Today's recipe: Beets cooked on a grill. Beans cooked on a grill on a bed of salted beet greens. "Necessity is the mother of invention" at work: imagine finding yourself with raw beets and beautiful romano beans - and no stove, no pot, no knives, just a grill. What happened next was pure experiment but it worked so beautifully, I share it here, not as a recipe but as a concept. The beets were small so would cook evenly and comparatively quickly. I tore off the greens but left the 'tails' on - it's important to not cut into the beets themselves, otherwise the juices pour out during cooking. A little olive rub would have been good, to keep the skins soft, but oh well, none at hand. A foil wrap would have contained the heat but also, I think, kept out that golden grill essence. Over indirect heat for about an hour, the beets emerged sweet and smoky, the texture light, the color dark, completely perfect. Very good! The bed of greens was intended solely as 'gra

Today's quick vegetable recipe: Wedges of radicchio (also called chicory) seared in a hot skillet, then dipped in syrupy vinegar. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point. So earlier, when I mentioned feeling ho-hum about the Italian version of the Weight Watchers zero points soup , since radicchio is expensive, I also suggested skipping it entirely or substituting the less expensive red cabbage. I take it back! Cooked radicchio is completely gorgeous, an entirely different animal. It is also completely worth (to my taste) an occasional investment. And time-wise, it took all of ten minutes -- yes, ten -- from start to finish with maybe 5 minutes of hands-on time. Talk about quick! And I'm glad to add another good one to the collection of quick vegetable recipes . In its raw form, radicchio's red cabbage-looking leaves are slightly bitter. (There's a photo of radicchio here, if anyone's inclined.) In its cooked form, the chewiness and bitterness survive, but in a softer, s

Today's Weight Watchers recipe: The new Weight Watchers zero points soup recipe, this one the "Italian" soup. It's the mildest of the new Weight Watchers soups and is packed with Italian-style vegetables like fennel and radicchio. Like the other zero point soups, it's: Low Carb. Vegan. And of course, Weight Watchers 0 points. For many people who follow the Weight Watchers plan, the zero point soups are like the air we breathe: we don't want to be without! So it's no wonder that Weight Watchers UK developed three new recipes to give some variation to the granddaddy original zero point soup, the Garden Vegetable Zero Point Soup . I love the Weight Watchers Mexican Zero Point soup and the Asian Zero Point Soup stars Asian vegetables, so yes, it is a good variation too. This Italian-style soup, hmm, I'm not so sure. It has so many vegetables in it, it should be wonderful. Instead it's mild. No one vegetable really stands out and to my taste, they

Dear Charlotte, Alex and Freddie, Your new book The Great Big Veg Challenge is an absolute wonder! Yesterday, the postman handed it over just as I set off to walk the dog. Too curious to wait, I took what was supposed to be a quick peek. Thirty minutes later, I was still sitting in the shade in the front yard with a now-impatient dog, slowly paging through the book, smiling at the drawings and photographs, enjoying the sheer fun of watching you meander your way, A - Z, through the alphabet of vegetables. In Cabbage, Freddie, I laughed out loud when reminded that when you first ate potato, cabbage and rapini colcannon , you said "This is heaven," and asked, "Are you really sure there is cabbage in this?" This from you, Freddie, the boy who wanted to 'get the cabbage over with, quick'! In Celery and Fennel and Kohlrabi and Kale, I paused to check out particularly tasty-looking recipes (kale chips? gotta do that one!). Thanks for all the new kid-friend

So here's a seriously fun recipe, a sweet fruit pizza with rhubarb. The "pizza crust" is made with a simple cookie dough (rolled thin, just like a thin-crust pizza). The "tomato sauce" is rhubarb (sweetened and reddened with jello powder!) and the "pizza cheese" on top is a crumbly streusel, just butter, sugar and flour. Sound, um, interesting? It's easy to make and surprisingly good! But is it really pizza? Nope! Instead, it's rhubarb bars baked on a pizza pan and sliced in pizza triangles or in St. Louis-style pizza squares. A Fun New Recipe for Rhubarb, Fast & Casual. No Mixer Required. Budget Friendly. Potluck & Party Friendly. Happiness Quotient 100.

How to store fresh vegetables to keep longer, all to minimize food waste and throwing our hard-earned money into the compost bin. Here you'll find a summary of recent recommendations from the wizards at Cook's Illustrated on how to take advantage of our refrigerators' "microclimates", the fridge zones which are slightly colder or slightly warmer and thus best for storing certain vegetables in certain spots. You may never look at your fridge quite the same again! How to Save Money on Groceries by Refrigerating Vegetables Properly, Keeping Them Fresh Longer. Lists of Vegetables to Keep in the Fridge, Which Vegetables to Leave at Room Temperature. More Practical, Useful Tips About Vegetables from A Veggie Venture.

Today's vegetable recipe: Beet greens tucked into farro, a high-protein grain. Setting: Farmers market on a busy Saturday morning, the busiest booth, a line of people behind another shopper and me. Other Shopper, eyeing a fat bunch of beets: "Will you cut off the greens for me?" Farmer, eyeing me with a conspiratorial grin: "The greens are the best part. I bet this young lady can tell you how to cook them up fast and easy." Other Shopper, eyeing me suspiciously, looking decidedly dubious: "How?" Me, with evangelist fervor: "Just chop the greens up really thin, then sauté with garlic and onion in a little olive oil. They're great." Other Shopper, obviously disgusted: "She can have my greens." Sure, go ahead and laugh, the farmer and I did! But the truth is, greens are overwhelming for many cooks. Even at my house, greens too often go to waste -- a waste of nutrition, of money, of scarce resources. So I'm constantly on the hun