side dish | Bohemian Cottage

Soba Noodle Salad with Sriracha Baked Tofu

This Soba Noodle Salad is a perfect summer side with grilled chicken or as a main dish on its own.

On a quest for healthy meals for the family, I came across a recipe for a soba noodle soup. Heavy on the ginger, with the addition of spicy sriracha baked tofu, it became the favorite dish I make for Coda. When summer came along, I wanted to be able to serve the same flavors but without the warm broth, and that is where this salad was born. It is very versatile, you can add whatever seasonal veggies are available. In this particular version I was able to add the snow peas and golden zucchini that I grew in the garden this summer. (read more)

Sweet Potato Hash with Bacon and Eggs

A healthy and tasty Alternative to hash browns, sweet potato hash.

Sunday morning breakfast usually involves cooking a more elaborate meal than any other day of the week for me. I was wandering through the kitchen for inspiration from the ingredients that were already there when I remembered that I had these sweet potatoes on hand. Left over from a meal that was planned earlier this week for dinner that never got made, I decided that sweet potato hash would be the bomb. And indeed it was! With the addition of bacon for my honey, because he loves bacon, and a little maple and of course my latest obsession of alder wood smoked salt, the hash was a little sweet and a touch smokey too. (read more)

Wild Rice Salad with Blood Orange and Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette

My Mom gave me some wild rice from that she got from a friend in Minnesota, and I have been meaning to experiment with making some dishes with it. When reading a caption from the package of Singing Pines wild rice, I learned a little about the origin of this rice, and it peaked my curiosity.

August is called “manominikegississ” the month of the rice making moon. Traditionally, the Ojibway and Sioux Indians of Minnesota harvested the “mahomem” or wild rice with two people in a canoe. One person poled the boat through the rice bed, while the other, using sticks, knocked the rice kernels into the boat. The rice was then parched; the hulls removed and using a birch bark winnowing basket, the rice was separated from the chaff. The native peoples considered the mahomem a sacred gift from the Great Spirit or Creator. (read more)

Parmesan Cheese Potato Stacks

These Parmesan Cheese Potato Stacks are delicate and rich at the same time. The addition of fresh thyme gives them an added zing. I used fresh thyme from our garden. Rosemary might be good too. They are not low cal, but with their petite size make them a moderate indulgence if you can limit yourself to just a couple.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and generously grease a muffin tin with butter

4 medium russet potatoes peeled and sliced into approximately 1/8 inch slices

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream (read more)

Kale with Celery, Apple and Carrot

Celery Kale Carrot Apple

With the same bunch of kale I used in the angel hair pasta dish the other night, I was able to make this side dish for our pork chops. With the addition of green apples, it added an unexpected tart sweetness to the dish. The trick is to time when you put the different ingredients into the skillet. Experiment with different combinations of veggies with this. I used what we had on hand, enjoying the crunchiness of this combination.

1 Granny Smith apple, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced (read more)