Vegetable Recipes

Girl & Dug Farm’s produce boxes deliver whimsy and wonder.

When tomatoes are at their best, take a cue from Hetal Vasavada and don't cook them at all. "In the summer, Indian families often make kachumber salad. It's basically an Indian pico de gallo situation, minus the cilantro," says Vasavada. "My husband loves gazpacho—he's the kind of person who drinks salsa from the jar—so I thought this would be a nice, cool summer dish." Vasavada channeled her love for kachumber, a fresh, cucumber-based Indian salad, to inspire this exciting riff on the classic chilled summery soup. Warm spices and a hint of chile add flavor and heat without overwhelming the fresh tomatoes; sev, a crispy chickpea noodle snack, adds a pleasant crunch.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, chef and owner of Modern Love in New York City, shared this recipe for a vegetarian braciola, where jammy, umami-laden planks of tamari-roasted eggplant encase a filling of lentils, walnuts, and spinach. The whole thing is served in a pool of marinara with islands of vegan ricotta. While the eggplant roasts meltingly tender, the filling retains a meaty and satisfying bite.

Nopales, the paddles of cactus plants, get tender, smoky, and soft on a comal or griddle, picking up a strong char from the hot cast iron. High-heat cooking also tempers their natural sourness and reduces their slippery texture, leaving the cactus paddles pleasantly juicy. Tucked into fresh tortillas with some charred spring onions and jalapeños and served with rice and black beans, they make for a very satisfying vegetarian meal. Fair warning: Preparing this dish indoors generates some spicy smoke—turn on your exhaust fan and open a window for extra ventilation. Remove the cactus spines before cooking: Use a towel to hold the paddle, and then carefully trim the edges and scrape off the spines on each side with a sharp knife.

For those who aren't fond of okra's gooey quality, there are two surefire ways to keep it in check: high-heat cooking and a dose of acid. Executive Editor Karen Shimizu's recipe for okra tempura with a zippy dipping sauce incorporates both. The "fonzu" sauce—inspired by ponzu—uses lime juice instead of harder-to-find yuzu and a shortcut of fish sauce instead of steeping in katsuobushi. Scoring the okra from the tip almost all the way to the stem before frying it provides more surface area for the tempura batter to cling to, for extra crunch, while leaving the okra substantial enough to stay tender on the inside.

In his riff on tomato pie, Food Editor Josh Miller uses crushed saltine crackers and Parmesan cheese to give these tomato pie bars a crispy, savory bottom crust and enhances the rich, savory filling with mildly spicy curry powder and chipotle chile. A topping of juicy slices of tomato brings the finished tomato pie bars into perfect balance.