If you’re looking for an impressive side dish, this pretty little pear gorgonzola salad will have you smitten. Alex and I love a good salad that easy yet tastes as good as a restaurant, and this one fits the bill.

It’s a celebration of flavors and textures, with juicy pears, funky cheese, dried cherries, and maple pecans glazed quickly in a skillet. It’s all tossed in our simple balsamic vinaigrette dressing and it pairs with so many different dinners, from chicken to fish to lasagna.

Dietary notes

This pear gorgonzola salad recipe is vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, omit the gorgonzola.

Here’s a recipe that’s one of the most fun, delicious vegetarian dinner ideas we know: spinach artichoke stuffed portobello mushrooms! Alex and my spin on the classic idea is a mashup of comforting spinach artichoke dip with the meaty goodness of a baked portobello mushroom.

Top it off with crunchy Italian breadcrumbs, and you’ll amaze everyone at the table! It’s a meatless dinner idea that will please every type of eater: we promise. Here’s how to make it!

Dietary notes

This stuffed portobello mushrooms recipe is vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free panko or breadcrumbs.

Want to make the best homemade fries you’ve ever had? Try these baked French fries! Here at A Couple Cooks, Alex and I have tested countless batches to get to our ultimate oven baked fries recipe. We discovered a few tricks that make an ultra crispy exterior and the perfect seasoning blend!

Everyone who tries these has a “whoa!” moment when they take the first bite. Here’s what you need to know about how to make baked French fries at home!

Dietary notes

This baked French fries recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.

Here’s one of our best go-to recipe secrets, and get this: we make it almost every day. Try this pan fried broccoli! It comes out perfectly crisp tender and full of savory flavor: and that’s not easy to do with broccoli.

Home cooks often overcook broccoli or don’t season it enough, making a brown-ish green, lifeless mess. Here’s how to pan fry it so it’s the most delicious thing on your plate! Alex and I really do make this every day (at least, at the time I’m writing this). Want to know why?

Dietary notes

This fried broccoli recipe is vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based, dairy-free and vegan.

What’s better that a homemade jar of refrigerator dill pickles? Alex and I are all about mastering the art of quick pickles—they can be made in minutes and stored in the refrigerator.

We often don’t have the time or energy for canning equipment and sterilizing—plus, we’d rather make a quick batch for easy snacking! There’s really nothing like the classic dill pickle. Here’s why this recipe works:

• Quick 10-minute prep time
• No canning equipment needed
• Cucumbers stay crisp and crunchy
• Perfectly balanced flavor
• Ready to eat in 24 hours

Dietary notes

This refrigerator dill pickles recipe is vegan, vegetarian, plant-based, and gluten-free.

If there’s one vegetable that’s always a winner in our house, it’s broccoli. Surprisingly, there’s a quick method that has become our go-to: boiled broccoli!

Salted and seasoned with olive oil and a spritz of lemon, it’s a favorite of the whole family (our kids actually even request it—no kidding!). The florets come out perfectly bright green and crisp tender after just 2 minutes in hot water. Here’s exactly how to boil broccoli!

Blanching vs boiling

Is this blanched broccoli? Well, almost! Blanching is a cooking method that involves boiling vegetables until they’re crisp tender, then plunging them into ice water to stop the cooking process.

This boiled broccoli recipe technically isn’t blanching because it doesn’t use ice water. The ice water is used to keep the veggies as colorful as possible. You’ll notice that this recipe is beautifully bright green, but leftovers can become more yellow in color depending on how long you boil them.

Dietary notes

This boiled broccoli recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Have you ever over-cooked rice and ended up with a glue-y mush? Under-cooked it to where it’s crunchy? Gotten it stuck to the bottom of the pan? Alex and I have seen it all.

As cookbook authors and recipe experts, we’ve found over time a method that results in tender, delicious white rice to pair with all your meals. Here’s how to cook white rice perfectly, every time.

Variation: Instant Pot white rice

Yes, you can cook white rice in an Instant Pot! Alex and I love making whole grains like farro, bulgur and quinoa in our Instant Pot because it’s totally hands off and leaves the stove free for cooking other things. Here’s our White Rice in an Instant Pot method.

Dietary notes

This recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Want to make fajitas? After testing this recipe dozens of times, we can confirm: these are the best fajita veggies! Whether you’re making chicken, steak, shrimp, or veggie fajitas: you’ve got to have those signature sizzling vegetables.

This recipe makes the most tender, melt-in-your-mouth bell peppers, delicious savory onions, and meaty portobello mushrooms. Serve them as vegetarian fajitas with pinto beans, or use them as a topping for fajita salad (our favorite!). This recipe has become a fan favorite that readers always love.

Dietary notes

This fajita veggies recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Here’s a trick to a fast side dish or simple dinner: this Skillet Pesto Gnocchi! Get this: you don’t even need to boil the gnocchi! Cook up these Italian potato dumplings right in a skillet and they cook right in the sauce, helping to thicken it as they release starch.

Stir in purchased pesto and you’ve got a bright and herbaceous sauce: in just 10 minutes total. This trick has become a staple in our house when we need a quick meal!

If there’s one Italian food we’re head over heels for, it’s gnocchi—those pillowy balls of dough that are considered “pasta” but should be in some other category of their own! Here’s our latest creation with our favorite ingredient: this baked gnocchi recipe.

The gnocchi baked up in a tangy marinara sauce and layered with goat cheese and burrata (or fresh mozzarella). You don’t even have to boil the gnocchi—just throw it in the pan and bake! It’s so simple and everyone we’ve served it to adores it. It makes a big pan that’s great for entertaining, perfect as a main dish or side dish for dinner parties or a Christmas recipe—and it works just as well for weeknight dinners.

Tips for using burrata cheese

Burrata is an Italian fresh mozzarella cheese with a surprise inside: the center is filled with cream! The creamy interior also contains cheese shreds, called straciatella. This cheese originated in Southern Italy and is now served all over the world.

This recipe calls for only 1 ball of burrata. It used to be only sold in 2-ball packages, but lately we’ve found you can buy 1 ball packaged separately! It’s a nice way to save a little money. Or, you can use the extra ball in burrata recipes like burrata salad or a burrata sandwich.

Dietary notes

This baked gnocchi recipe is vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free gnocchi.

Lentils are some of the world’s most nutrient dense, healthy, and inexpensive foods. So why not eat more of them? Here at A Couple Cooks, we’ve got a huge number of lentil recipes using lentils of all varieties.

We cook lentils on the stovetop, and in the lentils in the Instant Pot. We love black, red, yellow and green lentils. But one of our very favorite varieties to cook with is French lentils. Why? Keep reading.

Are Puy lentils the same?

Yes! French lentils are packaged under the names Puy lentils, du Puy lentils, lentilles du Puy, or French green lentils. (Don’t confuse that with just “green lentils,” which are entirely different!)

Puy lentils are French lentils that were grown in the Puy region in central France. This region has volcanic soil, so you might notice a slight flavor difference where this variety is more peppery. However, the flavor differences are so subtle that the two are interchangeable.

Dietary notes

This French lentils recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Ever crave a skillet of perfectly browned fried potatoes? It’s easy to wing this recipe and make it on the fly. But why not use a method that works every time? Introducing the perfect fried potatoes!

These thin potato rounds are browned in a skillet until they’re crispy and golden. The seasoning is perfect: just the right amount of smoky, salty, and savory. They work as breakfast potatoes, or an easy side dish for dinner. Here’s how to make them!

Dietary notes

This fried potatoes recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Are you a lover of black eyed peas? This mighty legume is full of plant-based protein and nutrients, and it can be eaten in so many different ways. You can usually find black eyed peas canned at the grocery store—but it’s cheaper and tastier if you cook them from dried!

Here’s our favorite versatile black eyed peas recipe: you can cook them until they’re just tender for salads and dips like Texas caviar, or make them into this creamy, smoky side dish. You choose!

Dietary notes

This black eyed peas recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Did you know you can make the best fries of your life—homemade? Yes, we’re pretty confident that these seasoned fries will blow you away! For years, Alex and I have been perfecting the art of homemade French fries and we’ve picked up some tips to getting the very best fries possible.

They do take a bit of time! But if you have to work for your food, it makes it that much more special: right? These are baked in an oven until crispy and coated in the perfect seasoning blend. Ready to become a French fries expert?

Or, use a French fry cutter!

Here’s an option only if you think you’ll make fries a lot: a French fry cutter! Typically Alex and I don’t recommend one-use gadgets. But this one is so slick, we couldn’t resist. A French fry cutter cuts fries from a potato in 1 second! (Really.) It’s easy to use and pumps them out in a jiffy. The only downside: finding storage space for a one-use gadget. Here’s a link to the French fry cutter we use.

Dietary notes

This seasoned fries recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Here’s a tasty dip with a party vibe: Texas caviar (aka Cowboy caviar)! This Tex Mex combination of black eyed peas, colorful vegetables, and zingy vinaigrette dressing is a total crowd pleaser, as a chip dip or healthy side dish.

It was invented in Texas and then spread all over the US. Our spin on this party dip always has friends gathered around the bowl at our house and for good reason—it’s just that irresistible!

Texas caviar dressing

Let’s talk Cowboy caviar dressing. A common spin on this recipe uses store-bought Italian dressing, but it’s much tastier with homemade! The dressing is simple to whip up using just a few ingredients you’ll likely already have in your pantry and spice drawer. Here’s what’s in this Texas caviar dressing:

• Lime juice
• Apple cider vinegar
• Sugar
• Spices: Garlic powder, cumin, and oregano
• Olive oil

Dietary notes

This Texas caviar recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

Our favorite squash? It’s not the noble butternut, or the trendy noodle-like spaghetti squash. It’s a unique underdog that’s even more delicious: delicata squash! It roasts up into beautiful half-moons, with edible skin (no peeling!) and a sweet flavor that’s something like a sweet potato.

Even better, it’s quick to cook—it takes just 20 minutes in a hot oven! Alex and I have been cooking with delicata squash for years: we especially love it roasted up as a healthy spin on French fries. Here’s how to cook roasted delicata squash!

About delicata squash

Delicata squash is an oblong winter squash, shaped almost like a thick zucchini. It’s creamy white to yellow in color, with vibrant green and orange stripes. Delicata squash has edible skin, making it very easy to cook, and a sweet flavor (much sweeter than butternut squash). It’s very easy to make roasted delicata squash: you don’t have to peel it! Just slice it into half-moon shapes to roast.

Where to find this type of squash? Delicata squash becoming popular in the US: you can find it at many mainstream grocery stores. In the fall, look for it at your local farmers market!

Alex and I used to say that it was easy to just “throw together” a good salad. But the more experienced we’ve gotten in the kitchen, the more we’ve realized that a good green salad is not just a throw together type of thing! It’s got to have the right contrasts in texture, flavor, and colors, and one fine salad dressing to pull it all together.

Here’s our favorite easy tossed salad recipe, with the perfect balance of textures, colors and flavors—complete with crunchy croutons and a variety of dressings! It pairs beautifully with everything from chili to pizza. Ready to get cooking?

Dietary notes

This tossed salad recipe is vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free. For gluten-free, omit the croutons.