Recipes — Holiday

Celery and White Bean Salad
Holiday Omnivore Salads Vegetarian White Beans
This is our favorite kind of salad: crunchy, creamy, and substantial. We've been enjoying Andy Baraghani's book, The Cook You Want to Be (Lorena Jones Books, 2022). There are countless new ideas and jumping-off points if you're an adventurous cook. His Crunchy Celery Salad has shades of the old Waldorf...

Todd Humphries' Polenta Gnocchi in Browned Sage Butter
Holiday Italian Main Dishes Omnivore Polenta Vegetarian
We're so proud to have our polenta, grown, milled, and ground by our friends at Anson Mills. To celebrate, we asked our friend, Chef Todd Humphries of Kitchen Door here in Napa, to help us out with a twist on traditional potato gnocchi. We've even made a video so you can...

Chopped Salad with Bean-and-Yogurt Dressing
Holiday Omnivore Salads Vegetarian White Beans
Martha Rose Shulman’s genius Caesar salad dressing made with beans and yogurt got us thinking about bean-based dressings. We experimented and came up with this version, using our pineapple vinegar. For the dressing: 1 garlic clove, halved ½ cup cooked, drained white beans, such as Alubia Blanca or Marcella ½ cup...

Royal Corona Bean and Wine Forest Mushroom Stew with Swiss Chard
Holiday Main Dishes Omnivore Soups & Stews Vegetarian White Beans
We've asked our friends at Wine Forest Wild Foods (and literally, my neighbors across the street) to help us with a recipe and Chef Staffan Terje delivered a vegetarian stew that would be hard not to love. There were no leftovers after he came to make it for us. But...

Black Caviar Lentils and Potatoes with Crème Fraîche
Holiday Omnivore Other Legumes Snacks & Appetizers Vegetarian
I've been following Taffy Elrod on Twitter for a while but I think I noticed her sharp, insightful messages mostly during the pandemic. As we were all trying to figure things out, she was a constant source of sanity. We were excited when Taffy agreed to help us with an...

Yellow Eye and Fennel Casserole
Holiday Main Dishes Medium Beans Omnivore Vegetarian
We appreciate fennel most when it's raw and thinly sliced or slowly braised and caramelized. It's an amazing vegetable and our own Creative Director here at Rancho Gordo, Rachel Padilla, took a fine but somewhat stodgy recipe that Steve blogged about and made it her own. This is Rachel's new overhauled...

Polenta with Cranberry Beans and Tomato Sauce
Holiday Italian Main Dishes Medium Beans Polenta Vegetarian
In the Rancho Gordo library, we have a well-used copy of the book Fagioli: The Bean Cuisine of Italy (Rodale, 2014) by Judith Barrett, and this recipe is inspired by the book. When we tested it in the Rancho Gordo kitchen, it was a big hit. As we licked our bowls clean, we...
Marinated Royal Corona Beans
Holiday Snacks & Appetizers Vegan Vegetarian White Beans
This recipe is very flexible, so feel free to adjust it based on your tastes and what’s in your kitchen. Once you find your perfect bean marinade, you’ll be set! These beans make an unexpected but welcome addition to an appetizer spread. You can also toss them with sturdy greens...

Classic Red Pork Pozole
Holiday Omnivore Posole/Hominy Soups & Stews
This is the classic pozole of central Mexico. You might find some regional or personal variances to the cuts of pork or the combination of chiles, but if I were bold enough to serve this to a Mexican grandmother (spoiler: I’m not) I’m confident that she would recognize this recipe...

Arroz al Horno/Baked Rice with Sausages
Holiday Main Dishes Omnivore Other Legumes
It was a Sunday and guests were coming over and I got inspired. Two books, The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen and Spanish Made Simple by Omar Allibhoy, inspired me. Allibhoy’s recipe was very simple but von Bremzen’s description added context and helped me to improvise, just a...