Chef, author, and activist Bryant Terry may have designed this recipe for asparagus, but it offers a template that will bring any vegetable in your crisper to life. Just blanch, marinate, then grill (or broil), using a marinade that's creamy from silken tofu and pulls double duty as a sauce at the end (both for this recipe, and anything else you want to dunk in it, ranch-style, later). If you're missing any one of the ingredients or simply want to use this method on other vegetables you have on hand, don't worry—the technique is flexible, and we're here to answer your questions.
In his new cookbook Vegetable Kingdom , Terry shares the story behind this recipe, "I created this recipe after watching the second episode of the first season of Atlanta. I’ve never had lemon pepper wings, but when Darius and Paper Boi drooled over the light emanating from their chicken-filled box, it was clear that I needed to see what all the hype was about. After an afternoon of testing, while bumpin’ Outkast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, I landed on a marinade that combines tangy lemon juice, bright lemon zest, and pungent black pepper. Instead of creating a recipe for ranch dressing, which is typically served alongside wings, I blended the marinade with silken tofu to give it depth and creaminess. I finished the dish with a hit of earthy-floral white pepper and more lemon zest. This is for all my people grinding and hustling in ATL, the Bluff City, MIA, North Cakalak, and the Big Easy. As Andre 3000 said at the Source Awards in 1995, 'It’s like this though, I’m tired of them closed-minded folks. It’s like we got a demo tape but don’t nobody want to hear it, but it’s like this: the South got something to say! That’s all I got to say.'"
Recipe adapted slightly from Vegetable Kingdom (Ten Speed Press, February 2020). —Genius Recipes
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