Greens

When it comes to comforting soups, I can easily say I have a hands-down favorite: Italian wedding soup. My experience of it is neither particularly Italian, nor is it matrimonial, rather it was one of the first real meals my mother fed me when I was a baby. The legend is that I’d slurp it loudly, humming, and the broth would dribble down my neck, soaking the neck of my shirt.

This easy vegan number won't wilt like more fragile salads.

Tender sautéed greens are an easy go-to vegetable side everyone should know how to make. They pair with everything from quick pastas to weeknight chicken dinners, and come together in minutes. While mustard greens might not be as trendy as kale or as omnipresent as spinach, they’re well worth getting to know. They’re the leafy green of the mustard plant and are related to collards, cabbage, and, in fact, kale, and are common in Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African, and Southern U.

They’re so comforting.

A potato salad that isn’t “potato salad.”

The refried beans are optional (except they’re really not).