BROWN BUTTER STEAM-ROASTED SWEET POTATO, ARUGULA AND DATE SALAD WITH TAHINI DRIZZLE

These steam-then-roasted sweet potatoes are my latest obsession. They take less than five minutes to prep, do their thing in the oven for a little under an hour, and are equally delicious served just as-is or all dressed up as I am showing you here.

The potato cooking method itself comes from Nik Sharma in his cookbook The Flavor Equation. After halving your sweet potatoes lengthwise, you spread or dollop the flesh side with butter and seasoning, place them on a sheet pan flesh side up then seal the pan tightly with tin foil. You then stick them in the oven to steam-roast for about 25 minutes before uncovering, flipping and returning them to the oven for another 25 minutes or so. The flesh side browns and crisps and the potatoes become more concentrated in flavor. Moist and crisp? This method makes that possible.

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RED WINE BRAISED LAMB AND FIGS

With temperatures finally dipping down into true fall territory here in New York City, we’re entering my favorite cooking season. (Note, I did not just say “season” there, I prefaced it with cooking. These shorter, cooler days? No, no, no, I don’t like where this is headed.)

Our farmers markets are still stocked with tomatoes and eggplant, those beauties of late summer. But tables are also laden with winter squashes, sweet potatoes, cabbages, kale and other cold weather produce.

On top of that, it doesn’t seem sacrilegious to have my oven on for hours at a time. In fact, I want to have it on for hours to combat the cold air seeping through my windows and to fill my home with the comforting smells of something delicious. That’s exactly what inspired this recipe: red wine braised lamb and figs.

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SLOW ROASTED VEGETABLES AND HOW TO USE THEM

Now that the weather is a bit cooler, slow roasting vegetables is my ideal type of weekend prep – a couple of sheet trays loaded with barely prepped produce, an oven set to a low temperature and a long cooking time that leaves little room for error or need for attention. Slow roasted vegetables are luxurious in texture and intense in flavor. Almost all vegetables can be cooked this way (though maybe not the potato family) and can be used in a multitude of dishes. I’m sharing how I used four of them below.
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TWICE BAKED SWEET POTATOES WITH TAHINI YOGURT AND POMEGRANATE

There is a lot of inspiration behind this dish. This picture on Sprouted Kitchen’s Instagram sent me on a hunt for Bon App’s method of twice baking these crispy, irregular shaped potatoes. Rather than pairing the butter/honey/cider vinegar bathed beauties with coconut yogurt and harissa like Sprouted Kitchen, I piled them on a generous bed of tahini yogurt and finished them off with a mix of herbs, nuts and seeds. I’ve made this dish countless times, a rare testament to how good it is. The recipe is long but not nearly as hard as it looks.

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A Guide to Squash: How to Choose and Cook Gourds

If you’ve walked around your local store you can’t help but notice a few things: pumpkin spice everything, halloween candy, and squash! I’d love to do a guide to the best halloween candy but that’s for another day. I’ve compiled a guide to help you determine which squash is best for your recipe and exactly how it should be cooked. The cool thing about these fall and winter gourds is they last a really long time, like six weeks to even a few months. And guess what? They’re technically fruit because they have seeds! Let’s get started.

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