Drawing largely from early chapters of Kitchen Confidential, “Tony” focuses on the ass-kicking.

Having …

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August is National Sandwich Month, which you’d think I’d have known about all along since my husband is a lover of sandwiches. I’m late to the dance, but there’s still time to celebrate the handheld, and I have a fair idea of how to do it. Get out the bread.

Sandwiches are of course really about bread. Bread meant white bread when I was little — commercial, indestructible, squishy. Years went by before I knew other kinds of bread existed — artisanal sourdoughs, earthy whole grain loaves, crusty baguettes, and nonvegan favorites like Japanese milk bread, which you could probably adapt to be plant-based, and buttery brioche, which vegan chef Alex Gauthier has thoughtfully veganized for us.

I’m not the sandwich lover my husband is, but as a food professional, I’m interested in all things sandwich —bread, fillings, architecture, origin*, even definition. If a sandwich is piled so high with components, you’d have to disassemble it or unhinge your jaw to eat it, is that still a sandwich? And what of the open-faced sandwich? It’s not afraid to tell you what it is so you know what you’re getting. But it can be effete and impractical,

Practical is what a sandwich should be. It was not meant to be a $38 status symbol; it was meant to feed you well, fill you up, stretch your budget, and be a portable, practical sort of thing.

Case in point, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s nutrient-dense, high in fiber and plant-based protein and made with affordable, shelf-stable ingredients. And yet for many of us, it’s more than peanut butter, jelly, and bread; it’s a happy, comforting taste of home when the rest of life seems just crazy. And it’s not just for kids. PBJ sandwiches have been a beloved part of military rations since World War I . Make sandwiches, not war.

I want that kind of sandwich for you, dear Broccoli Rising subscribers — one that transcends its ingredients to be dense in both nutrients and meaning and be an unexpected source of delight. My sandwich filling of the moment features beans and greens — two enduring loves. It’s a reinterpretation/mashup of Italian cavolo nero crostone — minus the hour-long cooking. The garlicky greens are cushioned by a very versatile white bean spread/dip, and the whole thing is anchored by a top slice of bread.

About that white bean spread — it can swing all kinds of different ways with just a tablespoon of fresh herbs. A few basil leaves and —ta-da! — it’s pleasingly pesto-ish. A little feathery dill gives it an Eastern European accent and makes my husband smile. Make it with chewy sourdough and some serious mustard and you’ll be smiling too.

*However you stuff your sandwich, do not believe the hype crediting John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich with creating the handheld. I bet he couldn’t even find his way to the kitchen.

Paid subscribers will find my Gutsy Greens and Creamy Beans Sandwich recipe below.

Substack has some wonderfully talented writers. And many exciting emerging voices. And a whole lot of others. And we’re all vying for your attention and subscriptions. That you’ve chosen to read and subscribe to Broccoli Rising means the world to me. Next week’s Broccoli Rising is a paid subscriber exclusive, but here’s a little tease and taste of it. Don’t miss out. Subscribe now.

Here’s a heads-up on what’s happening next month because somehow September’s coming.

September 7 Labor Day Your last day to get Miami Vegan at a special summer discount. No discount code needed.

September 11 9/11 Day of Remembrance

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year begins at sundown. Start the new year on a sweet note with my recipe for sticky toffee pudding.

September 20 Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement begins at sundown

September 28 Food Waste Prevention Week - Why wait? We waste almost half of our food in this country. That means we’re wasting our own money when we’re all feeling pinched by sky-high food prices. It’s so easy to do better.

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The idea behind Ramadan is that prayer and fasting create a spiritual heat to burn away any badness. That’d be good. Until that happens, nature kindly provides another way to cool down — mint.

The genus mentha has dozens of varieties, each with its own pleasing quality and style but all worth befriending and even growing. The mint in my raised bed garden has burnt to a crisp, but it does well indoors. And it will do well by you. A pot of mint on a sunny windowsill adds a pop of green and a waft of cooling, happy-making fragrance to your day. It’s also a ready source of healing, aiding digestion, blasting through congestion, and its antimicrobial properties help promote oral health and banish nasty breath. And we haven’t even gotten to what mint can do in the kitchen.

Most Americans think of mint as something sweet — mint chip ice cream, Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies — but this soft herb offers a soothing note to savory dishes. Here’s a bunch of mint (ha!) recipes to cool you down:

Spring pea purée from my first book Feeding the Hungry Ghost — fast, refreshing and deserving of a better name.

Chilled Viet noodles with a blizzard of fresh herbs

Borani esfanaj —Irani for spinach and yogurt; fresh mint makes it cooling and delicious. And it comes with a backstory.

Fattoush — A salad of stale bread, fresh tomatoes and a bright blast of mint

Make the most of the last summer mangoes with salad of quinoa, mango, mint

Proof mint is the herb of the moment: a friend serendipitously just forwarded this New York Times recipe for cucumber and mint salad from David Tanis.

And for you, Broccoli Rising paid subscribers, a fantastic mint chutney recipe. Most chutneys mean a sweaty day of cooking and canning. This chutney just takes a quick blitz in a food processor. Rev up your quinoa, mango and mint salad by adding a dollop. Cool.

More August Events

August 18 — Have you voted? It’s time. Tomorrow is Florida’s primary election day. Take time to know the candidates, understand the issues, the voting process and cast your ballot. Exercise your right to vote as enshrined in our Constitution.

August 26 — National Dog Day — Phoebe stands ready to party.

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My friend just saw the movie, and as we grazed on Greek mezze, he told me he’d found it . . boring.

“Boring? “ I said. “How? [SPOILER ALERT] “It’s an epic adventure that’s endured for millennia. It’s got it all — a war, conspiracy, a flawed hero, a giant, an enchantress —“

“Big deal, she turns men into pigs.”

“Honey, you try it.”

The meal, though, he did not find boring. Nor did I. It featured some of my favorites —horta, tender, fresh seasonal greens amply doused with lemon juice and olive oil, and gigantes, braised beans bathed in a mild tomato sauce. There was also dakos, ripe tomatoes meet stale bread — the sister of panzanella and fattoush. The kitchen put the cheese on the side for my omnivore friend, and offered roasted cauliflower florets wearing little more than a drizzle of olive oil and a handful of crushed pistachios for me, all of it accompanied by warm, fresh pita. That is the beauty of Greek cuisine. It’s not epic, it’s honest. It’s elemental on the palate and forgiving in the kitchen, much of it relying on fresh, local produce at its seasonal peak. There’s no trickery or Trojan Horse involved.

I was infatuated with the Trojan Horse, “The Odyssey,” and all Greek mythology as a kid. The Trojan Horse turned out badly for Troy. Other than that, it seemed like a great idea — that you could present something as a gift and have it offer something unexpected — but in a nice way. I’ve never been into burning and pillaging. With Broccoli Rising and all my work, I want to give you a gift of a recipe you actually want to eat and something extra — some backstory and context to feed your brain and heart too. I managed to work the Greek myth of Jason and the golden fleece into a story, when I was HuffPost’s Meatless Monday blogger. It was a while ago, but like most Greek myths offers, lessons for the present.

Think of your food choices kinda like [SPOILER ALERT] the army hidden within the Trojan Horse. What you may dismiss as just tonight’s dinner has effects reaching far beyond the plate, impacting your health, your wallet, the environment, education, social justice, sustainability, culture and community. The question is what kind of impact?

A vegan diet has a quarter of the carbon footprint of the carnivore diet touted by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and reduces your risk of cancer, cardiovascular health and diabetes. Eating well while doing good things for yourself and the planet isn’t a myth. And it isn’t boring. My briam recipe’s pretty good too.

Briam is a Greek casserole with sliced summer vegetables nestled in tomato sauce. The vegetables cook slowly until they sing together— like the sirens of “The Odyssey,” only friendlier.

The briam I made for HuffPost is here. Paid Broccoli Rising subscribers, I’ve updated and tweaked my original recipe and you will find it below.

Here are more Greece-inspired recipes, none of them boring:

• Simple but stunningly good Greek fava dip

• Hortopsomo, a pie of green goodness from my late great kitchen sister Aglaia Kremezi

From Greece to Miami

OMG, last night. A super-soulful thank you to everyone who joined my virtual kitchen for Sunday’s Soulful Dinner Series event, the cool kitchen edition. You made it possible. So did Andy, Lauren, Natalie and Sarah, the mighty team behind sponsors the Ikigai Partnership and Sustainable Spin.

You can still get my cookbook Miami Vegan: Plant-Based Recipes from the Tropics to Your Table at a special discount through Labor Day. No discount code required.

Miami Vegan Discount

Fellow Floridians, early voting and vote by mail is happening ahead of August 18th’s primary election for governor, senators, congressional, local judges and assorted local referenda. Participate in the electoral process. Let your voice be heard.

I’m happy to be back in the kitchen with the ladies at LEAP. LEAP’s intense reentry program offers job training, housing, and other resources and life skills, including how to cook and eat well on a budget -- that’s where I come in :). I’m proud to be part of this organization which helps these inspiring Miami women who deserve a second chance. And Miami folks, if you’re into thrifting, LEAP’s Dragonfly store has some mighty fine items. Purchases support LEAP, so do donations.

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5pm ET this Sunday, August 9 — Join my free virtual no-cooking class as we put together a fantastic, bright-flavored, plant-based meal that won’t heat up your kitchen. Don’t wanna cook? Just come for the community. It’s all part of the Soulful Dinner series sponsored by the Ikigai Partnership and Sustainable Spin. Register here.

Keep the cool thing going with my cookbook Miami Vegan: Plant-Based Recipes from the Tropics to Your Table is available at a special Soulful Dinner price now through Labor Day. No discount code required. Cool.

Buy Miami Vegan Now

In further coolness, I present Fattoush 2.0.

I’d included Chef José Andrés’s fattoush recipe in a recent Broccoli Rising. It’s a use-what-you’ve-got salad of fresh summer produce paired with stale bread with versions. Like hummus, fattoush has just a few key ingredients, but across Southwest Asia, North Africa, and beyond, everyone puts their own spin on it. Here’s mine, bright with mint, sweet and juicy with tomatoes, and tart with sumac to wake up your mouth in every bite.

Fun, strange fact — I’m fiercely allergic to cucumbers, so no cukes for me. But they’re a natural way to cool and hydrate, so dice up a cucumber and add it if you’ve got one.

Fattoush 2.0

• 1 stale or heading that way pita, preferably whole wheat

• 1 pound ripe tomatoes, sliced into bite-sized pieces

• 1/4 cup scallions, sliced thin

• 4 radishes, sliced thin

• 1 bunch mint leaves

• 3 cups fresh arugula, loosely packed and coarsely chopped

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon sumac

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a smidge more for brushing the pita

• 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (optional but way nice here)

• sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375℉. Place pita on a baking sheet. Brush very lightly with olive oil, add a sprinkle of sea salt. Toast for 8 to 10 minutes or until the pita is brown and crispy. Let cool slightly, then tear or crush into 1-inch pieces. Set aside.

Combine the sliced tomatoes, scallion, radishes, mint and arugula in a large salad bowl.

Give everything a toss to combine.

Squeeze in the lemon juice, sprinkle on the sumac and drizzle in the olive oil and optional pomegranate molasses. Give it all a good mix.

Add the torn, toasted pita shards, season with sea salt and ground pepper and dig in. Get it while it’s cool.

A free virtual community cooking class, a free fattoush recipe, my cookbook Miami Vegan available at a special discounted price — they’re small ways I can show you how grateful I am for you and the whole Broccoli Rising community. You make this possible. A big broccoli cheer for Broccoli Rising’s paid subscribers. Thank you for valuing what I cook and create. Your support means Broccoli Rising and I can keep on cooking.

Yogurt is cultured, so it’s immunity-boosting, anti-inflammatory and gives your microbiome just what it needs. It’s not just cultured, it’s cultural. In Turkey, yogurt signifies abundance and hospitality. Plant-based yogurt delivers all the above and more — it’s kinder to the environment and, of course, to animals. How delightful!

Are you a plant-based yogurt fan too? What’s your go-to brand?

That little bowl of plant-based yogurt made these other dishes possible – and luscious.

Plant-based Garlic Yogurt

Does garlic yogurt sound crazy? I thought so too — until I tried it. Now I love it. The yogurt gentles any garlic sharpness. Super-easy, rich yet cooling and enhances so many savory dishes, including crispy zucchini pancakes and chewy, pillowy pide, two Broccoli Rising paid subscriber recipe exclusives.

• 1/2 cup plain unsweetened vegan yogurt — Forager, Kite Hill, and even Trader Joe’s plant-based yogurts are all good choices

• 1 clove garlic, minced until minuscule

• pinch sea salt

Mix everything together in a small bowl. Use now or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Taste. If you really want that punch of garlic, mince in a second small clove. But honey, taste first.

Bulgur Pilaf with Greens

Recipe adapted with gratitude from fun James Beard Award-winning Chef Ana Sortun of Oleana.

• 2 tablespoons vegan butter

• 1 small onion, chopped

• 1 good-sized fresh, ripe tomato, grated or smashed or 3/4 cup canned crushed tomatoes

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 1 cup medium or coarse bulgur wheat

• 2 cups water or vegetable broth

• 4 cups tender fresh greens, such as spinach or arugula washed and chopped*

• 1/3 cup plain unsweetened vegan yogurt

• 1/2 cup crushed, toasted walnuts or hazelnuts

• sea salt to taste

• 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped

• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

• 1 tablespoon dried mint

• 2 teaspoons sumac

Rinse bulgur in a strainer — it can be dusty.

Melt the vegan butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

When it starts to sizzle, add the chopped onion. Sautè and stir, until the often softens and turns fragrant — about 10 minutes.

Add the grated or crushed tomato, tomato paste and work in tomato paste until well-combined.

Tip in the bulgur and stir so it becomes one with the tomato. Add the water and give a quick stir.

Place a lid on the skillet, reduce heat to medium and cook until bulgur drinks up most of the water — about 10 minutes.

Add the chopped parsley and greens and plop in the yogurt. Stir so everything mixes together well.

Add the Aleppo pepper, dried mint and sumac, combine and season generously with sea salt and finish with the chopped nuts.

Serve warm. Bulgur keeps well covered and refrigerated for several days and reheats nicely.

• I’ve even used less-than-tender kale straight from my garden and it wilts right into the pilaf just fine.

• Turkish delight is a jewel-like confection of cornstarch and sugar delicately flavored with pistachio, rosewater or orange. In Turkey, the locals call it locum.

5pm ET Sunday, August 9, let’s not cook. Join my free virtual no-cooking class as we put together a fantastic bright-flavored and plant-based meal that won’t heat up your kitchen. Don’t wanna cook? Just come for the community. It’s all part of the Soulful Dinner series sponsored by the Ikigai Partnership and Sustainable Spin.

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If you haven’t grabbed a copy of Miami Vegan, or you’d like to give one as a gift, now is the time. As a special thank you, I am offering a 10% discount now through Labor Day. Simply click the link below to purchase your copy. No discount code needed.

Buy Miami Vegan Now

For more Turkish delight, subscribe to Taste Jo Food. Jo is a culinary colleague and friend who’ll give you a lavish taste of Turkish hospitality.

Paid subscribers will find the Pide and Zucchini Pancakes recipes below. Upgrade to a paid subscription to get access now!

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Dear ones, I appreciate that summer is traditionally the time for grilling and gathering. Backyard barbecues are a beloved part of American culture that even George Washington enjoyed. But, honeys, it’s hot — just ask our dog, Phoebe. It’s way hotter than anything our Founding Fathers had to contend with, hot enough to bowl you over. So I’m going to suggest y’all do like Phoebe — come inside, have some water and cool down. The grill will keep. Let these easy, refreshing bowls come to the rescue.

Think of bowls as main course salads that get their pleasing oomph from whole grains, beans or even stale bread, like panzanella, Italy’s stale bread and everything-in-the-fridge salad.

Panzanella’s Levantine sibling is fattoush. This fattoush recipe comes from none other than José Andrés, big-hearted chef, humanitarian and the amazing force behind World Central Kitchen. Please consider donating to World Central Kitchen as they feed our Venezuelan friends in need.

Two more bowls with a tropical twist:

• Seven seed quinoa with spinach and sesame

• Watermelon ahi bowl

Not every bowl needs a recipe. This antipasto platter is the leftover grilled eggplant and peppers from July 4th (yeah, my husband grilled), decked out with pantry-friendly canned beans and artichoke hearts. I added some lettuce leaves, a few grape tomatoes, olives, and a sliced radish. Dress it with a little good olive oil and balsamic and call it a day.

Want dessert? Have some fruit. Orchard fruits, berries, tropical fruits — summer’s the best time for all of it. Fresh fruit is sweet, juicy, restorative, hydrating, just what your body needs.

5pm ET Sunday, August 9, let’s not cook. Join my free virtual no-cooking class as we put together a fantastic, bright-flavored and plant-based meal that won’t heat up your kitchen. Don’t wanna cook? Just come for the community. It’s all part of the Soulful Dinner series sponsored by the Ikigai Partnership and Sustainable Spin.

Register Now

Get more beat-the-heat recipes in my new cookbook Miami Vegan: Plant-based Recipes from the Tropics to Your Table. I’m offering a 10% discount on copies now through Labor Day. No discount code needed.

Buy Miami Vegan Now

But wait! For Broccoli Rising paid subscribers, try my Greek salad pasta recipe. It’s got the ripe tomatoes, oily olives, and other summery flavors of a Greek salad and takes it a little further by adding pasta. Extra points for making it with whole wheat or bean-based pasta. Make it a few hours or even a day ahead of serving and the flavors will go deep and delightful for you.

Not a paid subscriber yet? Upgrade now for access to my Greek Salad Pasta and all exclusive content.

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Tomorrow is Bastille Day, commemorating July 14, 1789, when the people in France, outraged by conditions including

• tax burdens, especially those levied on the poor

• soaring food costs and widespread food shortages

• citizens denied political voice

• citizens denied due process of the law

• citizens’ rights being stripped away

decided they’d had enough. They stormed the Bastille, a Paris fortress, toppled the monarchy and sparked the French Revolution. It was a good day — not for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, but for French citizenry. It still is. Bastille Day or la Fête Nationale, as a the French call it, is a celebration of liberté, égalité, fraternité and a day of pride for all things French — including the food.

French cuisine doesn’t always mean rich, heavy or fussy, especially with the temperatures soaring everywhere — Paris is hotter than Miami today. As ever, beans are the answer and star in these stylish salads — minimal effort, maximum enjoyment and French as anything. Serve all three slightly cool rather than just out of the fridge so their flavors blossom in your mouth.

Flageolets and Dandelion Greens

Flageolets look and taste opulent. Dried, they’re pale lavender and mint green and look like candy. Cooked, they take on a buttery color and mouthfeel. Even their name is French and elegant. Actually, they’re immature kidney beans. The only place I’ve found flageolets other than France is from our heirloom bean friends at Rancho Gordo.

Dandelion greens on the other hand, grow beautifully in my garden. Until summer rolls around. My dandelions are burning up and have moved past the refreshing and tonic phase into tough-stemmed bitterness. Mixing them with beans softens their bite and makes them friendlier to eat. Feel free to substitute other sassy fresh greens like mustard greens, arugula and/or watercress.

I love this pure and simple, but you can also mound the beans and greens on toasts and serve them as stylish tartines, France’s version of crostini.

• 2 cups flageolets, cooked and drained

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons fresh herbs, such as basil, oregano or thyme, chopped fine

• 4 cups fresh dandelion greens, watercress or arugula, chopped

• sea salt and fresh pepper to taste

While the beans are still warm, pour them into a large bowl, drizzle in the olive oil and lemon juice. Mix to combine.

Gently work in the finely chopped herbs and season generously with sea salt and pepper.

Mix in the dandelion greens, watercress or arugula. The warm beans may cause the fresh greens to soften wilt a bit. This is fine.

Let the beans and greens sit at room temperature and get to know each other. They longer they marinate in the lemon juice, herbs and olive oil, the more they’ll excite your mouth. Keep covered and refrigerated for three to four days.

French Lentil Salad

Pouring just-cooked lentils over diced carrots and celery softens the raw vegetables just enough. and adds dimension to the lentils. It’s like a cheaty mirapoix, a French term and technique of using finely diced carrot, celery and onion to build flavor.

To be truly French about it, the lentils of choice — there’s at least a dozen varieties — are speckled French lentilles du Puy or beluga lentils, but even your basic brown or green guys will speak with a French accent when dressed with this walnut and Dijon vinaigrette. Sumptuous, savory, umami and vegan. This is one chic summer salad that won’t wilt at a picnic.

Beloved Broccoli Rising paid subscribers, celebrate Bastille Day with my neoclassic recipe for salade Niçoise — literally the salad of Nice. It’s an elegant assemblage of haricots verts (means green beans), juicy tomatoes, salty niçiose or Kalamata olives, and cooked sliced potatoes drenched in a lemony Dijon vinaigrette.

Haricots verts are slimmer and sweeter than the green beans we get here, but standard American Blue Lake green beans will serve you fine. It’s bright, summery, savory and lacking the tuna, egg and anchovy of the classic French recipe. A sprinkling of briny capers offers the right marine tang, saves the fish and keeps it French and vegan.

Not a paid subscriber yet? Upgrade your subscription now to get access to this Neoclassical Salade Niçoise and all of my paid subscriber exclusive content.

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Vegan burger history begins with the hippie-era lentil loaf. Often described as hearty, what they really mean is heavy, earnest, unlovely and involving a slew of ingredients. Don’t believe me? Google it. Then came the first wave of commercial plant-based burgers. They had the virtue of being vegan, but lacked flavor and fat. They were cardboard. Recent big vegan brands used some crazyass biotech methods to produce moist and meaty-tasting burgers that were hot. . . until they weren’t.

What’s your favorite vegan burger brand or recipe? Sharing is caring, loves. Lmk.

I’ve worked with DIY vegan burger recipes with varying degrees of success, but none address the pain points of the past:

• A plant-based burger should be delicious

• It should require relatively few ingredients

• It should be made with ingredients you recognize and understand

• It should be affordable

• It should be doable in a home kitchen, not produced in a lab

• It should be pretty

America’s a new country. We have a magpie’s attraction to shiny new things. We love innovation. But not every new invention is a winner. Remember New Coke? The perfect plant-based burger is still in development, at least at my house. So I have gone back even further in history and stretched far beyond our shores to share a naturally plant-based recipe from Turkey — mercimek köftesi. Hunh? Honey, call it red lentil kofte.

Red lentils are the teensiest lentils and the quickest-cooking. They’re loaded with protein and fiber; they’re affordable, versatile, chewy and umami. Mixed with fine bulgur, a few spices, a blob of tomato paste and not a whole lot else, these kofte shape easily into patties that can be baked, pan-fried or even in these meltingly hot days of summer, enjoyed room temperature or chilled. And they’re pretty and perky. This is the burger for our time. At least for now.

Broccoli Rising free subscribers, I’d never leave you recipeless. Here’s a bean burger recipe from The Veggie Queen, my friend Jill Nussinow. Jill is also the queen of breathwork.

Paid Subscribers, keep scrolling for my Red Lentil Kofte recipe.

Not a paid subscriber? You can upgrade today to get full access to all of my exclusive content. And thanks for your support.

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As Father’s Day approached, I thought about my dad who never said no to dessert. It’s hard to know which he’d prefer — a good-sized wedge of tender, chocolatey red velvet cake — the game-changing recipe that got him to eat beets — or buttery, fruity crostata di marmaletta. Italy’s classic jam tart. With a buttery crust and a fruity filling, it’s a homey, anytime treat my father interpreted literally — he’d eat it for breakfast. He loved this recipe. I know you will too. That’s why I’m unlocking this Broccoli Rising paid subscriber exclusive:

What Dad didn’t love — eggplant. Neither did my dear father-in-law. This gutsy eggplant salad. might have changed their minds.

It’s one of the Aegean’s happy combinations of cooked salad, relish and dip. Enjoy a dollop over greens, as part of a mezze platter with hummus, olives, and my so easy, so ridiculously good Moroccan carrot salad, as a topping for pide (Turkey’s boat-shaped flatbreads) or stuffed into a pita.

It’s inspired by a recipe I learned ages ago from Aglaia Kremezi.

Aglaia inspired me in other ways too. Eggplant was our first connection, but far from our last. Her spirit will always be a warm and welcome presence in my kitchen, but it seems terribly wrong the two of us never got to meet — and hug and laugh and cook— in person.

Hug the people you love and feed them when you can. And when they’re beyond the reach of your arms or spoon, call or honey, at least text. Make an effort before all the people you love become ghosts.

What food or flavor keeps the memory of someone alive for you?

For more about hungry ghosts and how to feed them, check out my podcast and video with Vegan Pulse host Nancy Arenas.

July 4, marks our 250th anniversary as a nation. Next Monday’s Broccoli Rising offers a (vegan) taste of America. It’s a Broccoli Rising paid subscriber exclusive post. Join the tribe and be part of it.

And now here’s one for my mom, and for you too, Broccoli Rising paid subscribers.

In their latter years, my folks escaped Miami summers to spend time in Vermont, renting a cottage surrounded by cornfields. Every summer, my city-chic mama lamented heading back home before the Vermont corn was ripe for picking, and I’d always say, We grow corn in Miami too, you know. We do. Corn may well be a summer friend where you are too, so here’s a recipe for corn pudding. Corn pudding is the love child of corn bread and creamed corn, and the subject of a sweetly goofy song from the sweetly goofy and very funny Tony-award winning musical, Schmigadoon. Fresh corn and classic musicals — my mother loved both. So this recipe is a way of keeping her close too.

Corn Pudding

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Also known as Emancipation Day, Juneteenth commemorates the day two years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, when U.S. forces came to Galveston, Texas, to enforce the liberation of enslaved Black people. It came way later than it should have, but it’s still a red-letter day, a national holiday, a time to celebrate resilience and commit to building a better future for all.

Red for Juneteenth represents the blood shed in the pursuit of justice, or to put a sweeter spin on it, triumph over oppression, so paint the town and the table red with red drinks like hibiscus iced tea and strawberry soda and red foods from watermelon to red velvet cake. They aren’t just summery treats; they’re sweet symbols of spirit, strength, and Black pride.

Red velvet cake is chocolate cake with a slightly red tinge from the chemical magic created when Dutch process cocoa meets baking soda and clabbered milk. Some chefs really ramp up the red with artificial red food coloring. Historically, Black communities used beets to impart a rich red color naturally. So do I. My red velvet cake no more tastes of beets than carrot cake tastes of carrots. It’s chocolatey, and it’s vegan.

One beet does double duty here, adding color and moisture to both the cake and frosting. But while you’re at it, you might as well roast a whole bunch of beets. Then you can use the rest to make another red beauty, roasted beet salad with chili lime vinaigrette. Nice for Juneteenth and Father’s Day this Sunday. The cake does double duty too — make two, one for Juneteenth and one for Father’s Day. My dad could never say no to dessert.

More Juneteenth-worthy recipes here.

Broccoli Rising paid subscribers, I’ve got a special red recipe for you, jollof rice which autocorrect keeps changing to jolly rice. Well, it is jolly, and a Nigerian favorite, the centerpiece of every party, the pride of every family and community gathering. Each household puts their own spin on it, but jollof rice is always chili-charged, tomato-intense and very vermillion.

Red Velvet Cake (Vegan Chocolate Beet Cake)

Wanna make a layer cake? Just double the ingredients and pour into two 8-inch cake pans.

• 1 beet cooked* and cooled

• 1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 cup evaporated cane sugar

• 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• pinch salt optional

• 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee

• 1/4 cup grapeseed or other neutral oil

• 1 tablespoon white vinegar

• 1/3 cup unsweetened oat milk or other nondairy milk

• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350℉. Lightly oil an 8-inch cake pan.

In a bowl, sift together unbleached flour, sugar, baking soda and Dutch process cocoa.

Slice the beet, saving one small slice for the frosting. Purée the rest in a blender or food processor. Pour in coffee, oil, vinegar, plant-based milk and vanilla and process just until they reach a creamy, milkshake-like consistency.

With a light hand, mix the wet ingredients into the flour dry till they coalesce and form a thickish batter.

Pour into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

For the blushing frosting:

• 1 good-sized slice of cooked beet (about 1 teaspoon)

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) vegan butter, chilled

• 4 ounces vegan cream cheese, chilled

• 2 cups powdered sugar (yeah, lotta sugar, sorry about that)

• splash of vanilla extract — about1/2 teaspoon

In a standing mixer, beat together the vegan butter and cream cheese on medium speed, just until light and combined, maybe 2 minutes.

Add the powdered sugar in two batches just till incorporated, and frosting is billowy, creamy and not at all gritty. Cover and chill the frosting for at least 30 minutes to let it thicken and firm up. Then spread on the cooled cake.

• To roast beets, preheat oven to 40 ℉. Slice beet roots (the pretty red bulb parts) from the greens. Wrap the beets (minus beet greens) tightly in foil. Place in a baking dish and roast for an hour, just as you’d bake a potato. In fact, you can do both at once. Make baked potatoes or sweet potatoes for part of tonight’s dinner and throw your beets in there too. I think of it as culinary hitchhiking (proper name: passive cooking). Remove from oven and let cool. When beets are cool enough to handle, rub the beets and their skins should slip right off.

• Save your beet greens! Rinse them well of grit, blot dry, chop, sauté with olive oil, lemon and garlic and enjoy. Beet greens are kin to Swiss chard, tender and mild-flavored. Juneteenth is all about red, but you know I love my greens.

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Carlo Petrini tried to get us to put the brakes on fast food, not by scolding or even through public policy, but by offering something different, something better. He founded the Slow Food movement, bringing together growers, artisans and chefs to preserve and celebrate seasonal and regional gastronomy and maybe put the joy back in cooking and eating.

So did cookbook author and culinary instructor Aglaia Kremezi. Chef José Andrés called her his Greek grandmother. I called her my kitchen sister. Both Petrini and Aglaia ( still feel I can call her Aglaia) died last week. They leave behind culinary legacies we can feel, taste, and cherish.

I never met Aglaia in real life, though we sometimes exchanged emails, always, always, always about food. She’d ask about aquafaba, I’d ask about olive oil, and man, did we bond over our love of greens. Both she and Petrini —gregarious, larger than life — were big-hearted champions of a food system to feed us all, one that’s good, clean and fair, one that’s transparent, honoring terroir and tradition, culture and community. If that sounds quaint now, it was radical then.

While Slow Food started 40 years ago with a Mediterranean focus— Petrini was Italian, Aglaia was Greek — every culture and cuisine has its slow food. Petrini was instrumental in establishing a series of Slow Food Gardens throughout Africa.

Call it slow food, call it farm-to-table, it’s not elitist, not Eurocentric, and not expensive. It doesn’t mean dinner takes all day and every pot in the house to make. It’s valuing — and sharing — meals crafted by hand — your hand, my hand — rather than manufactured. It’s cooking with ingredients from the garden, not the lab. This kind of food is better for us, better for the planet and truly offers a happy meal.

But we have more work and more cooking to do. Americans still spend less time at the kitchen and the table than any other nation. Afraid you wouldn’t make the cut on “Master Chef”? Honey, neither would I. This isn’t showbiz, it’s dinner. Just honor the ingredients and share the food.

Most Americans — presumably the ones ordering DoorDash rather than making a meal, would like to feel comfortable making comfort food — pasta. So here’s an easy but classic recipe for pasta agile olio e pepperoncino for everyone.

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Mushroom Pasta

You can use any kind of pasta here, but I suggest whole wheat. Fresh cremini or button mushrooms plus a small handful of dried porcini or other wild mushrooms offer wonderful richness for not a lot of money. For more about mushrooms’ talent to please plus a schmancy recipe from me, visit Modern Daily Knitting .

And here’s some advice from Petrini, Aglaia and me — take it slow.

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“The message is simple: eat real food.” So say the folks at the United States Department of Agriculture. I wish it were that simple. I don’t care what your tax bracket is; food costs are way up. Fresh vegetables alone cost 11% more than they did last year. My husband now braces himself to go food shopping with me because I’m likely to go on a tirade about how broccoli was a dollar less last week or burst into tears. We’re fortunate — we can afford to put an occasional bunch of broccoli in our basket. Not everyone can.

SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) eligibility requirements got tougher under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, and it wasn’t so beautiful for the 42 million eligible American families to have federally funded benefits slashed, withheld, delayed, and cut in half.

I’m all for fresh fruits and vegetables. You probably are too, and so are most moms on assistance. The problem is affording them. The House Appropriations Committee has proposed cutting $141 million in WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) fresh produce benefits for recipients. Mothers are resourceful. They have to be. Without fresh produce benefits, WIC moms have reached for the next best thing — jam and jelly. Not ideal, but fruity, comforting, shelf-stable, affordable and when paired with peanut butter, beloved by both kids and moms. Until now. USDA director Brooke Rollins says jelly no longer counts under WIC credits. Slashing resources for fresh produce while targeting jelly makes no real sense.

Eat real food? I wish everyone could. I wish the message really was that simple. But the real message seems to be something else.

This recipe for PBJ squares had been a Broccoli Rising paid subscriber exclusive. I’m glad to share it here for free, with peanut butter and jelly for all.

PBJ Squares

My mother was a huge Ina Garten fan. My father was a big fan of dessert. They’d both approve of these peanut butter and jam squares. I hope you do too. Recipe slightly tweaked and easily veganized from Ina Garten’s classic recipe.

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) vegan butter

• 2/3 cup cane sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 3 tablespoons aquafaba

• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter, preferably without sugar

• 1-1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 cup jam or preserves — use your favorite

Preheat oven to 350℉. Lightly lube an 8 X 8-inch Pyrex baking dish with vegan butter.

Line baking pan with parchment, butter the parchment, then dust with flour, knocking out any excess.

In a standing mixer, cream together vegan butter and cane sugar at medium speed for a minute or so until pale and creamy. Mix in the vanilla, aquafaba and peanut butter.

In a small bowl, sift together the unbleached flour and baking powder. Turn mixer on to low and add the flour to the peanut butter mixture just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough so it cover the bottom of the baking dish. Smooth evenly.

Spoon the jam on top and spread to cover the dough. Drop the remaining dough by spoonfuls on top of the jam. It may not cover completely now but have faith. It will spread during baking.

Bake the PBJ squares for 30 minutes or until the top is tawny and kitchen smells nutty, toasty and terrific. Allow to cool completely then cut into 16 squares.

PBJ squares keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

June Happenings

June 8 World Ocean Day. Celebrate our seas. Not all seafood means fish — it can be seaweed, which brings fishy but fish-free flavor to my poke bowl with watermelon ahi.

June 17 Every day is a good day to eat vegetables, but especially today — it’s Eat Your Vegetables Day, and have I got some green goodness for you. Don’t go for greens? Try carrots.

June 19 Juneteenth aka African-American Emancipation Day. Mark the day with my Juneteenth Bowl showcasing edible gifts from Africa including yams, black-eyed peas, collards, peanuts and sorghum. All the ingredients are nutrient-dense and covered under SNAP benefits. Sorghum is all that plus it’s gluten-free and a sustainability superstar.

June 21 Two reasons to celebrate — It’s Father’s Day and summer solstice — so there’s all the more reason to grill. Add some thrill to your grill with my mango barbecue sauce recipe from Miami Vegan.

You don’t have a copy of Miami Vegan? What are you waiting for?

Getting political parties to agree on anything these days seems like it takes a force of nature. It had one — Olympic medalist, Dotsie Bausch, one of the plant-powered athletes profiled in the documentary “The Game-Changers,” says moving to plant-based dairy not only helped her beat physical and mental health challenges — big ones — it drove her to peak performance.

Bausch wants everyone to be able to unleash the power of plant-based. That’s why she founded the nonprofit Switch4Good, championing dairy-free choices. It’s also why she spent years lobbying Congress to make the dairy-free option clause in Federal Bill S-222 a reality. No surprise, the dairy industry wasn’t too keen on that.

“We knew we were going to have to be the ones to tell schools about this new law,” says Bausch. So she and her team launched The Justice Tour, with fellow athletes and experts going out to schools across the country to let kids know about this new law and how it affects them. More than that, Bausch wants students to realize they have a voice, they have a choice.

Dairy is a major allergen — something else the dairy industry doesn’t advertise — and a good chunk the world’s population is lactose-intolerant. That includes Bausch and maybe you, too. Maybe you don’t even realize dairy’s the reason you or your child often feel cruddy. It’d be a good thing to know. Dairy allergies can impact academic as well as athletic performance. Choosing plant-based dairy at school — and at home — means kids can live better (cows can live longer, too).

Bringing The Justice Tour from school to school has been a Herculean effort, Bausch admits. Wrangling the government to pass a law mandating plant-based dairy options in public schools couldn’t have been a breeze either. But going from feeling bad to feeling great can be as easy as switching to vegan dairy options. In terms of wellness, though, it can be a game changer.

Wanna bring plant-based power to your school? The Justice Tour wants to deliver.

Contact Switch4Good’s Tiffany Bruno tiffany@switch4good.org

Oat milk, vegan butter and vegan cheese — three plant-based greats — make for a mighty vegan mac and cheese.

Rich and creamy plant-based yogurt is the secret ingredient in many of my recipes these days, including this personal summer favorite, refreshing, bright borani esfanaj.

Paid Broccoli Rising subscriber exclusive recipe, PBJ Squares, follows this content. Not a paid subscriber? Upgrade now.

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Every subscriber gives me a thrill, but I’m especially grateful for you. Your support and kindness are what keep Broccoli Rising and me going. I want to keep you going too, so by way of thanks, here’s five — no — six exclusive recipes designed to be quick, easy and fabulous. And because I like to overdeliver, the…

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Easy recipes delivering big fun flavors had participants dancing in their kitchens during my Soulful Dinner virtual cooking class, part of the national community-building initiative 10 Days of Connection. I’d have been dancing too. The irony was, I couldn’t see them. Or hear them. Let alone dance with them. Connectivity issues.

Hey, tech glitches happen, and one hour of feeling cut off from the world is crazy-making but endurable. But what if you feel that way all the time? More than half of us do, so much so that loneliness is a public health crisis. It’s not obvious like a rash or a broken bone, but it’s painful. More than that, loneliness impacts lifespan and quality of life in a not good way. So it’s not a coincidence 10 Days of Connection, now in its 10th year, happens in May, Mental Health Awareness Month.

Virtual connection can be amazing. It got a lot of us through the pandemic shutdown. I’m grateful for the energizing, funny, warm, brilliant friends I’ve met online who I might never have met in real life. But Sunday’s audio/video fail on my end reminded me that virtual connection has its limits. Even when it works, it won’t let you smell the warm fragrance of just-picked rosemary from my garden, won’t let me feed you a spoonful of something delicious right out of the pot. Closing your apps, getting out of the house and connecting with new people is where the magic happens. And I say this as a nervous introvert who can enter a room full of strangers and want to run back out. But I still try to do it.

Stepping out of my comfort zone is challenging in a way virtual connection is not. But it’s vital to building community, relationships, tolerance, communication, and creating real connection — the stuff and support reminding us we’re not alone in the universe.

I love creating plant-based recipes, menus and programming, but as fantastic as plants are, the secret sauce is — wait for it — us — you, me and all of us very flawed human selves. In my first book Feeding the Hungry Ghost, I wrote about how experiencing care and connection nourishes us the way a good meal does. It brings down our frazzled energy, it lets us take a breath. It makes us go ahhhh. It feeds us. And if we’re lucky, it makes us want to dance.

Fast and Fabulous Fruit Tarts

These tarts, made as part of the Soulful Dinner cooking class might make you dance. Dessert is not a cure for loneliness. But share them with with a colleague or neighbor and I pretty much guarantee you’ll be feeling an enhanced connection. (Recipe available to paid subscribers, only.)

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You know what else is fast and fabulous? Find out next Monday with Broccoli Rising’s five fast and fabulous plant-based recipes, a paid subscriber exclusive. If you’re a free subscriber, now may be the right time to upgrade your subscription. You’re pretty fabulous, too.

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Did you miss connecting at our Soulful Dinner? The next one’s August 9. Join us and be part of the soulful dinner community. Let’s cook up something delicious together.

This was love at first bite. I cooked it with a guest chef when we taught together for Common Threads. He didn’t have a name for it; it was just greens the way his momma made them. Smart woman, his mom. I call it Momma’s Greens in Miami Vegan. It’s also called sukuma wiki, Swahili for stretch the week. It’s a budget-stretcher too, doing more with less. It’s kin to jama-jama. In Cameroon, it’s made with local huckleberry greens. You can make it with local collards in the South, you can make it with callaloo in the Caribbean, you can make it with spinach or kale everywhere else. It tames any leafy green into lusciousness. The recipe begins in Africa, but mothers, chefs and home cooks everywhere give it their own spin and flavor — a delicious diaspora. You can call it sautéed greens, but like mother love, there’s so much more to it.

You don’t have to be human to experience the mystical, powerful bond between mother and child. All animals feel it. But you can show your humanity this Mother’s Day by celebrating and protecting mothers of all species. My friend here, Esmerelda, a mom herself, will be happy if you do.

Tomorrow, put a little extra joy in Cinco de Mayo with Mexican chocolate love bites.

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I love playing in the kitchen with friends. April’s had me cooking up fun with the folks at Miami Cancer Institute, where I got to teach with one of my favorite chefs, Cindy Hutson, with the fab femmes at LEAP for Ladies, with a bunch of chocolate-loving martial arts black belts, and I brought friends to my table for 1 Million Tables.

I want to be in the kitchen with you, too. Join me this Sunday for the Soulful Dinner series. This free virtual plant-based cooking class returns to your kitchen for a special Make it For Mom Mother’s Day brunch class. You can cook along with me this Sunday and enjoy a great meal, then make it next Sunday and show your mom she raised you right. Or just come to connect with a wonderful community. Everyone’s welcome.

Event is free — free! — sponsored by Sustainable Spin and the Ikigai Partnership. All you gotta do is sign up through EventBrite.

Sign up and you’ll get the shopping list, kitchen needs and recipes.

When Ikigai’s founder, Andy Chabassol, and Lauren Reilly of Sustainable Spin and I first started noodling over the idea for these Soulful Dinners, we all had different ideas of what we wanted to deliver:

Andy said joy

Lauren said sustainability

I said empowerment in the kitchen

The great thing is, we can do all three in one delicious, joyful, sustainable, empowering and welcoming go — that’s the power of plant-based. See you Sunday.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Jewish American Heritage Month. At a time when hate crimes have shot up 100% according to the FBI, we all need to show kindness to those we love, those we don’t even know, and especially to ourselves. The theme of Mental Health Awareness Month is More Good Days, Together. Let’s make it happen together.

May 3 5pm ET Join Make it for Mom, my free virtual cooking class, sponsored by The Ikigai Partnership and Sustainable Spin. Register with Eventbrite and grab your chef’s knife.

May 4 Adeena Sussman and James Beard Award-winning chef Michael Solomonov will be at the Hub at Temple Beth Am for one delicious evening.

May 5 Cinco de Mayo, is about more than mezcal, it celebrates Mexico’s victory at the Battle of Puebla

May 10, Mother's Day. Have I got a brunch menu for her (and for you). Register with Eventbrite.

I’m super-grateful to you, Broccoli Rising subscribers, especially those of you who’ve upgraded to paid subscriber status. This recipe’s for you.

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Look how beautiful we are. We lucked out to have such a magnificent home. Considering it was built 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth’s held up pretty well. But like every home, it requires occasional upkeep. Wednesday’s the occasion. It’s Earth Day.

Home improvements can involve unpleasant surprises — more cost, more mess, the fixture that won’t fit, the missing part that’s out of stock and needs to be special ordered from another country. Not here.

Fixing up the planet doesn’t mean a full-scale renovation. Little actions can have a big impact.

Take a lesson from lentils. The littlest legume can do some heavy lifting. It’s super sustainable, low water, high yield, and carbon negative. You read that right. And that’s even before lentils reach our kitchens, where they offer high protein, high fiber, high folate and endless versatility. Lentils can fritter, lentils can burger, they can salad, they can soup and more. All that and they’re easy on the wallet too.

Little and affordable lentils are just the start of something big. A new study indicates moving to a plant-based diet saves you money, all while shoring up our home’s foundations. Going plant-based lightens our environmental load. We should really call it a planet-based diet because that’s what it is.

Support your local farmer, especially small local family farms. They keep the organic flame alive. Organically-raised produce makes for more nutrient-rich soil for the planet, more nutrient-dense food for us, and it’s just good fun.

You can improve your home just by sharing a planet-friendly meal with your favorite people, especially in time for Earth Day. That’s the idea behind 1 Million Tables for the Planet. Register your table, whether it’s hummus and pita for you and a friend or a plant-based potluck for 50. The nonprofit will send you resources galore, from recipes to hosting tips. It’s a delicious form of activism.

Reduce food waste. America’s the world’s biggest offender. I’m a relentless repurposer and composter. We had a dozen plain lentils that somehow escaped and didn’t make it into dinner. I thought my husband was going to sweep them into the trash. I must have gasped. He looked at me, swept them into our compost bucket instead, then kissed the top of my head. Reducing food waste should earn you a kiss, too. Shop smart, use what you have and compost extras. There’s probably a community compost program right where you live.

All these little actions add up to keep our beautiful planet beautiful.

The Italians have always appreciated the power of lentils. They eat them on New Year’s Day to bring good luck, the way in the South we eat hopping john. Lentils even earn their place in Baroque art.

Paid Broccoli Rising subscribers, enjoy the art of lentils in Sunny Sicilian Lentils, treating lentils to Italy’s winning combination of woodsy rosemary, briny kalamatas, sweet, savory tomatoes, the brightness of balsamic, and an optional but highly recommended smack of red pepper flakes. There’s a dozen types of lentils, and basic brown or green guys will do nicely here, but extra points if you get heirloom brown lentils from Umbria. It’s also home to St. Francis of Assisi, Italy’s patron saint.

Wishing you and the Earth a happy Earth Day.

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