Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

@Daniel C Sorry, I can't remember! Strikes me as the type of thing I would've violated the first rule of photo propping for and bought at a national chain -- Sur la Table? Anthropologie?

@BeerBoy Especially because of the lemon, this is significantly less sweet than the average strawberry-banana. If you want a sweeter green smoothie to get you started, try this one with spinach instead of arugula and swap in a couple of dried dates for the lemon. Or try this one, which isn't technically green but is loaded with spinach.

Wow! Looks like I exposed a few nerve endings with this one. As always, thanks to everyone for expressing your thoughts and getting involved in the discussion -- especially the parts where many of you provided additional insight without condemning a way of life that other people have chosen for themselves. (That latter part, on the other hand, is by far my least favorite part of contributing to this site.)

Kenji, I really appreciate your scientific analysis. I think it can be incredibly difficult for non-scientists to weed through all the dietary information/disinformation that's out there these days. I know SE isn't really focused on nutrition, but since literal nourishment is an important part of why we feed ourselves, I love that you're willing to spend some time applying your abundant knowledge to that side of the discussion.

I'm surprised, though, that you would label raw foodism as the most utterly bullshit/dangerous food trend. In a society trending sharply toward premature death from diseases caused in large part by overconsumption of processed "foods" devoid of nutritional value, how can a fringe trend that encourages eating whole plant foods be our biggest threat? If I had to pick a winner for an utter bullshit trend, I'm pretty sure it would be this Timeline of the Standard American Diet, presented in graphical format for your viewing pleasure by the New York Times. :)

Okay, that's all the controversy I can handle for one morning. Off to make some pretty pictures of tacos.

Happy to see so many green smoothie enthusiasts and all of your great suggestions!

@Jbout I'm not a protein powder enthusiast myself -- I like to get my protein in the form of whole foods and have been learning more about how our bodies generally don't need or want nearly as much protein as we've come to believe they do, even when we're working out a lot. Hope you find one you like, though, if that's your thing.

@KarmaFreeCooking That's interesting about the dates. I realized when I read your comment that I only started adding dates after getting my Vitamix, which does a great job with them (and everything else). I wonder whether soaking them in advance would help?

@JulietRomeo, any winter squash with mild, sweet flesh and edible skin would work well here, or even one with firm flesh and inedible skin, as long as you peel it first. Acorn, delicata, red kuri, and buttercup would all be great choices. Dumpling squash are on the smallish side (similar to a small acorn squash -- the one I used was under two pounds), so you can use that as a reference. Squash sweetness varies a lot between varieties, so you might want to up the lime juice a bit if you use a really sweet variety.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your salad thoughts. Fun to see so many varieties and approaches. I'm hungry....

Hi, Marisa! Love your new column. Just as you say, I've pickled green tomatoes and canned tomatoes in many forms, but I've never pickled red tomatoes. These look fantastic. Looking forward to giving them a try, probably as fridge pickles since I am not yet full-on canning equipped in London.

@cdemers Yikes, thanks. All fixed.

@Ny155 Yup, exactly what @ob1canobeans said. And can I please add a moment of silence to praise the username @ob1canobeans?

@karen1monger That is just awesome. I've heard of air-drying fruit leather, but the dashboard tactic is new to me!

@eshlemouisa Blueberries.

Ooh! I might be a little too excited about this. The Americano is one of my favorite summer cocktails, too -- the ideal point on the spectrum between the Campari and soda and the Negroni. What a celebratory use for those fleeting sour cherries. Thanks for the inspiration!

Love this post, Max. Some great ideas here!

This is the funniest thing I've read all week. And I'm reading a David Sedaris book right now.