Vegan

When red bell peppers are best (and least expensive) in the late summer and early fall, this is a good dish to make in a big batch.

This is a good idea for an abundance of tomatoes that are threatening to rot. The juice keeps refrigerated for several days and can be frozen for up to 6 months.

This keeps for several weeks in the fridge and is good with spiced basmati rice, grilled chicken or lamb, or a creamy corn stew.

Steaming eggplant gives it a suave, custardy texture that helps it resist soaking up too much oil, setting it up for this rich dressing. I like Anaheim chile flakes here, which are milder than the standard-issue chile flakes. They provide sweet pepper flavor without too much heat.

Whenever we get a bucket of lemon verbena from Bill Dow, former doctor and for thirty years now a farmer on his Ayrshire Farm, its powerful scent takes over the kitchen and has me woozy trying to come up with different ways of using it. It’s one of those delicious aromatic herbs like winter savory, lavender, and rau ram (Vietnamese cilantro)—intoxicating when held in a big fresh bunch but tough to take as the main flavor in a meal. Lemon verbena goes well with summer fruits like watermelon and peaches, adds a mystery flavor when stuffed inside a roast chicken, and makes a fine sherbet. It’s easy to grow, and if you find yourself with a bumper crop on the eve of the first frost, it is simple to preserve it by grinding the leaves along with some white sugar in a food processor until it combines into aromatic, bright green sand. The sugar will last perfectly for months in the freezer and can be used to flavor drinks, ice creams, custards, and fruit compotes.

This recipe makes a little more ginger syrup than is needed for the sorbet and will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks. It makes an unexpected spring cocktail combined with muddled fresh strawberries, lime juice, and vodka and served over ice.

Pea greens are the immature green tendrils of the pea plant and often have a fresher “pea” flavor than garden peas themselves. Chive blossoms appear here for a few weeks in early spring and add a mellow onion flavor to everything from salad greens, to fresh sashimi, to buttermilk mashed potatoes. To use them, just pull the individual lavender petals off the chive blossom and sprinkle them directly on top of the salad after it is dressed.

As traditionally seasonal delicacies like asparagus, strawberries, and peaches have become everyday food, the idea that they are a treat has somehow stuck—but with none of the flavor or meaning. Year-round asparagus has become a stand-in for a kind of perfunctory idea of good eating—the Whole Foods near us recently installed a permanent granite waterfall shrine to asparagus in their entrance—yet is a shadow of its tasty springtime self. When you put just-picked asparagus on a hot grill, they are so juicy they actually jump as they start to cook.

On the first day of the year that is warm enough to open the windows, we all instantly crave spring foods. While the asparagus, peas, and strawberries we hunger for lag many weeks behind, the early tonics of spring—spring onions, green garlic, and ramps—step in to give us the jolt we need to wake up from winter.