Recipe Mutiny steals recipes from food blogs and recipe sites. Then we publish them. With credit (Naturally).
Friday, August 16, 2019
Summer Side Dishes Worth Building a Feast Around
From spicy stuffed poblanos to a bright watermelon salad, these are some of the best summer side dishes you should totally build a meal around.
Barring a steak Frites feast or Korean barbecue blowout, meat is not always the main attraction at a great meal—not even at a summer grilling bash, if you can believe. The focus may not necessarily be a vegetarian equivalent of a meaty main, either. A great summer side dish can grab center stage instead, stealing the spotlight because it’s just so dang delicious. If you’ve got a stellar side dish on your hands, give it a little stage time for crying out loud. Start with said sexy side and plan the rest of your meal around it with complimenting flavors.
Related Reading: 9 Perfect Sides to Serve with BBQ Ribs
To find a side dish so compelling that it motivates the character of your whole meal, start with season and region. If it’s summer, you’ve got a bounty of potentials to choose: corn, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, summer squash, green beans, beets, avocado, celery, cabbage, peas, and radishes. Plus there are the usual carb players: potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, rice. And remember the rule that a good quality cheese improves almost everything. (That’s our rule, at least.)
As you set out the plates on the table, watch out for that shining side dish stealing a little thunder from the rest of the lineup. But that’s fine with us. A truly sensational summer side dish elevates the whole production.
Grilled Corn with Cayenne, Lime, and Cotija
Chowhound
If you thought fresh summer corn on the cob was plenty flavorful enough, well, that’s true. But there’s a way to make it unexpectedly better, so much so that the grilled steak or burgers won’t be the talk of the meal. It might be even better to have a Mexican-style main dish, such as tacos, tamales, chiles relleños, enchiladas, or fajitas to go with this side. Speaking of this side: Slathering each cob with mayonnaise, spice, crumbly Mexican cheese, and tangy lime juice is a combination that might not come to mind at first. But oh, does it work. There’ll be explosions of flavor in your mouth! Don’t take it from us that it works. Try it. Get our Grilled Corn with Cayenne, Lime, and Cotija recipe.
Related Reading: 9 Corn Salads for Summer
Grilled Watermelon, Feta & Mint Salad
Chowhound
Grilled watermelon combines two of the best things about summer: cooking out and feasting on fresh, juicy fruit. Lots of summer fruit is great grilled, but there’s something especially appropriate about placing watermelon on the fire. Pair its smoke-kissed sweetness with salty, sharp feta cheese and refreshing mint for a sparkling summer salad that will outshine pretty much anything else near it. For that reason, you should keep your main course on the simple side; think grilled shrimp or grilled chicken, with understated seasonings, maybe with a Greek bent (lemon, thyme, oregano) to complement the feta. Get our Grilled Watermelon, Feta, and Mint Salad recipe.
Seaside Dinnerware Set (16-Piece), $128 at Macy's
A perfect summer set for your side dish inspired feast.
Panzanella Tuscan Bread Salad
Chowhound
Summer tomatoes are the best because this is when they’re in season, and freshness is never more important in a vegetable’s taste than in a tomato. Have you tried those bland, watery types of tomatoes at the supermarket? Gather some ruby red tomatoes, or any vivid color if you can get your hand on the less common heirloom varieties. This is the time to harvest your garden or peruse the local farmers market. The salad is also useful as a vehicle for using up your almost stale Italian or French bread. It has to be that crusty kind though, to hold its own in the savory anchovy-laden lemon-garlic vinaigrette. Crunchy cucumbers and freshly torn basil provide even more texture and fragrance. Get our Panzanella Tuscan Bread Salad recipe.
Related Reading: 9 Interesting Sides for Summer Grilling and BBQ
Creamy Cucumber Salad
Chowhound
Really, a dish doesn’t have to be complicated to be the highlight of the meal. For example, our popular cucumber salad, which possesses one of our favorite textures of all time—creamy. To get that creaminess, you have to salt the cucumbers and let that salt draw out the excess water that’s inherent to cucumbers. Then the sour cream can do its magic. Fresh herbs, in this case dill, are the final touch that makes this simple salad wake up your senses to the bounty that summer provides. This would be a great side dish to salmon, fish, crabs, lobster, chicken, pork, or even beef. Get our Creamy Cucumber Salad recipe.
Related Reading: 8 Gluten-Free Pastas for Pasta Salad
Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Sour Cream and Lime Sauce
Chowhound
Potato salad, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, fried potatoes: We’re familiar with all these tuber techniques. Grilled sweet potato wedges? Not so much. Thick wedges of the vibrant orange potato are boiled, cooled, rubbed with a spicy-smoky mix of cayenne, cumin, and oil, and then grilled. The cooling sour cream, lime juice, and cilantro sauce can be dolloped on top or served as a dip. This is not your average preparation of sweet potatoes. It’s a summer version that couldn’t be further from the winter holiday variety with all that brown sugar, marshmallows, and cinnamon. It’s motivation to think of what other dishes you’d like to grill to accompany this sure-thing. Get our Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Sour Cream and Lime Sauce recipe.
Related Reading: 7 Clever Ways to Use Sweet Potatoes
Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Black Beans and Cheese
Chowhound
Don’t even think about it. It’s tempting. You might want to make this the main dish in your meal because it looks like it’s got it all. You’ve got your protein (black beans), your vegetable (poblanos and tomatoes), your carb (basmati rice), and your cheese (what, that’s not an essential food group?). But this would be great with chicken or even a marinated skirt steak and salad. You cut and gut the seeds and membranes out of the poblanos just like you would with a Halloween jack-o-lantern pumpkin. Poblanos are very mild peppers, by the way. Inside those peppers go the rice, tomatoes, scallions, Cotija cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and cumin. You secure the pepper lid back on with toothpicks and bake until the poblano skin is all blistery and wonderful. Get our Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Black Beans and Cheese recipe.
Related Reading: What Is the Difference Between Sweet and Hot Peppers?
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5 Foolproof Tips for the Best, Fudgiest Brownies Every Time
Five rules and one recipe for the moistest, fudgiest brownies you’ll ever make. Trust us.
Brownies might seem like one of the more easily executed desserts in the pastry pantheon—and to some extent they are—but there’s also much that can go wrong. The most common failing to befall a brownie is lack of moisture, and though you can run most brownies through a fairly accurate eye or touch test, we’ve all chomped into a dry and brittle square of blah only to regret it and start scanning the room for a cocktail napkin to discard the remains.
Related Reading: Alternative Uses For Your Bundt Pan Besides Baking Cake
Gemma Stafford, the Irish baker, YouTube personality, and author of the new cookbook, “Bigger Bolder Baking” (out September 3), knows a thing or two about baking brownies—just ask her nearly 2 million subscribers—and she, too, believes in the power of a truly fudgy brownie.
Bigger Bolder Baking, By Gemma Stafford, $21 on Amazon
A fearless approach to baking anytime, anywhere.
A good brownie will clock in somewhere between a piece of moist cake and a rich dense piece of fudge (for me, anyhow). You know, the type that ends up aaalll over your fingers (in the best possible way) and requires the accompaniment of several ounces of cold milk. If that’s also your aim, Stafford has concocted a list of five rules when making brownies to ensure the fudgiest batch, each and every time.
- Brown sugar is key. It makes them moister, more flavor and makes for a more fudgy brownie
- Use a good quality unsweetened cocoa powder for your brownies for the ultimate decadent brownie. Do not use hot chocolate powder. It’s not the same.
- Use bittersweet chocolate chunks (70 percent). This will make your brownies extra rich.
- Season your brownies with salt and good vanilla extract. Both are key ingredients in adding extra flavor and dimension to brownies so don’t leave them out!
- Don’t overbake your brownies! You know when your brownies are perfectly cooked when they’re firm around the edges but they’re still soft to the touch in the middle. After baking, let your brownie relax at room temperature (30 minutes or more) for best results. Factor in that they continue to set once they come out.
T-Fal Covered Nonstick Cake Pan with Lid, $10.07 on Amazon
The perfect size brownie pan with smart lid to take on the go.
Related Reading: A One-Bowl Apple Snacking Cake for Hangry Kids
Gemma’s Stafford’s Fudgiest Giant Brownies
The Fudgiest Giant Brownies
Ingredients
- 2½ cups (565 grams) sugar
- ½ cup (115 milliliters) water
- ⅔ cup (4 ounces/ 115 grams) coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate
- 1½ cups (213 grams) all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup (76 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (225 milliliters) vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (6 ounces/170 grams) chocolate chips, plus more for topping
- Vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Grease a 9 x 13-inch cake pan and line it with parchment paper.
- In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and chocolate and heat over medium heat, gently stirring, until the chocolate and sugar have melted. (This step can also be done in the microwave.) Set aside to cool.
- Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Mix until combined.
- Whisk the oil, eggs, and vanilla into the cooled chocolate mixture.
- Add the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Do not over mix, as it will toughen the brownies.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with a spatula and top with additional chocolate chips.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Take care not to overbake, or they won’t be as fudgy on the inside.
- Let cool fully in the pan on a wire rack. Turn the brownie block out onto a flat surface and cut it into 9 or 12 squares.
- Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of hot fudge sauce, if desired.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
NOTE: These brownies freeze really well. When you are faced with a dessert emergency, take one from the freezer and microwave for about 1 minute.
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Spicy Bloody Maria Cocktail
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The Friday Buzz: Tiny Desk Concerts, Kiwi Tasting, and Apron Obsessions
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Friday Food Finds: Hard Kombucha, CBD Cold Brew, Bacon Pringles, and More!
So many new products, so little time. And what makes our job even more difficult and time-sensitive: Some of these flavors are only limited edition! For this week’s Chub Chub Chowdown segment on the Taylor Strecker Show, we tried all types of things, from boozy kombucha and seltzer to gourmet granola and chips. Our palates may be slightly confused, but we’re breaking it all down for you below. Check out our thoughts.
Bacon and Mac ‘n Cheese Pringles
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these limited edition chips, found exclusively at Dollar General, aren’t worth the special trip. While we definitely liked the bacon flavor more than the mac ‘n cheese (it was smoky and salty vs. a Kraft powdered cheese wannabe), they just paled in comparison to tried-and-true staples like sour cream and onion and jalapeño. If you’re Pringles obsessed, we encourage you to try them and decide for yourself. But if you’re just in the mood for a crunchy afternoon snack, these deserve a pass.
Michele’s Granola (Lemon Pistachio)
Yum! It’s hard to make a lasting impression with granola because we kind of feel like it had its moment, but lemon pistachio was a delicious flavor combination that we’re entirely here for. The texture was also softer and more palatable than the norm. Now, was this the best breakfast food we’ve ever tasted? No. Was it something we wanted to toss into some yogurt or homemade trail mix? Yes, which means it serves a purpose and, frankly, with such a crowded granola and cereal market, that’s all you can really ask for. Update: We just tried their almond butter variety and it’s SO GOOD. In fact, I feel slightly nauseated from the amount I’ve eaten. It has the perfect crunch!
JuneShine Hard Kombucha (Rosé)
We don’t think we could love this drink more if we tried! Kombucha is already a deliciously healthy alternative to soft drinks and sugar-laden juices and this alcoholic, rosé-flavored variety more than delivered. It was not overwhelmingly sweet, contains probiotics, and was palatable for even the kombucha-averse. Not a fan of rosé? A) Who are you? and B) They’ve got a bunch of other equally delicious varieties, also brewed with green tea and honey to make your new favorite libation. We are huge fans!
Doritos Simply Organic (Spicy White Cheddar)
Whomp, whomp. We love ourselves some Doritos, but these missed the mark. First and foremost, it is completely false advertising to put a well-seasoned reddish chip on the bag when the reality is a yellow chip with only small traces of seasoning. These also weren’t spicy and tasted more like cumin and other spices than the cayenne or chipotle we so desperately craved. The only redeeming quality is that they’re organic, so eat your heart out, health freaks. We’ll stick to our non-organic Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch.
Good Day CBD Cold Brew
Hardcore cold brew drinkers will absolutely appreciate this tiny can that packs a CBD punch, but we couldn’t get over the bitter taste that hits your palate almost immediately. It’s absolutely a polarizing experience (half of us wanted a Trenta-sized cup on ice while the others wanted to projectile vomit), which means you’ll certainly have to try this and decide for yourself. We do have to commend the company for its innovation, though! The packaging is also on point.
Press Premium Alcohol Seltzer (Pear Chamomile)
We were pretty blown away by this one. The flavor profile was fantastically unique (pear! chamomile!) and the sweetness wasn’t headache-inducing like some of its boozy seltzer competitors. While it did come off a bit “soapy” after a few sips, this is something that we’d absolutely indulge in all summer long. In fact, we’re already stalking our local liquor stores to find it by the case.
Stonyfield Organic Yogurt & Hummus Packs/Smoothies
The yogurt hummus pack is a quick and easy snack for those on the go, but we wanted to doctor it up a bit with some fresh dill, lemon juice, garlic powder, and chopped cucumbers. That being said, there *is* a garlic flavor with pretzels that we didn’t sample and should lend itself nicely to more sophisticated eaters. The smoothies, on the other hand, were a bit more polarizing. While we appreciated the limited number of ingredients and generally liked the taste and creamy texture, we just didn’t know if we could take ourselves seriously while sipping from a pouch in public. It still seems like something manufactured for children and not grown-ups. The choice is yours!
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