Extra Helpings - A Blue Apron blog
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How to Eat a Persimmon
As the holiday season approaches, persimmons are reaching their peak sweetness. If you haven’t cooked with persimmons before, this will help you get started. Keep reading for persimmon recipes and tips on choosing a ripe persimmon.
Winter Tomatoes: Finding & Cooking Them
For tomato lovers, August is a sacred month—it’s the magical time of year when the farmer’s market overflows with ripe, juicy, heirloom tomatoes. These in-season beauties are delicious on their own, or as the star of a simple tomato sandwich
Your Guide To Asian Vegetables & When To Use Them
When we’re stuck in a cooking rut, one of our favorite things to do is visit a specialty grocery store. Your local Asian market is full of ingredients you can’t find at major American supermarkets. You may even find a flavor or vegetable that’s new to you. These are some of the Asian vegetables we pick up when we hit the market, and how we like to cook with them.
Essential Middle Eastern Spices & How To Use Them
While there are many ingredients that make up the Middle Eastern kitchen, here are a dozen to start with and a few ideas of what to do with them.
A Guide to Grocery Store Sausage
Sausage is a magical food. It exists in dozens of forms, across cultures, and is filled with a variety of spices. There are so many types and flavors that it becomes hard to define what exactly qualifies as sausage. It can be a link or a patty, smoked or dried, pork, beef, or even seafood.
The Difference Between Whole Wheat and Whole Grain
White, whole wheat, and whole grain breads all get their start with grains. The difference is determined by white grains are used, and how those grains are processed.
Before we understand the difference between whole wheat and whole grain bread, let’s take a look at what a grain is.
What Is A Gastrique Sauce?
Gastrique is a classic French sauce. It’s sweet, sour, and intensely flavored, similar to an Italian agrodolce.
A gastrique is an easy way to make any meal feel special. Even the word feels elevated, announce it confidently, and you’ll sound like a trained French Chef. With a gastrique, even a simple Sunday dinner of roasted chicken and potatoes will feel like it came from a fancy restaurant.
14 Apple Varieties to Fall in Love With
Apples are synonymous with fall. Every September, grocery store aisles fill up with dozens of apple varieties. These are some of the types of apples you’ll find this year, what to expect, and the best ways to use them.
Agrodolce Sauce: How To Make It & More
Agrodolce is somewhere between a sauce and a condiment. It comes from Italy, and it gets its name from the Italian words for sour (agro) and sweet (dolce).
A Guide to Spicy Peppers and All Things Hot
Spicy food can be divisive. Some people love to douse hot sauce on every meal, while others find cabbage to be slightly too spicy. The key to cooking with spicy ingredients is knowing what you’re working with
From the Ground Up: The Story of a Dazzling Purple Pepper aka the Islander Pepper
The Story of a Dazzling Purple Pepper
Steelhead Trout: What It Is & Why They’re Great
Hofseth’s pristine Norwegian fjords might not be exactly what you picture when you think of farmed fish, but that’s a good thing. Hofseth strives to produce high-quality products like its Norwegian steelhead trout in an environmentally conscious manner.
How to Cook Pork Belly
If you like bacon, you like pork belly. Bacon and pork belly are the same cut of meat, prepared and sold in slightly different forms. This versatile protein is an easy way to add savory decadence to dinner. Here’s how to get the most out of this delicious ingredient.
8 Types of Peaches to Love this Summer
The platonic ideal of a peach, enhanced by nostalgia, comes enormous, round, and bursting with juice that tastes of summer sunshine. But while all types of peaches are good peaches, that image leaves out the many other equally delightful forms the fuzzy fruit takes on: crisp enough to add that cherished sweetness to a salad or palm-sized and perfect for snacking.
Strawberry Garnish Ideas: 9 Ways To Decorate
You don’t need to be an artist to make a beautiful dessert. Try fuss-free dessert-decorating with the classic strawberry. No time to aim for a perfectly frosted and smooth cake? Don’t even worry about it. Instead, beautify your treats with already-gorgeous berries that make the sweetest part of your meal look professional and pretty – with barely any effort.
7 Fruit Centerpiece Ideas
So many fruits and vegetables are show-stoppingly attractive, even in the dead of winter. Take advantage of their natural beauty for your holiday centerpiece this year. It’s easy! Just take a trip to the grocery store or farmer’s market, but a few extra pomegranates, persimmons, or plain old tomatoes, and use them to decorate your holiday tables and entryways.
How to Use Extra Garlic
When we make dinner, we put garlic in everything. That’s no accident! European, Mediterranean, and Asian cuisines all have used the alium bulb to season food for millennia. When a Blue Apron box arrives, it will almost always include a whole head of garlic, but most recipes only use a couple of cloves. If you’ve gotten a few boxes, you might have leftover garlic piling up. This isn’t a problem, it’s an opportunity. Here’s how to use extra garlic to create flavorful meals all week long.
A Guide to Homemade Salad Dressing
There are two types of salads: sad salads and scene-stealing salads. A sad salad is one that was thrown together without a real plan. Its sole purpose is to deliver a few vegetables, but it lacks flavor and excitement.
A Guide to Cooking with Wine
Cooking with wine is a great way to add complexity to sauces, soups, and braises. This is a crash course in cooking with wine, designed to help you figure out how to choose a bottle and what to do with it.
Pecorino Romano vs. Parmesan: Everything You’ll Want To Know
Pecorino and Parmesan can seem pretty similar. Both are hard salty cheeses from Italy, and they’re both frequently in the mix with pasta. However, they’re not the same cheese.
Food you can feel good about
From pasture-raised beef to certified sustainable seafood, we’re raising the bar on animal welfare standards.
