Midwest Living January February 2020 Recipes

The details that elevate this recipe from a typical roasted dish are the briny olives and crispy breadcrumbs. Any olive works, but chef Abra Berens, author of Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables, uses a bright green Sicilian variety called Castelvetrano.

This exceedingly moist and rich (but so simple!) cake is all about chocolate and butter; if you can swing it, choose top-quality brands.

This traditional Greek chicken soup made with egg, lemon and orzo is rich and velvety, but also bright and refreshing thanks to a healthy dose of lemon juice.

This classic Italian braised-pepper stew freezes beautifully. Abra Berens suggests heaping it over potatoes (or even pasta, polenta or couscous) and topping it with a poached or boiled egg. This recipe is from her book Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables.

This is a lazy Sunday—or tired Tuesday—recipe from chef Abra Berens' book Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables. Don't be alarmed by cooking beans this long. Make it vegetarian by using vegetable broth and skipping the Parmesan.

At Des Moines restaurant Tacos Mariana's, the classic avocado-lime-cilantro mash is doctored with cucumber, Cotija cheese, and chiles—the result is one of the best guacs we've ever tasted.

This dish hovers between stir-fry and salad— both light and wholesomely satisfying. Chef Abra Berens cooks squash and mushrooms in a skillet, developing great caramelization in minutes. The recipe comes from her book Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables.

This light and bright tuna salad tastes as fresh as a day on the Mediterranean sea. We recommend using high-quality canned or jarred tuna that's packed in olive oil—you'll taste the difference.

Roasting lemon mellows it out without losing its brightness. All the while, it adds a lemony taste to the potatoes, fennel and sweet shallots.

Want to know how the sausage gets made? Mix your own Italian, chorizo, breakfast sausage and more, and you'll never wonder again. It's way easier than you think!

The birds fly south. The bears hibernate. Where does broccoli salad go for the winter? Right here, says Abra Berens in her book Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables. Enjoy it fresh from the oven and at your desk the next day.

In her book Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables, Abra called this recipe Green Salad with Marinated Peas and Yesterday's Chicken because she makes it the day after roasting a chicken. A supermarket rotisserie bird makes things even simpler.

Ham adds just enough smoky richness to chef Abra Berens' vibrant salad to elevate a simple slaw to a lunch-worthy meal or a potluck stunner. Find other great salads in her book Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables.