From chocolate-covered figs to homemade kimchi, these dishes will get you in the mood for fall.
Annabelle Breakey
September is a bit of a funny month in terms of produce and seasonality as the first half will deliver the final offerings of summer while the second starts to feel more like fall. With sweet potatoes, beets, and pomegranates making their way onto farmers market stands, we are also still seeing tomatoes and corn on display.
Take the last of those tomatoes and make enough sauce to last you through the winter, throw the final cobs of corn on to the grill, and remember September is still technically summer until the equinox on the 22nd! While you’re canning tomato sauce, take advantage of cabbages and green beans coming into season and try your hand at a homemade kimchi or pickled beans—because nothing says fall like a pantry stocked with jars and preserves.
As we start to see figs ripen on our trees and in markets, you can pop them into your mouth as is or transform them into a sweet roasted topping or as an accompaniment to a chicken bake entree. While radicchio may look like a cabbage, it’s actually a member of the Asteraceae or daisy family and is more closely a relative of the Belgian endive. The bitter flavor of radicchio can be balanced by adding it to a salad with goat cheese or garnished with dates. My favorite way to prepare them is to quarter them lengthwise, drizzle them with a little oil and honey, and sear them in a hot pan. Bonus points that they’re sturdy enough to hold shape if thrown on the grill.
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Think out of the box this month and serve brunch with a side of cabbage gratin and green bean fries. Opt to set the table up to dine outside before it gets too chilly to do so! However, wherever, and whenever you choose to whip up a meal this month, make it special with our favorite recipes and ingredients to cook with in September.
- Salads and Sides
- Entrees
- Sweets
Salads and Sides
1 of 10Leigh Beisch
Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples
This sweet potato dish strikes a nice balance between sweet, tart, and savory. Perfect for the autumn months as well asthe holidays, this dish combines different varieties of apples for a complex side dish that will make your house smell like an aromatic dream.
2 of 10Thomas J. Story
Choi’s Napa Cabbage Kimchi
This fiery kimchi closely resembles the award-winning product that Chong Choi and her son Matt Choi sell at the Portland State University Farmer’s Market stand and at grocery stores throughout the Pacific Northwest. Although Chong warns that only gochugaru (ground Korean chiles) will produce an authentic flavor, you can make a delicious kimchi with a combination of dried mild New Mexico chiles and hotter Thai or arbol chiles.
3 of 10Erin Kunkel
Green Beans with Chanterelles and Cipollini
Chanterelle mushrooms and cipollini onions are worth the splurge to top simple but perfectly crisp green beans. Serve alongside a carbonara or cheesy pasta dish to satisfy your dinner guests with a palette cleansing veggie component.
4 of 10
Chicken Salad with Roasted Beets and Dandelion Greens
Dandelion greens can be quite bitter, but the olive oil, lemon, and salt in the dressing—and the sweet beets—mellow them so they give no more than a pleasant edge to the salad. This makes for a great meal prep lunch and tastes great on a roll for a makeshift sandwich.
5 of 10Annabelle Breakey
Fig, Hazelnut, and Goat Cheese Salad
Crunch, sweetness, and a touch of richness—this recipe has everything you want in a salad. Dress the greens separately, then tuck in the soft figs and cheese so they keep their shape.
6 of 10Iain Bagwell
Green Bean Fries with Spicy Mayo
A light cornmeal coating and chipotle chile dip make these green beans as addictive as french fries. If you like more texture, use medium-grind cornmeal.
7 of 10Annabelle Breakey
Savoy Cabbage Gratin
Think mac ‘n’ cheese—but with vegetables instead of noodles. This gratin is a warming side dish, though it’s so good you might be tempted to call it dinner.
8 of 10Thomas J. Story
Moroccan Carrot Salad
Israeli chef Alon Shaya, of Denver’s Safta, buys bunches of young carrots. “The skins are more tender,” he says. “I roast them skin-on for the added nutrients.” Rather than throw out the carrot tops, he blanches them quickly in salted water to pull out the bitterness and turns them into a pesto.
9 of 10Iain Bagwell
Ginger and Chile Pickled Green Beans
These zingy pickles take only about an hour to prepare, but provide many months’ worth of snacking. Serve them alongside burgers, add to Bloody Marys, or just eat them straight from the jar.
10 of 10Jennifer Causey
Farro Salad with Apples, Halloumi, and Herbs
Nutty, salty, and sweet, this hearty salad is best with apples that soften when cooked but still hold their shape. Find farro, a type of wheat berry, at well-stocked grocery stores. Most farro sold today is semipearled, a process that removes some of the bran for quicker cooking. If the package instructions call for soaking overnight, you have whole-grain farro and will also need to cook it longer, usually 45 minutes to an hour.
Entrees
1 of 8Jennifer Causey
Five Spice Chicken Thighs with Apples and Sweet Potatoes
Chinese five-spice adds a warm note without pushing the apples into pie territory, and the apples are tart enough to balance the flavor too. Cooked fennel bulbs add a warm, aromatic note that makes this sheet pan dinner smell like a cozy, autumn night. Roasting ingredients together on a sheet pan saves time and reduces cleanup.
2 of 8Thomas J. Story
Grilled Rib-Eye Steaks with Blistered Padrón Peppers
With its generous marbling, rib-eye just may be the tastiest steak of all for the grill. Inspired by the cider-house tradition in the Spanish countryside, Matthew Dillon of Bar Sajor restaurant in Seattle adds a phenomenal but simple sauce from the resting juices and a touch of cider vinegar and honey.
3 of 8Annabelle Breakey
Sablefish with Savoy Cabbage and Fennel Slaw
Savoy cabbage is mild and tender even when raw, making it ideal for this light accompaniment to rich sablefish. The recipe is also excellent with four boned trout fillets, and the slaw tastes good with just about any protein.
4 of 8Annabelle Breakey
Chicken and Roasted Figs
Figs get a nice jammy texture as they cook with chicken in the garlic-honey sauce. For crisp chicken skin, resist the urge to spoon sauce over it during baking.
5 of 8Marcus Nilsson
Prawns with Green Rice
“It’s very Spanish to serve shrimp this way, adding green things (in this case spinach)to the water in which the rice is cooked, and using this as a base for buttery prawns freshened up with a squeeze of lime. It’s easy enough to be a weeknight dinner but tasty enough for company too,” says chefGabriela Cámara of this recipe excerpted from her cookbook,My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions.
6 of 8Adeena Sussman
Plum and Beet Soup with Spiced Yogurt Swirl
Think of this as “new and improved” borscht, with fruit and mint added for freshness and subtle spices for intrigue. If you like, roast extra beets to eat later in the week; they keep several days in the refrigerator.
7 of 8Iain Bagwell
Pork Shoulder Roast with Figs, Garlic, and Pinot Noir
Stuffing this roast with figs and garlic slivers will make you feel like a modern-day Julia Child, and the results are stunning: mosaic-like slices infused with rich fruit and wine flavors.
8 of 8
Red Cabbage and Beef Soup with Rice
We love the meaty soups of Eastern Europe, but they take a while to cook. Here’s a quick, fresh version that works well for a weeknight. Many grocery stores now stock ground bison, which is great in this dish if you can find it. Serve with crusty rye bread, butter, and green onions.
Sweets
1 of 5Iain Bagwell
Carrot Ginger Tea Cake with Lime Glaze
Taking a cue from our favorite juice bar combos, this dense, not-too-sweet cake gets loads of moistness from both carrots and carrot juice, and a hint of heat from two kinds of ginger. The lime glaze adds a tangy kick.
2 of 5
Chocolate and Sea Salt Fig Lollipops
This recipe is great to do with figs of different levels of ripeness. A quick chill between dunks in chocolate ensures that the skewers stick to the figs. You’ll need 12 flat bamboo skewers or wooden coffee stirrers cut to this size; paper or plastic ones slide out.
3 of 5Jennifer Causey
Apple Cream Torte
A cream torte is like a cross between a cake, a custard, and a Dutch baby. The tender-sweet varieties of apples used here soften more readily than some when baked, making them a better match for the delicate cake. Look for Northern California and Northwest varieties at your local grocery store or farmers’ market from August through November.
4 of 5
Mini Grape Cobblers
Without a bottom crust to get in the way,grapescaramelize at the edges, adding depth to their sweetness. Red, late-summer varieties like Flame and Crimson keep their color in the oven and bake up nice and jammy. The tender cream cheese top pastry doesn’t hold a distinctive crimp, so let it be rustic.
5 of 5
Pomegranate Champagne Jello Shots
Summer will feel like it just began with these sophisticated squares. They’re not very sweet, so if you’d like them sweeter, use demi-sec sparkling wine. The Pop Rocks® topping pop immediately once they’re wet, so serve them on the side, to be sprinkled on right before eating.
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