Bean and Legume

Who says gremolata has to have parsley and lemon? No one who's tried this crunchy Thai influenced riff.

Once a way to make use of stale tortillas (by toasting and/or frying them), tostadas are so good that it wasn't long before people simply started using fresh tortillas. After biting into these layers of flavor—crunchy, creamy, luscious—you'll see why.

Sprouting wild rice is a simple and delicious way to enjoy this amazing food completely raw. The process of sprouting wild rice is called "blooming" because the seeds actually unfold, very much like little petals, revealing the pale, tender insides. It's a really fun thing to watch, however slowly, and it's groovy to eat something you've seen transform over a few days. This salad combines fresh springtime tastes and textures, all sauced up with a delicious dressing featuring bright lemon and spicy mustard. The herbs add the final layer of flavor, making this a salad that truly tastes alive! Because the rice is sprouted, it is very sweet, requiring salt in the salad—make sure to season it well to suit your own taste.

My favorite recipe that I've ever posted on the blog is my Four Corners lentil soup, and it remains the most frequently cooked dish in my kitchen. It is so fast and simple to make, really inexpensive, and uses ingredients that are all found in the pantry. It freezes well, too, so I often make a double batch and store some away for when I need a wholesome meal in a hurry. And why the name "Four Corners"? Besides being my favorite soup, it is also much loved by many people I know all around the world. From the busy streets of Singapore to the remote wilderness of northern Ontario, from the scorched deserts in the American Southwest to the rainy shores of Denmark, this soup really has traveled the four corners of the Earth! Highly nutritious and packed with flavor, this lentil soup is a crowd-pleaser that will warm the heart of anyone you serve it to.

Fresh fava beans have been a mainstay of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean diets for centuries, and lately they have been enjoying popularity in the United States. Bright green and firm-fleshed with a sweet and mildly nutty flavor, they resemble lima beans but are really more like an overgrown split pea. Fava beans are a bit time-consuming, as they require double peeling: first the outer pod, and then the hull that protects this little spring gem. Once you're done, you will have more debris than edible beans, but it's worth it, as this recipe will demonstrate. The gentle butter poaching method for the shrimp yields tender, succulent meat that contrasts beautifully with the spring fava bean.

Chicken thighs are an inexpensive and delicious alternative to chicken breasts. This one-pan dinner is perfect for a weeknight because it's so simple to put together and cleanup is a breeze.

I admit that I'm hard on sugar snap peas. I get disappointed when they suck, of course, but I also get grumpy when they're anything less than perfect—unblemished, super sweet, and not a bit starchy. That's the curse of keeping high standards, I suppose: you're so rarely satisfied. When at last I do find perfect snap peas, I make this salad. I leave them raw—only the finest snap peas can be this delightful without a dunk in boiling water—and accentuate their flavor with little more than a lemony dressing and mint. If you'd like, you could add some creamy goat cheese in blobs or good old burrata alongside.

Use a vegetable peeler to peel the zucchini lengthwise into thin ribbons, stopping when you get to the very center where it is all seeds. You can use this same technique with carrots and peel long carrot ribbons, or also choose to use half carrots and half zucchini. The zucchini (or carrots or both) sliced this way also make a light, fresh summer salad when tossed raw with lemon juice, olive oil, and fresh herbs.

We love King Soba noodles on the Clean team and could easily find hundreds of uses for them. This is a delicious Mediterranean-flavored version of a noodle bowl, quick and easy, and perfect for those meals you need to have on the table as fast as possible.

Though the healthful and now mainstream Middle Eastern dip we know as hummus typically includes chickpeas and sesame tahini, this adaptation contains neither. Rather, its similarly smooth texture comes from the natural starch and protein of the English pea. In the summer, I make a variation of this using blanched field peas of any variety, and I substitute thyme for the spring herbs and fresh garlic in place of the early green garlic of spring.

This elegant stew can be made up to the point that the farro goes in; cool, then cover and chill up to 2 days.

The steak can be marinated a day in advance—in fact, it gets better.

Fregola, a tiny toasted pasta similar to pearled couscous, makes a flavorful base for this brothy spring dinner.

One of many cool things about (super-nutritious) sprouted lentils: They don't need to be cooked first.

These mini tarts are double sealed for extra insurance.

Gigante beans are our favorites, but almost any bean will be delicious this way. Smaller white beans, like cannellini, will cook more quickly.

Authentic barbacoa is a daylong event involving a whole animal and an underground fire pit. This take is easier and totally delicious.