Does the world need another fried rice recipe? I didn’t think so until I made Kenji López-Alt’s Basic Vegetable Fried Rice from his new, somewhat astonishing book The Wok. The dish, which I consider to be an absolute cornerstone of a Weekday Vegetarian’s repertoire, has always been something I’ve kind of made up on the fly. Ginger here, soy sauce there, eggs… Read more »
A few weekends ago, Abby was home from college for a mini-break, and right before dinner one night, she came into the kitchen to tell me her friend Alex was going to stop by. It’s dinnertime, I said. Will he be eating with us? She (somewhat annoyingly) couldn’t confirm one way or the other, but I decided to be prepared just in… Read more »
When we were first trying to get our kids on board with the whole Weekday Vegetarian thing, we were never quite sure if we should tweak old recipes that they had an attachment to, or just ignore them completely. Sometimes we got lucky and just swapped beans for meat in a favorite dinner and no one was any worse for… Read more »
I feel pretty good about my vegetable life at dinner time, but I’ve recently realized I am not terribly consistent about getting produce into my lunches when I’m working from home. When I even have lunch, that is. Often my mid-day meal, if I remember to stop what I’m doing to actually have it, is just a forkful of leftovers standing in… Read more »
You know what ingredient makes my heart sink a little every time I come across it in a recipe? Vegetable broth. I know, I know, cry me a river, but I just cannot find a store-bought vegetable broth that doesn’t have, how do I say this…top-notes of low-tide on the marsh? Weekday Vegetarian owners know this is why, when I have time,… Read more »
For a holiday gift this year, our friend Avideh gave us ingredients to create one of her most favorite dishes from childhood: Ash Reshteh, an herby Persian stew, packed with noodles and beans. The gift felt so right for this moment, when we’re all squirreling away again by ourselves, unsure of how to proceed with dinner guests or nights out. Even though… Read more »
Whenever I find myself within a mile radius of Daily Provisions, the Danny Meyer-owned Manhattan cafes in NY, I do whatever it takes to get there, even if it’s just to pick up a cup of coffee. I love the neighborhoody vibe and the simple, comforting menu — breakfast sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, soups, everything fresh, everything executed exactly right. Last summer,… Read more »
As I’ve probably mentioned a few hundred times in this space, my oldest daughter, Phoebe is a college runner and when I asked her this past weekend what she wanted for dinner, her eyes got all dreamy talking about one of her last races of the season, notable not just for how good she felt, but for what she ate… Read more »
Fun fact: This recipe appears in two of my books. A version of it first appeared in How to Celebrate Everything, but I make it so frequently, it felt wrong not to include it again in my last book, devoted to my easiest, go-to-iest weeknight vegetarian dinners. It’s the kind of homey comfort-food meal I make when I’m cooking for… Read more »
Even though I’m no longer cooking for young kids on the clock every day, I can’t seem to shake the habit of scanning new cookbooks for potential weeknight recipes while wearing my Efficiency Goggles. How long will that take? How many pots? How forgiving is it? (Like, will I be arrested if I use 2% vs. whole milk?) How many… Read more »
I think hands-down the best tofu is crispy tofu, i.e. when it’s been dredged in cornstarch, then pan-fried in a generous amount of oil and tossed with some form of glaze or sauce. (Exhibit A: Hsiao-Ching Chou’s Crispy Weeknight Tofu with vegetables.) But honestly, dredging and frying can be a pain sometimes, and when my friend Robin (by way of our friend Kate,… Read more »
Last Thursday, a week and a half before we dropped off Daughter Number 1 at college, Andy and I found ourselves in a not-unusual position as the parents of teenagers: There would be no kids eating dinner with us — both had plans. I wouldn’t normally care, but with the clock ticking down to their Departure Days, each missed family… Read more »
Good morning! Look what’s now keeping me company as I work on your weekly dispatch. My copies arrived last week and I was so excited I even made a reel about it. For those of you who pre-ordered, a) THANK YOU and b) your copy should be arriving in exactly two weeks. One of the more liberating discoveries about cooking vegetarian dinners —… Read more »
My children would disagree with this statement but you’re looking at one of the best things I ate last week on vacation that did not include corn or tomatoes. It’s crispy fried eggplant with Romesco sauce and shredded basil and even though I couldn’t get the girls on board, I locked in Andy whose most enthusiastic endorsement of eggplant in the… Read more »
I write about slaw a lot. For good reason — I eat it a lot, especially in the summer. It’s almost always the answer to the question: What can I add to dinner that will give my plate that hit of freshness and texture? (Do you not ask that question of yourself constantly?) I realized though, that I haven’t ever… Read more »
I’ve been attempting to recreate some version of these tacos ever since my daughter tried them at a sweet 16 party in the city a few years ago. “You sure they were cauliflower?” I asked her. “Yes,” she said. “You don’t like cauliflower, though.” After a few follow up questions, I determined that they had been deep-fried to resemble popcorn… Read more »
I’m in love with the new cookbook, Vegetable Simple. Eric Ripert — the chef and owner of one of New York’s most revered Michelin-starred restaurants, Le Bernardin — is known for his refined seafood dishes, but here, he turns his eyes towards his second love, vegetables. The most amazing thing about it is how actually simple the recipes are. Like not chef-pretending-to-be-simple… Read more »
I realize this is maybe the seventeenth time I’ve written about this pizza in various ways throughout the years, but it’s such an important recipe in my rotation that I felt it was time it had its own dedicated page. Especially since my version of it (with cheddar and caramelized onions) seems to have strayed so far from the traditional… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
