Greens, grains, eggs, bacon, and sriracha, these are the building blocks of a breakfast that perfectly straddles the line between healthy and indulgent. It’s the sort of thing that I crave after a night out that maybe, just maybe, involved a bit more wine than what is probably wise. Don’t get me wrong, some hangovers call for a diner-style grilled cheese with bacon or something similarly carby, cheesy, and decadent, but on days where I wake up feeling just a bit off, a breakfast like this feels like smarter move.
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Individual Grain-Free Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Every so often while flipping through a cookbook, I flag a recipe to try not because I think it sounds delicious, but rather because I’m curious and even skeptical about how it’ll turn out. This gluten-and-butter-free, almond-flour-based chocolate chip cookie from Izy Hossack’s The Savvy Cook is a prime example of that. When I first glanced at the ingredient list, I was puzzled, to say the least. Could almond butter, almond flour, honey, vanilla, baking soda, chocolate chunks, and a bit of salt combine into something that pushes the same buttons as a classic chocolate chip cookie? Or, would it bake up like a protein bar or sad diet cookie?
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Lentils With Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, and Yogurt
It used to get to me when someone would describe the recipes I share here as simple or easy, like somehow that was a critique on my culinary skills and creativity, or it was a subtle, passive-aggressive jab at my worth as a cook and recipe developer. I’d wonder if years of working in online media had served as blinders, limiting my focus to the Pinterest-friendly realm of one-pan, slow-cooker, and weeknight-friendly meals. Or, maybe I was *gasp*, in 2014 terms, “basic.” But then something funny happened: I realized that sharing doable, realistic recipes was my goal all along. That by keeping things (for the most part) beginner-cook-friendly, I was creating content that could reach, and hopefully inspire, a wider swath of readers to go to the grocery store (or better yet, farmers market), fill their bags with delicious things, and get in the kitchen.
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North African Sundried Tomato Soup With Couscous and Olives
When the frosty wind nips at your nose and you wake up to dark skies, it can be easy to get down on autumn. (But wait, can’t we have one more month of long, mild nights and bushels of heirloom tomatoes?) Mostly though, I look at this time of year with a lot of love. I’m more than ready to be done with hot, humid, sticky days, where a walk outside practically mandates clutching (and gulping down) an Olsen-twins-sized iced tea for its internal cooling properties. Equally exciting are the endless mountains of squash, apples, pears, beets, and other goodies flooding the markets right now. But if I had to pick one thing I like most about fall, it’d have to be the return to soup season. My love for this coziest-of-cozy foods knows no bounds, and recently I had a particularly-good excuse to try out a handful of recipes: at 29, I had my wisdom teeth taken out.
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Turmeric Braised Chicken Thighs With Beets and Leeks
Phoebe Lapine’s The Wellness Project is not your average cookbook. In fact, it’s not really a cookbook at all. There are no glossy photographs and only 22 recipes within it’s 384 pages. And yet, it is one of my favorite collections of recipes from 2017; a title that I’ve found myself recommending to others often and wholeheartedly. Written by the blogger behind Feed Me Phoebe, this memoir follows Lapine through a year of experimenting with lifestyle changes, devoting a month each to topics like green beauty, gut health, fitness, stress, and hormonal regulation, all along reporting on what works for her and what doesn’t. Healthy recipes are (not-surprisingly) interwoven throughout its pages, and the ones included are of the appealing and easy-to-make sort, like this one-pan turmeric chicken and beet situation.
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Turkish Eggs With Garlic Yogurt and Tomatoes
Smokiness tends to take over, dominating everything it touches, and so it is a flavor I tend to avoid. But every once in a while, I taste something that helps me understand why people swoon for that licked-by-fire quality. This recipe is a prime example; here, smoked paprika and aleppo pepper flakes infuse melted butter with warmth, depth, and a brilliant sunset color. Drizzled on top of poached eggs, slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, and a swoosh of lemon-garlic yogurt, the softly-smoky butter ties everything together, rather than clobbering your tastebuds.
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Summer Squash With Parmesan, Pine Nuts, and Basil
Summer squash, pine nuts, Parmigianno-Reggiano, olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper. You might look at this pared-down list of ingredients, and be tempted, as I initially was, to gild the lily, perhaps with a spritz of lemon juice or a few drops of rosemary-infused oil, but trust me here — or rather, trust Deborah Madison — this recipe doesn’t need it.
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Ginger Pork Meatball Lettuce Wraps With Cilantro
Dumplings rank high up there amongst my favorite foods: gyoza, potstickers, har gow, mandu, bao, wontons, siu mai, I love them all. And yet it’s highly unlikely that you’ll see a dumpling recipe here any time soon. Sure, it can be a fun project filling and pleating those tasty packages — especially if it’s a group effort — but it’s fussier than the type of cooking I tend to gravitate towards, and in my mind, something better left to the experts, to those whose muscle memory carries them through this task with ease. These Asian-inflected meatball lettuce wraps are a great compromise; reminiscent of the filling of Chinese ginger pork dumplings, they’re super-flavorful, lighter, and much less time-consuming to make.
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Marinated Bell Peppers With Pine Nuts and Herbs
Strategic cooking is never a bad idea, but it’s particularly useful during these summer months, when the days are long and hot, park picnics and beaches are beckoning, and social calendars are full. In other words, now is the time to maximize your efforts in the kitchen by embracing make-ahead recipes, like these super-versatile marinated bell peppers. Flavor-packed and tender, they’re an excellent addition to sandwiches (try pairing them with pesto, prosciutto, mozzarella, and focaccia), antipasti platters, or as a stand-alone side for some grilled steak or chicken. They also make for a vegetable-packed, Whole30-friendly breakfast, when topped with a couple fried or poached eggs.
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Miso-Avocado Soba Noodles With Kale
As much as I love creamy pasta dishes like bechamel-rich lasagna, macaroni and cheese, and baked pastas, that combination of ultra-rich dairy and pasta is a ticking tummy time bomb, so I try to avoid it unless it’s really, truly worth it. Instead, I typically get my creamy noodle fix by tossing al dente strands with sauces made from non-dairy alternatives like cashew cream, almond butter, or, in this case avocado. It might sound a bit odd, but when blended up with miso, garlic, a touch of lime juice, and olive oil, avocado transforms into a rich vegan sauce. Paired with nutty soba noodles, ribbons of kale, and crunchy sesame seeds, it makes for a guilt-free, totally-craveable dinner option.
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