Salads and side dishes are where I put the least thought for the longest time, and where the least thought shows up most obviously. A good main dish next to a bowl of undressed leaves is a worse dinner than a plain main dish next to something that got attention.

This page covers both jobs, because they really are two jobs. A salad has to be assembled and dressed and eaten fairly quickly. A vegetable side mostly has to be put in an oven and left alone. The recipes below are grouped by their main ingredient, which is how I actually look for them: there is a lot of zucchini in the kitchen, what do I do with it.

Follow any name for the recipe itself. The amounts and the oven details stay there, where they can be kept right.

On this page

Two different jobs: salad and side

Salads need their seasoning adjusted at the moment of serving; roasted sides need their seasoning set before they go in the oven. Getting those two the wrong way round is the most common reason either ends up bland.

A salad changes as it sits. Salt draws water out of tomatoes and cucumbers, dressing pools at the bottom, leaves soften. So I dress late, taste at the table, and expect to add something.

A roasted vegetable does the opposite: it concentrates. What you put on at the start becomes more intense, which is why heavy-handed salting before roasting is a mistake and why a squeeze of something acidic afterwards lifts the whole tray.

Cucumber salads

Cucumber releases a lot of water once it is salted, so either salt it early and drain it, or dress it at the last minute. Doing neither is how you get a bowl of dressing with cucumber floating in it.

Salting and draining takes very little time and makes the cucumber taste more of itself, not less. It is the single change that turns a watery cucumber salad into a good one.

The marinated versions go the other way and want time in the liquid, which is a different recipe doing a different thing. Those are the ones I make the night before.

Green salads with fruit, cheese and tomato

Leaves need to be properly dry before dressing touches them, because dressing cannot cling to a wet surface and will slide to the bottom of the bowl. A salad spinner or a clean towel does more for a green salad than a better vinaigrette.

This group leans on contrast: something sweet, something salty, something crunchy. Fruit with feta or goat cheese, nuts for texture, and an acidic dressing to stop the sweetness taking over.

Caprese and tomato salads belong here but want a gentler hand. Tomatoes salted ten minutes ahead and left to sit will produce their own dressing, and anything you add after that should respect it rather than compete.

Chopped, corn, egg and chickpea salads

Substantial salads built on beans, corn, eggs or chickpeas keep for a day or two in the fridge, which makes them the only salads in this collection worth making in advance on purpose.

They do get thirstier overnight, so I hold back some of the dressing and add it before serving rather than dressing it all at once.

Chopped salads live or die on consistent knife work. Everything roughly the same size means every forkful has everything in it, which is the whole appeal.

Corn: street corn, fritters, casseroles and chowders

Corn is sweetest when it is cooked briefly and hardest to ruin when it is cooked hard, which is why it shows up here in two very different modes: quick and bright, or deep and creamy.

Street corn and its variations are the quick mode, and the thing that makes them work is the salty-sour dressing against the sweetness, not the corn itself.

The casseroles and chowders are the other mode, where corn becomes the body of the dish. Those are the ones I make when corn is the dinner rather than the side.

Zucchini, squash and eggplant

Zucchini and eggplant are mostly water, and every good recipe for them deals with that water in some way: salting, high heat, or a long bake that lets it cook off. Nothing good comes from ignoring it.

For anything crisp, high heat and space on the tray. For anything baked into a casserole, salting the slices and patting them dry first keeps the finished dish from going soupy.

Eggplant wants more fat than you expect and more time than you expect. Underdone eggplant is squeaky and unpleasant; properly cooked eggplant is one of the better things in this collection.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes

Crisp potatoes need a dry surface, a hot tray and enough space, in that order. Potatoes crowded on a cool tray steam and go leathery however long you leave them.

Sweet potatoes behave differently because of their sugar: they caramelize and then burn, where regular potatoes just keep browning. They want slightly less heat and more attention near the end.

The bakes and casseroles in this group are a separate pleasure and have the useful property of reheating well, which almost nothing else in this section does.

Asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage

These are the vegetables most often overcooked, and the signal is color. Bright green asparagus or broccoli is cooked; dull olive green is overcooked, and no seasoning brings it back.

Asparagus is the most time-sensitive thing here and the most rewarding when it is right. Thin spears need very little; thick ones need more and benefit from the woody ends being snapped off rather than cut.

Cauliflower and cabbage go the other way and are improved by being pushed further than feels right, until the edges are properly browned. Timid cauliflower is a waste of cauliflower.

Roasted, marinated and mixed vegetables

Mixed vegetable trays only work if the pieces are cut to cook in the same time, which usually means cutting the dense ones smaller than the soft ones. Uniform size is less important than uniform cooking time.

If I cannot make the timings match, I stagger them: dense vegetables in first, softer ones added partway through. One tray, two additions, and everything comes out right.

The marinated and dressed versions are the ones I make ahead for a table, because they sit happily at room temperature and do not need anyone to time them.

Dressing, salt and the water problem

Most disappointing vegetable dishes come down to water in the wrong place: on a leaf, in a cucumber, under a tray of potatoes. Deal with the water and the seasoning suddenly works.

On dressing: oil goes on first, then acid, then salt, if you want to be precise about it. Oil coats the leaves and stops the acid from wilting them immediately, which buys you a few extra minutes before the salad collapses.

On salt: vegetables need more than people use, and they need it at the right moment. On a roasting tray, before. On a salad, at the end and again at the table. On cucumbers and tomatoes, early if you are draining them and late if you are not.

On the tray itself: hot before the vegetables go on, and never fully covered. A tray packed edge to edge traps steam and everything on it braises instead of roasting. If there is no visible gap between the pieces, it needs a second tray.

One last thing that took me too long to learn: acid at the end. A squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar over roasted vegetables as they come out of the oven does more than any amount of extra seasoning before they went in.

Salad and side dish questions

How far ahead can I make a salad?

Sturdy salads built on beans, grains, corn or eggs will hold a day or two. Leafy salads will not; you can wash and dry the leaves and make the dressing ahead, but they should not meet until just before eating. Cucumber and tomato salads are somewhere in between and are best within a few hours.

Why do my roasted vegetables come out soft instead of crisp?

Too many on the tray, or the tray was not hot. Vegetables release steam as they heat, and if they are packed together that steam has nowhere to go, so they braise. Use two trays and preheat them, and the same recipe will behave completely differently.

Should I peel vegetables before roasting?

Rarely. Skin on potatoes, carrots and squash crisps up and holds the pieces together, and peeling mostly creates work. I peel when the skin is thick or bitter, which in practice means older root vegetables and nothing else.

Can I use frozen vegetables in these recipes?

In the casseroles and bakes, yes, with no real loss. For anything that is meant to be crisp or roasted, frozen vegetables carry too much water and will steam rather than brown. Corn is the exception and is genuinely good frozen.

What is the simplest way to make a side dish taste like something?

Salt before it cooks, acid after it cooks, and fat somewhere in between. If a vegetable dish tastes flat, it is almost always missing one of those three, and acid is the one most often absent.

Mains to put these next to

A side dish needs something to sit beside. These are the main-course collections on the journal.