Equal Parts

There’s a dish I’ve been making so consistently this fall that I refer to it not by its given name but rather as Now & Again Page Forty-Six, a moniker that also serves as easy instructions: open Julia Turshen’s new cookbook, Now & Again, and turn to page forty-six.

Julia Turshen is a master of vegetables. Her cookbooks always contain an abundance of flavorful, thoughtful, and versatile options. I find that many other contemporary cookbooks lack this basic category, or include it as an obvious afterthought. Julia puts the vegetables front and center, and not just as part of a soup or leafy salad — though those are great too — but as remarkable, stand-alone dishes.

In my forever quest to crack the code for tasty vegetables, it seems one reliable combo is vegetable plus sauce. Take Julia’s Kale Salad with Pepita Dressing, better known to me as Now & Again Page Forty-Six. It’s a relatively simple salad — just kale, radishes, and feta — but tossed in a pumpkin seed-based dressing that has certainly been a game-changer in my kitchen. Blitzed in a food processor with garlic, cumin, and lime juice, the dressing is spicy, acidic, savory, and perfectly balanced. It’s complex but not time-consuming, elegant but not pretentious, surprising but not exotic — all of the qualities I’ve come to expect from Julia’s excellent recipes.

I’ve had the dressing with the aforementioned kale, radishes, and feta already a half dozen times this month, but I’ve also poured it over quinoa and roasted vegetables and can imagine it in dozens of other applications. The recipe needs no tweaks. Though, I’ve made a version with added parmesan and served it as a pesto-like dip for crudités to great fanfare.

PEPITA PARMESAN DRESSING

To make my parmesan version, combine 1/4 cup lightly toasted pumpkin seeds, 1/4 cup shredded parmesan, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp fresh lime juice, 2 tbsp water, and 1/2 tsp kosher salt in a food processor and purée until smooth. Serve on a crudités platter with raw carrots, celery, and radishes, or any other fresh vegetables you have on hand.