Cookie and Kate

29 Healthy Comfort Food Recipes

February 24, 2020 66 Comments

We enjoyed a warm and sunny weekend here in Kansas City, but we’re expecting more snow tomorrow. So, I’m sharing some veggie-packed comfort food recipes to help carry us through to springtime.

I find that the most enjoyable way to eat well during short winter days is to focus on loading up on vegetables, rather than denying myself the cheesy, carb-heavy meals that I’m craving. Here are 29 delicious dinners that are lightened up with fresh and nutritious ingredients. Sneaky!

Want to add a side salad to any of the following? For the meals with an Asian spin, try my carrot-ginger dressing. For the others, try my green goddess dressing, creamy sunshine (honey mustard) dressing or perhaps a simple vinaigrette.

1) Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas

“Yet another winner! My husband said, why do we even ever eat meat when vegetarian tastes like this?” – Karen

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Easy Green Goddess Dressing

February 22, 2020 18 Comments

This green goddess dressing is exactly what we need right now. It’s creamy, tangy, and fully loaded with fresh, herbal flavor. I’ve savored it by the spoonful while imagining sunny days ahead.

The Green Goddess is going to carry us through to spring. We’re going to make it. I can feel it.

I put some soup recipe development on hold when I finalized this dressing. I’ll figure it out soon enough (hint: it’s also green). I’m too busy drizzling this versatile dressing over anything and everything.

The funny thing about this green goddess dressing recipe is that it’s so very simple. I tried adding lemon juice and olive oil, and they only distracted from the beautiful combination of good Greek yogurt and fresh herbs.

In fact, you can use any combination of fresh herbs for this recipe. That leftover parsley and cilantro in the fridge? Let’s use ’em up.

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How to Cook Perfect Wild Rice

February 18, 2020 12 Comments

Let’s talk about wild rice. It’s nutty and earthy, irresistibly chewy-tender, and I can’t get enough of it. What is it, exactly? Wild rice is an aquatic grass native to the Great Lakes region of North America.

Don’t save your wild rice for your Thanksgiving stuffing—it’s great year-round, but perhaps especially wonderful during the cooler months. Wild rice offers a warm, hearty component that turns fresh greens into a proper meal, and adds texture and heft to soups.

Wild rice is nutritious, too. It offers about fifty percent more fiber and protein than its cousin brown rice, which puts it on par with quinoa. It’s a suitable gluten-free substitute for farro, since the two are similar in texture.

Wild rice has one less-than-fortunate quality: It’s more expensive than many other whole grains. Wild rice is quite labor-intensive to harvest, which is why it’s pricy. Shop around and store your rice in a cool, dry location. Read on to learn how to cook your wild rice, plus find ideas to use up every bit of it!

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Best Stuffed Shells

February 13, 2020 23 Comments

These stuffed shells are cheesy, saucy, and stuffed with the most delicious ricotta and spinach filling. I’m in love, and I think you will be, too. Speaking of love, they’re so pretty that you could serve these shells for a romantic Valentine’s Dinner at home.

A few more reasons to love this recipe:

It yields a lot of shells, so it’s perfect for serving a crowd.
Leftovers are great for lunch, or you can freeze them for later.
This recipe is relatively easy to make, with minimal chopping.

This stuffed shells recipe features simple and classic Italian ingredients. You’ll need jumbo shells, marinara sauce, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, a little Parmesan, garlic and seasonings.

To make this cheesy dish more redeeming, I added an entire pound of fresh greens! You can use fresh or frozen spinach or kale. The greens yield a gorgeous, vibrant green filling with a lovely, mild flavor. These stuffed shells are honestly the best I’ve ever had, by a long shot. Keep reading for some fun variations and tips.

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How to Roast Garlic

February 11, 2020 17 Comments

Roasted garlic is a revelation. Have you tried it? When you roast garlic long enough, it transforms from pungent and crisp to mellow and soft. It’s irresistibly caramelized and spreads over bread like butter.

Roasted garlic seems indulgent, but it’s really just garlic with a little bit of olive oil. Like I said, it’s a revelation.

I’ve loved roasted garlic since my friend introduced me to it in college. We developed a funny routine of roasting tons of garlic, which we enjoyed with crusty bread, too much red wine, and episode after episode of Arrested Development.

Back then, we wrapped our garlic in foil, which is what most roasted garlic recipes will tell you to do. These days, I try to minimize our aluminum exposure and cooking waste whenever possible. So, I came up with a foil-free method using basic cooking tools! Let’s roast some garlic.

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Best Vegan Lasagna

February 6, 2020 90 Comments

I used to be skeptical of vegan lasagna—could it really be that good? This recipe is proof that yes, it really can. This vegan lasagna tastes as good as it looks.

My husband, who has a major weakness for creamy pastas, also found the concept of a cheese-less lasagna questionable. I figured this recipe would convince him, so I brought some home and put it in the fridge. I soon found the man in the kitchen, going back for seconds. Then thirds.

If you’ve been paying very close attention to my recipe substitution notes over the years, you may have tried this technique already. It’s based on the vegan variation of the cheesy roasted eggplant lasagna in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 163). I shared the concept in my classic vegetarian lasagna recipe, too.

Today, I wanted to show you the results with photographic proof. If you’re in the mood for a dairy-free alternative to traditional cheesy lasagna, this recipe is for you.

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29 Healthy Comfort Food Recipes

1) Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Easy Green Goddess Dressing

How to Cook Perfect Wild Rice

Best Stuffed Shells

How to Roast Garlic

Best Vegan Lasagna

Perfect Lentils, Every Time

Roasted Cauliflower (Four Ways!)

Pasta e Fagioli (Italian Pasta and Beans)

Best Manhattan Cocktail

Roasted Butternut Squash, Pomegranate and Wild Rice “Stuffing”

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1) Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas

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