Easy, healthy recipes with a southwestern flare
Vegetable and fruit sides
This smashed potato salad is not chunky like most potato salads. It’s creamy and slightly chunky from smashing the cooked potatoes. Other ingredients include minced onion and celery, pickles, and a seasoning.
A tasty bowl of beans that can be served as a main dish for 4 or side for 6. Dried beans are cooked in a stock with aromatics, herbs and spices and bacon, if desired.
This beautiful fennel salad is made with red chile spiced roasted fennel and a drizzle of cranberry balsamic, topped with feta cheese, pomegranate seeds and daikon sprouts. It is an enticing mix of hot and cold, sweet and tart, crunchy and soft.
This Brown Rice Salad with Lime Vinaigrette is crunchy, nutty, tangy, sweet and spicy. It includes a mix of colorful peppers – sweet red and yellow bells and spicy roasted green chile.
This Yellow Squash with Red Peppers is one of the easiest sides you’ll ever make. This dish is just yellow squash sauteed in garlic oil with some onion and red peppers.
First make a tasty relish of corn and roasted green chille. Then use the relish as a topping for Chicken Green Chile Relish Tacos as well as a side or light lunch.
The sweet corn of summer – YUM! This grilled corn is prepared with a drizzle of olive oil and a generous dusting of my red chile spice blend. The spices roast along with the corn yielding a spicy and smoky flavor.
Asparagus with orange and kalamata is a light and delightful dish that’s I love making in the early spring when there’s the overlap between good quality citrus and young shoots of fresh asparagus. Serve as a warm side or cold salad.
Sweet Pepper Stew is a version of the Italian dish – Peperonata – that is normally made in the fall when there is an abundance of colored sweet peppers, sweet fresh tomatoes. and fresh basil. Best when made a day in advance.
Next time you need a hearty and healthy side dish, whip up a batch of mashed sweet potatoes. They come together in less than 30 minutes. To add a little spice, use some New Mexico red chile sauce for gravy. You’ll be asking yourself “Why haven’t I done this before?”
Welcome to my spicy New Mexico kitchen. I’m a well-seasoned cook with a love for New Mexico, its cuisine, its unique ingredients, and its physical beauty. Please read my About page to learn more.