Valentine's Day Recipes: How to Make Your Favorite Foods Red or Pink

Even as a self-proclaimed foodie and lover of any reason to eat a part of me cringes at the idea of making food red or pink to celebrate Valentine's Day. But I have an alternative: instead of making food red or pink, why don't we instead make pink or red food? The gastronome within me loves this idea as much as it cringes at the idea of adding food coloring to perfectly good food.

Any food connoisseur knows that quality ingredients are the most important part of any meal. Natural foods have a subtle sexiness about them also, perfect for Valentine's Day. So let's begin by discussing foods that are naturally red or pink.

We'll start with protein: rare beef steak and rare tuna steak come to mind. Shrimp are a delightful pink blush color when cooked. Lobster. If your budget doesn't allow for food with a prohibitive cost consider something like roasted chicken seasoned with paprika, salt, pepper and lemon. The red spice adds a nice color and delicious flavor to the chicken. Salmon is also a lovely pink color when cooked.

Let's talk about side dishes now. Roasted quartered red potatoes would be great. A tomato soup would have even more color. Something like a simple brown rice could be made elegant by the addition of a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, almond slivers and dried cranberries. The cranberries would be like little balls of red hot love mixed into the dish. If cranberries aren't your thing then use something like sun-dried tomatoes or roasted red peppers to add a dash of red to your favorite side dish.

There are other entrées that are naturally red including chili, spaghetti or any tomato sauce dish like lasagna, borscht, and red beans and rice. I'm sure there are a lot more I'm forgetting. Even pizza is red, and if pizza is your choice consider also choosing red toppings like pepperoni, sun-dried tomatoes, red peppers and fresh tomatoes.