SIDE dishes

balshan

Well-known member
I love various side dishes, I think they make the meal. I do enjoy colcannon but we rarely have it. I enjoy cover your eyes Bonnie a beetroot and feta salad.

Do you have a favourite sides and what do you serve it with?
 
Beetroot! Too late; I saw that! Bleah!

Seriously, two of the side dishes we like we buy frozen. We buy veggie tots and veggie hash browns. Instead of being made with potatoes, they are made with either broccoli or cauliflower, or both, with a light breading on it. We bake them in the oven then enjoy them. Much lower in calories and carbs that the potato version and it is a way to get one's vegetables.

We also like frozen mashed cauliflower made with either garlic, or sour cream and chives. Heat in microwave and enjoy.
 
I recently tried cooking pearlized barley as a side dish and an alternative to rice. It only takes 10 minutes to cook. It was actually very tasty, with a slightly sweet, nutty flavor. I loathe rice by itself and can only eat it if it has gravy on it, or mixed in with other food, like with a Chinese dish. Barley is considered a super food.
 
Beetroot! Too late; I saw that! Bleah!

Seriously, two of the side dishes we like we buy frozen. We buy veggie tots and veggie hash browns. Instead of being made with potatoes, they are made with either broccoli or cauliflower, or both, with a light breading on it. We bake them in the oven then enjoy them. Much lower in calories and carbs that the potato version and it is a way to get one's vegetables.

We also like frozen mashed cauliflower made with either garlic, or sour cream and chives. Heat in microwave and enjoy.
I wonder if we can buy the veggie tots here. I like mashed cauliflower as well.
 
I recently tried cooking pearlized barley as a side dish and an alternative to rice. It only takes 10 minutes to cook. It was actually very tasty, with a slightly sweet, nutty flavor. I loathe rice by itself and can only eat it if it has gravy on it, or mixed in with other food, like with a Chinese dish. Barley is considered a super food.
I will have to look into whether I can eat it. I love rice not by itself, if I did that I would need to sprinkle it with sugar and that would not be good for me. But I love it mixed with veggies, or Kim makes a tasty fried rice. I love it with Kim's stir fried veges very tasty. He barely uses any oil either.

Mexican/Spanish style rice is nice as well, risottos, hmm paella would be tasty but I am not into fish and seafood, arancini balls. So many ways to eat rice but only occasionally now.
 
We can get veggies hash browns here, too. Kids would like them.

Here are the varieties we can get here:


They bake in the oven. No frying necessary.
I think kids would. Kim makes a potato dish where he grates potatoes and other veges and fries them about the only thing he does fry. They could be baked. He normal does one large one and divides it between whoever is here to eat. We rarely have it, but is nice.
 
A side dish we really enjoy is a quick stir fry greens - spinach, silverbeet, chinese greens, spring onions, snow peas, cabbage whatever is on hard. Tossed quickly in a little hot oil. It can be flavoured with garlic for those who can eat, tossed with chilli flakes, nuts, ginger, oyster sauce,
 
A relative in Texas asked me if my husband liked dirty rice(a main dish). I said, "Don't tell him what's in it."

I like green beans with spaetzle, green beans with cranberries and sliced almonds, and green beans with cream of mushroom soup and fried onion rings. I have too many cook books! when I find my Virginia Hospitality Cook Book, I'll post one of my favorite spinach recipes.
 
A relative in Texas asked me if my husband liked dirty rice(a main dish). I said, "Don't tell him what's in it."

I like green beans with spaetzle, green beans with cranberries and sliced almonds, and green beans with cream of mushroom soup and fried onion rings. I have too many cook books! when I find my Virginia Hospitality Cook Book, I'll post one of my favorite spinach recipes.
They sound tasty and that would be great.

I was in Indonesia and their was a buffet breakfast one of the meals which I could not even look at for a morning meal was grey rice. Not sure what it was called. I see there are many recipes for dirty rice.

We are going to move due to rent increases and I have sent bags and bags of books to the op shops. But haven't touched my cookbooks, I love them. My husband thinks they can go to the op shop but I am not so sure.
 
A side dish we really enjoy is a quick stir fry greens - spinach, silverbeet, chinese greens, spring onions, snow peas, cabbage whatever is on hard. Tossed quickly in a little hot oil. It can be flavoured with garlic for those who can eat, tossed with chilli flakes, nuts, ginger, oyster sauce,
Silverbeet? What is that? But I like stir fried vegetables too. We also like to grill them over our gas grill, in a high-sided pan with holes in it. I marinate the vegetables first, then stir fry them in the pan, after it has been sprayed with Pam to keep them from sticking.
 
They sound tasty and that would be great.

I was in Indonesia and their was a buffet breakfast one of the meals which I could not even look at for a morning meal was grey rice. Not sure what it was called. I see there are many recipes for dirty rice.

We are going to move due to rent increases and I have sent bags and bags of books to the op shops. But haven't touched my cookbooks, I love them. My husband thinks they can go to the op shop but I am not so sure.

My inlaws visited us once and saw how many cookbooks I owned. I had one that was a Christmas gift from them, but that was the last one they sent. LOL. My MIL had a recipe box and zero cook books. My mother didn't even have a recipe box and didn't like to try new recipes. The only fruits we ever had at home were fresh bananas, fresh apples, and store bought canned peaches and applesauce.
 
I will have to look into whether I can eat it. I love rice not by itself, if I did that I would need to sprinkle it with sugar and that would not be good for me. But I love it mixed with veggies, or Kim makes a tasty fried rice. I love it with Kim's stir fried veges very tasty. He barely uses any oil either.

Mexican/Spanish style rice is nice as well, risottos, hmm paella would be tasty but I am not into fish and seafood, arancini balls. So many ways to eat rice but only occasionally now.

We were allowed to pour milk and sugar on rice when there weren't any store bought cookies, or ice cream. I think ice cream and cookies were my mother's favorite desserts. She liked canned peaches, too. I guess she had them for dessert because they were sweetened and she wouldn't have anything with sugar until she finished her starch (potatoes, rice, or noodles), meat (or poultry), and vegetable. Vegetables were boiled, butter added at the table; except spinach had no butter only vinegar. Sandwiches were for lunch: canned tuna, bologna, or egg salad. On Thanksgiving and Christmas we had leftover turkey in sandwiches.
 
Silverbeet? What is that? But I like stir fried vegetables too. We also like to grill them over our gas grill, in a high-sided pan with holes in it. I marinate the vegetables first, then stir fry them in the pan, after it has been sprayed with Pam to keep them from sticking.

That sounds good. My mother-in-law, dug up dandelion greens and put them in a crock with Kosher salt, covered them with a plate that fit inside the crock, and stored the crock in her basement. Then she cooked however much she needed for a meal. No one in the village put chemicals on their lawns.
 
My inlaws visited us once and saw how many cookbooks I owned. I had one that was a Christmas gift from them, but that was the last one they sent. LOL. My MIL had a recipe box and zero cook books. My mother didn't even have a recipe box and didn't like to try new recipes. The only fruits we ever had at home were fresh bananas, fresh apples, and store bought canned peaches and applesauce.
Memories are funny things. Unfortunately both my grandmothers had their recipes in their heads. I so wish my nonna had written her's down as I have never found recipes that are even close to hers. Her fish balls would cause us all to fight to eat them. She made a huge bowl of spaghetti every Sunday with fish balls for us. She would send my grandfather down, he refused to have anything to do with us, so would leave it on the fence. We would be watching and as soon as he was out of sight we would rush to be the first one down. We wanted an extra fish ball. I hated fish any other way.

Speaking to a cousin she said they had to carefully count out those fish balls to make sure there was an equal amount for us all. I said that was funny. I told her I would have loved to be part of the cooking crew for the tomato sauces and all the other recipes.

My mum grew up very poor we had various fruits on the table, we were only allowed to look at them. We waited till dad got home and asked him for fruit, he being Italian would say of course and then we would hear I work hard so the children can eat. There were 9 of us, I suppose she wanted to be able to put a piece in our school lunch but often it would just go mouldy.
 
That sounds good. My mother-in-law, dug up dandelion greens and put them in a crock with Kosher salt, covered them with a plate that fit inside the crock, and stored the crock in her basement. Then she cooked however much she needed for a meal. No one in the village put chemicals on their lawns.
Interesting. My mum was forced to go and get nettles from the fields to cook for meals. This obviously scarred her, she hated nettles.
 
Silverbeet? What is that? But I like stir fried vegetables too. We also like to grill them over our gas grill, in a high-sided pan with holes in it. I marinate the vegetables first, then stir fry them in the pan, after it has been sprayed with Pam to keep them from sticking.
I am not sure what it is called over in the states. It has a green leaf with a white stalk. I think it is part of the chard family. We used to call it spinach but it is nothing like spinach. I think nanna said that so we would eat it, to be strong like popeye.
 
We were allowed to pour milk and sugar on rice when there weren't any store bought cookies, or ice cream. I think ice cream and cookies were my mother's favorite desserts. She liked canned peaches, too. I guess she had them for dessert because they were sweetened and she wouldn't have anything with sugar until she finished her starch (potatoes, rice, or noodles), meat (or poultry), and vegetable. Vegetables were boiled, butter added at the table; except spinach had no butter only vinegar. Sandwiches were for lunch: canned tuna, bologna, or egg salad. On Thanksgiving and Christmas we had leftover turkey in sandwiches.
We had canned peaches for dessert often. I thought it was because they were cheap. You are right they were very sweet. Yep everything was boiled. I hated what I called KP duty we had to peel so many potatoes for our meal. There were 3 adults and 9 kids in our house. The boys never had to help with these tasks. It used to make me so mad. I said I would rather take the rubbish bins out, it would be better than peeling potatoes.
 
I've never had Swiss chard nor have I seen it in a grocery store.

That's slightly funny about peeling so many potatoes. Thinking back I don't remember my MIL serving a lot of potatoes. My mother had German ancestry and we had boiled potatoes several times a week. I'm trying to remember my MIL's meals. I only remember the dandelion greens that tasted a little like spinach and that she didn't cook green beans like most of the people I knew. She heated them in milk and butter, but served them without the milk; I'm not sure why. Without a thickener the milk would just run off unless in a separate bowl with the beans. So what could be the purpose? She lived in NE USA. Hubby and I lived halfway down the east coast, so it was a long drive to visit. I remember my husband said he didn't like squash and that his mother always boiled winter squash (probably Hubbard squash) for Thanksgiving dinner. My mother liked to bake acorn squash (I forgot that because she didn't do it for Thanksgiving or Christmas and not very often). I never had yellow squash (summer squash) until I bought some and tried it after I married. I like it with real butter (not margarine). But I never served it to my husband. I will never put vinegar on my boiled spinach!
 
I've never had Swiss chard nor have I seen it in a grocery store.

That's slightly funny about peeling so many potatoes. Thinking back I don't remember my MIL serving a lot of potatoes. My mother had German ancestry and we had boiled potatoes several times a week. I'm trying to remember my MIL's meals. I only remember the dandelion greens that tasted a little like spinach and that she didn't cook green beans like most of the people I knew. She heated them in milk and butter, but served them without the milk; I'm not sure why. Without a thickener the milk would just run off unless in a separate bowl with the beans. So what could be the purpose? She lived in NE USA. Hubby and I lived halfway down the east coast, so it was a long drive to visit. I remember my husband said he didn't like squash and that his mother always boiled winter squash (probably Hubbard squash) for Thanksgiving dinner. My mother liked to bake acorn squash (I forgot that because she didn't do it for Thanksgiving or Christmas and not very often). I never had yellow squash (summer squash) until I bought some and tried it after I married. I like it with real butter (not margarine). But I never served it to my husband. I will never put vinegar on my boiled spinach!
We had potatoes at nearly every meal - boiled, mashed, roasted, salads. We had various types of pumpkin Jarrah, butternut etc. Both grew easily in the home garden and were inexpensive when feeding hordes. We also filled up on rice and pasta but my Aussie mother and grandmother could not cook like my Italian grandmother. Sometimes I found the taste of olive oil in her cooking too much but boy what a delight to eat.

I love pumpkin soup, baked pumpkin, pumpkin mixed in with potato mash, pumpkin pie but cannot have it, it has a bad effect on my system.

I have often found that tasting something cooked another way brings an enjoyment you never knew before. But tripe is never improved, I dislike it intensely.
 
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