Julia Child's Lentil Salad, soft, meaty lentils in a simple garlicky vinaigrette, served warm, at room temperature or cold. Low carb and high fiber. When my book club and a friend's book club met earlier this week to discuss The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, the conversation was lively but the food – oh my – the food was fabulous! I'm still prying the recipes from the group but here's the first of what I hope are several great recipes, ones I just know that readers here will find appealing. This is a simple lentil salad that's just perfect for fall, especially since it's laced with autumn-ish herbs, parsley , sage, rosemary and thyme. (So sorry, just imagine, a popular song about herbs!) Lentils are typically just a mess of brown-ness, but this salad lends itself to simple but dramatic garnishing, wedges of perfect hard-boiled eggs and, if you have some, cherry tomato halves. At this week's potluck, the

Okay, people, hear me out because I aim to make a good case for onion dip made from scratch, ditching those packets of salty onion soup mix, nixing those heavy tubs of overly thick onion dip. Why? Forget being "as good as" those processed-food versions. Instead, know that it's better than what you can buy, a real taste revelation, like a forgotten treat from another time . But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Homemade Onion Dip at Kitchen Parade, my food column. Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Asparagus-to-Zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables . Join " veggie evangelist " Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables where recipes range from seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special. © Copyright Kitchen Parade VV 2008

Today's super-easy salad dressing recipe, perfect for fall salads: A no-fat vinaigrette made with no more than apple cider, cider vinegar, agave (or honey) and spiked with cinnamon. Use Apple Cider Vinaigrette on its own or whisk it with a little olive oil for a more traditional oli & vinegar vinaigrette, except apple-y! Fresh & Seasonal, A Fall Classic. Great for Meal Prep. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free.

Today's vegetable recipe: Thin slices of eggplant in a creamy-cheesy custard. Good hot or at room temperature. Low carb. A few weeks ago, I swore off new cookbooks. 101 Cookbooks ? Ha! That's nothing! With all the will power of a limp noodle, I lasted ... um, well, would you believe, all of two days? Katy, bar the door ! At a cookbook swap, I spent all of four bucks for six cookbooks. Turns out, all are inspiring, good introductions to cuisines and specialty dishes with many recipes for a health-conscious home cook. First up, Jewish Cooking whose author, Marlena Spieler, has written many cookbooks on the same subject. This recipe for eggplant (aubergine, anyone?) casserole caught my attention for two reasons. First, unlike most eggplant recipes, the eggplant actually looks like eggplant not blobs of colorless eggplant flesh. Second, it can be served either hot from the oven or at room temperature, which makes it perfect for potlucks, buffet suppers and big family gatherings.

All too soon, we vegetable lovers will embrace the vegetables of autumn, the winter squash, the sweet potatoes, the cauliflower. But until then, food bloggers everywhere are reveling in the glut of produce at our farmers markets, truly, our cups runneth over. Every few weeks, I like to spotlight vegetable recipes from my fellow food bloggers, ones that I think readers of A Veggie Venture might especially appreciate. VegetableSpotting WEEK 37 - mid September (click the link for the recipe) RSS & e-mail readers: My apologies, the ten links above to vegetable recipes from other food blogs don't display in feed readers or e-mail. Please click through to today's post to view the list. VegetableSpotting - The Running List Many food bloggers list a 'blogroll' of their favorite blogs on their websites. Recently, I replaced my own blogroll with a running list of VegetableSpotting recipes. Check the lower right-hand corner of any page on A Veggie Venture for the

A rich casserole with the sunny-colored summer squash called 'yellow squash'. It's slightly creamy, slightly cheesy but lucky, lucky, no canned mushroom soup! Low carb and a great way to use the yellow squash that the garden throws off this this time of year. So who else grew up where each and every casserole tasted exactly the same as the last? No wonder. While the main ingredients changed, the binding did not, it was a can (or often two) of Campbell's mushroom soup. For an especially uptown casserole, the big guns were hauled out: Campbell's cream of celery or cream of shrimp. Yikes. These days, I pass by the casseroles with canned mushroom soup, the ones rife in the church and family cookbooks that I otherwise duly truly appreciate for homespun get-it-on-the-table-fast fare. This casserole recipe, however, caught my attention because I sensed it was trying to duplicate the smooth texture and rich taste of those potluck-friendly casseroles. And so it did – but

Today's vegetable soup recipe: A cold summer soup, tomatoes paired with cherries for a slightly sweet gazpacho. Adapted from the Spanish chef Dani Garcia known for whimsical and delicious interpretations of Spanish cuisine. Beautiful color, yes?! Low carb. Weight Watchers 0 points. Here in Missouri, we're into our third (and final, oh no!) month of summer tomatoes. Those first few weeks, we eat tomatoes like apples, straight from the hand, or slice them onto plates and salads, no recipes required. But by September (yikes!), that first tomato lust has been slaked and it somehow feels right, again, for tomatoes to become 'ingredients' in recipes, even if simple-simple recipes like this riff on a classic gazpacho, the cold tomato-based soup that has no recipe twins, just first and second cousins. This gazpacho recipe from Dani Garcia, a rising-star chef in Spain, pairs tomatoes with cherries -- not cherry tomatoes , but sour cherries from Wisconsin, thanks to the generosit