Root Vegetable

Some traditional Southern cooks swear you have to cook your collards all day long. This recipe has a great silky, tender texture and good bacony flavor, but you don’t have to quit your day job to make it. Collards also pair well with Double Orange Pork Chops (page 24) and Down-Home Pinto Beans and Ham Hocks (page 127).

Prepared shredded coleslaw mix is one of our favorite items in the produce aisle because it’s so easy to toss in a bowl—all the work’s already done. You can bring this slaw to a potluck supper and get raves, and it takes less than ten minutes to put together. It’s no surprise that this is also terrific with Sweet and Spicy Pork (page 128), and kids will love it with Mini Macaroni Pies (page 168).

If time and busy schedules allowed, we’d still show up at Mama’s table around 3:30 p.m. every day begging for an afternoon snack of cheese bread. Instead, we now work the bread into our dinner routine. You can even serve this on its own or with a salad for lunch. Or, try it with Braised Chicken with Peppers and Mushrooms (page 129) and Not-Your-Mama’s Tuna Casserole (page 62).

If you’ve already got the grill going, this is a surefire way to get great veggies fast. They get deliciously smoky-sweet, and all you need is a handy grill basket to keep the small pieces from falling into the fire (or you can use a sheet of aluminum foil). A colorful assortment of veggies makes this especially fun. You can serve it with any of the grilling recipes in the chapter, but it’s especially great with Grilled Tilapia Po’boys with Homemade Tartar Sauce (page 95) and Easy After-Work BBQ Chicken (page 91).

If you’ve ever baked frozen fries inside while you were flipping your burgers outside on the grill, you might have wished you could just grill your fries, too. Well, we got sick of wishing and gave it a shot. These get nice and crisp, and we toss them with a little spice to make them that much more special.

Some dishes are all about the garnishes. Or maybe some families like to do it up. Either way, when we bake a potato, we don’t settle for a pat of butter. The fixin’s are the fun part! We’ve made up a whole list of optional baked potato toppings, but, for us, the Vidalia onions are nonnegotiable. These crunchy and sweet onions are a Southern favorite and, although they’re grown only in Georgia, they’re still available in many supermarkets nationwide. If you can’t get Vidalias, other sweet onions like Walla Wallas or Texas sweets taste just as good. These taters go great with all kind of mains. Two of our other favorites are All-Day Beef Chili (page 122) and Southern-Style Turkey, Tomato, and Monterey Jack Bake (page 48).

As soon as we discovered how fast couscous is to make—we’re talking five minutes-there was no holding us back. We serve it with everything from Balsamic-Glazed London Broil (page 15) to Peppery Turkey Scaloppini (page 46).

Folks love this recipe, whether or not they’re broccoli fans. It’s dressed like a salad, with a nice little tang from the vinegar. It adds something green and healthy to meaty mains like this one, and we also love it with Mama’s Hamburger “Hobo Sacks” (page 7) and Smothered Pork Chops and Rice Bake (page 22).

This is one of the fastest, tastiest ways you can serve spinach. We probably make it a few times a month. Just start tossing a bag of spinach into the shopping cart every week and you’ll see what we mean. This side also goes great with Smothered Pork Chops and Rice Bake (page 22) and Pecan Catfish Fish Sticks (page 160).

This is our go-to side dish for any and every recipe that gives you good gravy. Yukon Gold potatoes make a nice sweet, creamy mash. Try it with Bobby’s Turkey Vegetable Goulash (page 132) or Baked Chicken with Zucchini and Herbs (page 37).

This salad looks almost too pretty to eat! Try it with other Asian-inspired dishes like Broiled Tuna with Pineapple-Chipotle Salsa (page 57) or Bobby’s Favorite Beef Teriyaki Stir-fry with Broccoli and Peppers (page 18).

We don’t use much sesame oil in our cooking, but we love how a little bit gives your whole dish a nice nutty flavor. We were playing around with trying to re-create an Asian salad dressing we had in a restaurant when we struck gold with this combo. But don’t limit it to when you’re cooking up Asian-inspired food. It’s also great with tangy dishes like Double Orange Pork Chops (page 24) and Broiled Tuna with Pineapple-Chipotle Salsa (page 57).