done! But instead of turning on the stove and tying the apron strings on, you slice a tomato and sprinkle it with salt, taking a bite of it raw. It is perfection on the tongue, so sweet and juicy; it makes you wonder what piece of plastic has been posing as a “tomato” the rest of the year in your grocery store. Yes, it’s time to enjoy the splendor of what the good earth has to offer.
Fall is an exciting time for so many reasons! One of my favorite though is that some of my favorite cooking ingredients come back! You could probably guess one, as it’s the flavor that takes the nation by storm every September: pumpkin. My other favorite is apple. But there are so many other fall flavors, too! So we decided to round up some of our favorite fall recipes.
Pumpkin Simple Syrup // Shiner Bock Chili
Homemade Pumpkin Applesauce // Spicy Tomato Soup
Pumpkin Marscapone Ravioli // Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins // Acorn Squash Souflee
Sweet Potato Bisque // Bites as Sweet as Pumpkin Pie
Oatmeal Apple Spice Cake // Sweet Citrus Baked Acorn Squash
What are your go to fall flavors?
I adore cilantro. The bold flavor and freshness that it brings to a dish is incredible, and I am all about using fresh herbs as often as I can get my hands on them. I have lately fallen in love with coconut rice, and wanted to combine the two flavors to create a super yummy side dish. So I give you coconut cilantro rice. This side pairs wonderfully with almost any meal but specifically tastes great with Indian, Hawaiian, or Mexican dishes. I think it would pair perfectly with just about anything though because the coconut is not an overwhelming flavor, it is very subtle.
