Tomatoes
Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta
Grilled country bread rubbed with raw garlic, piled with marinated heirloom tomatoes and torn basil. Four ingredients, and the single best use of a ripe August tomato.
Cook the whole harvest, not just the pretty part
Sorrel & Salt is an independent American kitchen notebook for open-pollinated vegetables, fruit and herbs. Every recipe here starts with a variety worth growing, tells you when to pick it, and shows you a method that keeps its flavour intact.
Starting points
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Eggplant
Hunan-Style Smashed Eggplant
Whole eggplants grilled until the skin blisters and the interior collapses, then opened up and dressed with garlic, chile, black vinegar and sesame. The easiest way to cook eggplant and the most flavourful.
Squash
White Pumpkin Pie with Brown Butter
White heirloom pumpkins roasted until caramelised, pureed, and baked into a custard with brown butter and warm spice. Deeper and less watery than anything from a can.
Preserves & Condiments
Wild Huckleberry Jam
Wild huckleberries or blueberries cooked down with lemon and a touch of cinnamon into a dark, intensely flavoured jam. A small batch that rewards careful skimming and patient simmering.
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Cabbage & Brassicas
Charred Cabbage Wedges with Anchovy Butter
Pointed cabbage wedges seared hard in a cast-iron pan until the leaves blacken and sweeten, then finished with anchovy butter and lemon. A winter vegetable with real drama.
Root Vegetables
Roasted Beets with Mint Yogurt
Whole beets roasted in a foil parcel until they collapse, then sliced over cool mint-flecked yogurt with pistachios and orange. Sweet, earthy and completely unlike boiled beets.
Preserves & Condiments
Ground Cherry and Vanilla Jam
Husk cherries have a floral, pineapple-and-vanilla flavour that makes an extraordinary jam. A small-batch preserve that sets naturally from the fruit's own pectin.
Peppers
Quinoa and Herb Stuffed Sweet Peppers
Halved sweet heirloom peppers filled with herbed quinoa, tomato and feta, then baked until the edges caramelise. Vegetarian, freezer-friendly, and easy to scale for a crowd.
Preserves & Condiments
Wild Huckleberry Jam
Wild huckleberries or blueberries cooked down with lemon and a touch of cinnamon into a dark, intensely flavoured jam. A small batch that rewards careful skimming and patient simmering.
Tomatoes
Fresh Heirloom Tomato Salsa
Ripe heirloom tomatoes, charred chile, onion, lime and cilantro, chopped by hand and salted to taste. Salsa cruda is the reason to grow more tomatoes than you can eat fresh.
Why heirloom varieties
An heirloom is simply an open-pollinated variety that someone kept growing, season after season, because it tasted good. Those varieties were selected for flavour, texture and aroma rather than for the ability to survive a thousand-mile truck ride, and you can taste the difference in almost every recipe on this site.
We also write for the moment the harvest arrives all at once. Most of these recipes take under an hour, use equipment you already own, and are written to work with whatever size or shape of vegetable you happened to grow.
How we work
- Every recipe is cooked at home and rewritten from notes before it is published.
- Times are for a home oven and ordinary pans, not a professional kitchen.
- Variety recommendations come from seed catalogues and growers, not paid placements.
- Photographs of finished dishes are freely licensed and credited on every page.