eggboy and i got real excited for easter last year. we cleared our schedules, planned nice colorful outfits, and even considered going to a church service! (i know! i guess i was curious?) eggboy grew up celebrating easter with a capital "e" and i grew up microwaving peeps and searching for eggs that my good jewish mother hid around the house.
so we had high hopes for the day.
i flat ironed my hair and we set off to eat cute food at a cute restaurant in the presence of other cutely dressed people who were also easter cheery.
and then we stepped out into brooklyn and realized that everyone was hungover and un-smiley and not at all in the spirit. which on any other day i would have embraced because i do like the haze and grogginess of a brooklyn sunday morning. but on this day, eggboy did something that he rarely does, and that is: frown. he missed his family and the celebration and being around other families, and that made me miss my family. and i suppose that was just one beginning of our road back to the midwest.
in an effort to cheer ourselves up, we had a delicious lunch at what remains one of our favorite places in brooklyn, bklyn larder. we got every single thing we wanted, including their egg tortilla, a hot cross bun, a pistachio cake, and the green vegetable of the day, a spring onion salad with their perfect romesco. i could take a bath in the bklyn larder romesco, i could eat it with a spoon, i could maybe even put it on a banana and enjoy a banana for the first time.
romesco might be one of my top five favorite sauces and onions might be my new favorite vegetable.
following is a loose recreation of that salad. it uses a gluten-free romesco (more nuts, no bread crumbs) and grilled green onions. i'd highly recommend it as an easy easter side dish that's also vegan and gluten free and kosher for passover, in case you were planning on inviting the town jewish girl to your ham supper.
grilled green onions with walnut romesco
makes about 3 cups of romesco, which is enough to have leftovers or to top up to 10 servings of onions. the amount of onions can vary based on how many servings you'd like to make, but about 4-6 stalks per serving should do the trick.
ingredients
for the romesco:
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 roasted red peppers
2 cloves garlic
1/2 c toasted walnuts
2 tb white wine vinegar
2 tb olive oil
a good pinch of paprika
salt + pepper, to taste
for the onions:
olive oil
green onions (4-6 stalks per serving), trimmed
salt + pepper, to taste
clues
in a blender or food processor, whiz up all of the romesco ingredients. taste and adjust seasonings, if desired. this can be made up to 3 days in advance.
to cook the onions, light a grill or a grill pan and lightly brush the onions with olive oil. grill them over medium high heat until wilted and browned, a few minutes on each side. (i like to squash them down onto the grill pan by plopping a cast iron skillet on top so they get some really nice grill marks, but this is optional.) if you don't have a grill or grill pan, sautéing the onions in olive oil works well too!
sprinkle the onions with salt and pepper and then top with a heavy dose of romesco.
enjoy with an easter bunny!
-yeh!