Side Dishes

Here’s another way to roast vegetables without oil. This plant-based dish has it all—color, texture, and flavor. The beauty of acorn and Delicata squashes is that you can eat the peel. This provides additional nutrition and a nice textural contrast as you chew. These squash slices could form a main dish with some cooked grains and a flavorful sauce

This plant-based, oil-free puree is great as a side dish, but has so many other possible uses: on baked potatoes, crackers, bread, pasta, or pizza, or as part of a bowl or quesadilla, or snuggled next to stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes, or rice pilaf. During the early summer when I get a lot of greens in my farm share, this is my go-to recipe. I used to make it with collard greens only, but I’ve found more recently that it works with any combination of dark leafy greens.

These neon-pink pickle slices look great … and taste even better. Pickled onion slices are great on Mexican-inspired dishes, but also on all kinds of salads, sides, and entrees.

The butternut squash in this plant-based side dish gets very tender with this no-oil, slow-bake approach. The spicing is subtle but very tasty.

The Instant Pot converts an inexpensive bag of dried pinto beans into about 5 cups of delicious, freezable refried beans. This healthy plant-based beans tastes just like Rosarita’s!

Roasting cabbage in a tahini mixture with paprika and other spices turns it softer and softer. This healthy plant-based dish—creamy with sharpness from the spices—provides a healthy way to enjoy a “Paprikash” dish guilt-free.

This one-step plant-based Instant Pot recipe makes Spanish rice a cinch. With a combination of subtle seasonings, it has a complex, intriguing flavor and is vegan and oil-free.

Fried rice without frying? Yes! Fried rice with brown rice? Yes again. You have to try this to believe it. Healthy and delicious.

These Brussels sprouts have less fat, fewer calories, and more nutrients than Brussels sprouts roasted in oil. The tahini’s nutty flavor and the savory additions of onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika make for a taste that will keep you wanting more.