Honey-Mustard Salmon with Potato-Fennel Puree and Garlic Spinach

My husband, P.J., had an idea one evening as we sat and ate our all American, Family Guy style, starch-protein-vegetable divided plates. He stacked his salmon on top of the potatoes, topped it with spinach, and we drizzled some of the pan sauce from the salmon over the top. It was immediately elevated from a boring I-couldn't-think-of-anything-better-to-make-for-dinner dish to an eye-catching presentation worthy of a special occasion. We dove in vertically with our forks, and the three elements combined into one bite created a lovely progression of acidic, sweet, salty, and bitter.

Cutting up or shredding the fennel in the potato puree can take a little longer, but if it is done with just regular mashed potatoes, this meal can easily be made in 20 minutes.

Claude Monet's Vegetable Soup (with matzo balls)

My grandma Judy brings this vegetable soup to Passover each year as a vegetarian option for the soup course. She says it is Monet's own recipe, taken from the cooking journals he kept at Giverny. I'm imagining that Monet was inspired to grow his own vegetables in the beautiful gardens at Giverny for this classical but inventive soup.

The soup bursts with an addictive sort of salty-sweet flavor that pairs so nicely with a matzo ball (which, of course, was added to this recipe post-Monet). I think the shredded sweet potato really does the trick.

To shred the vegetables, use a box grater or the shredding blade on a food processor.

Lemony Lentil Soup

Here is a recipe for a staple lentil soup that is clean and simple, courtesy of my friend Eleonore.  This and the Split Pea Soup posted recently are her two regular soup choices and both are great recipes.  Both are simple, inexpensive, light, vegan, easy on the stomach, and freeze well.  In this recipe, the fresh lemon juice brings out the flavor of the lentils really nicely and makes it so not very much salt is required to get great flavor.