Lukas Volger's Blog, page 3

Zucchini-Hazelnut Cake with Lemon Curd Whip

Every year, I look forward to making my own birthday cake. A few years ago there was an orange blossom and cardamom scented angel food cake with a drippy dark chocolate shellac. Before that, a pink, double-layered sugar-butter bomb fromThe Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread.Last year I tried out zucchini and hazelnuts in a different cake format, as a two-layer thingfrosted with Hervé This’s Chocolate Mousse. That was fine, but—and maybe this is something that happens as one gets older—it was a bit m...

Salad Re-do: Kimchi, Spinach, Sharp Cheddar, Fried Egg

This time of year, I love the idea of offeringsomething quick and indulgent to fix for yourself right when you get home from a holiday cocktail party. I only shared such a recipeone other time, and that was three years ago, but this particularscenariofor cooking looms large in my mind. It comes in handy all year long.

You know how it is. You go to a party after work, have a drink or two ( . . . or three or four . . . ) while snacking on finger food that does more to stimulatehunger than satisf...

8 Gift Ideas + Quinoa-Stuffed Delicata Squash

I’ve never done a gift guide before, mostly because I don’t think I have terrific taste and have never thought of myself as an especially goodgift giver. But this year, I’ve introducedsome funnew food things into my life. And having spent much of itshilling my Made by Lukasveggie burgers, I’ve also metlots of makers of unique, terrific stuff. It made sense to take a stab ata gift guide, geared tothe people in your life who like food. Below areeight of items, some whackier than others.

(And if...

Deconstructed Black Bean & Grain Soup

Martha Rose Shulman, the prolific author of some of my very favorite, whole foods-oriented, weeknight friendly, never boringrecipes, has written a few times about herhabit ofusing up the lingering odds and ends of her dry goods—beans, pulses, grains—before the end of the year. This makes for a clean slate in January, and prevents any of those items from going bad whilehidden upin the corner of a top shelf for a few years. It’salways seemed like a good idea to me, but I’ve never really made a...

11 Thanksgiving Contenders

Maybe you need some ideas for what to serve this Thanksgiving, or maybe you don’t. This time of year,I always indulge myself with Thanksgiving fantasies—all the new and sometimes healthy twists on old favorites, or bygone classics I’ve never gotten around to trying, they tempt me like areally great department store catalogwith the promise of abundant, unique, exacting perfection. Oh, I think, if I only had my way it’d be SO PERFECT.

But when it comes down to it—and I’ve written about this befo...

Mirin Roasted Kabocha

Do you have a bottle of mirin in the back of your fridge or cupboard? Do you remember what you bought it for?I used to forget about my mirin until a recipe like Heidi’s Black Sesame Otsucamealong, and then afterward I’d let it get pushed back into the shadows all over again. Thank goodness it takes a very long time togo bad. But over the past year I’ve been reaching for it a bit more frequently and experimenting withit in some less obvious ways.

Mirin is sweet rice wine, but with a low enough...

Cauliflower Cakes with Cilantro Sauce

I’ve been spending a lot of time at the grocery store. Not shopping, but standing there behind a little sample table, proselytizing my Made by Lukas veggie burgers. I walk into the store andpress play onthe soundbite that’s tattooed into my brain—”Care to try a fresh vegetable veggie burger? Here,have a taste! These are Made-by-Lukas fresh-vegetable-veggie-burgers! The orange one is Carrot-Parsnip, the red one is beet. Yes, absolutely pleasedo try both! Eighty percent fresh, locally sourced v...

Delicata Quesadillas with Pepita-Cilantro Spread

Last week atR&D Foodsin Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, I got a quesadilla thatwas just perfection. These typesof assembled lunch mealscan seem so simple—R&D has a creative, flavor-forward menuand is very mindful about ingredient sourcing,but the set-up is loosely based on the same model as a sandwich shop or deli, whereall the sauces andfillings are prepped and pre-made, so that sandwichesonly need to be assembled and heated up to order—but it’s so easy for things to go wrong.

When the ingredient...

My Zucchini Bread + More Salads

That’s right: More! Salad! I eat at least one salad a day. I love an elaborate, unusual one likeCrack Salad or a Salad Treat, but most oftenit’s something simple, just some greens topped with whatever vegetables, nuts, and crumbles or shavings of cheese I’ve got lying around. Thusit was a pretty obvious subject when I started organizing the next issue of my digital magazine, Feast by Lukas. “Season’s Salads” has a melon salad spiked with ginger and fresh chilies, a smashed cucumber salad with...

“That Crack Salad”

One chance, I thought. I only get one chance to call something a “Crack Fill-In-the-Blank,” so don’t waste the opportunity. The fact is, I didn’t know what else to name this salad. It’s just a really good tumble of leftovers and odds-and-ends that I served to friends earlier this summer. “That Crack Salad” is what my friend Lesley called it when she emailed me about it a few days later about it.

But “Crack Salad” really isn’tmy style. Would “Just Really Good Salad” work? Or “Delicious Chopped-...