51 Little Ways to Save Money This Summer

Lesley Suter

A make-ahead salad to last the work week, an easy Martha Stewart bake, and a gochujang cauliflower recipe from Hetty McKinnon’s new book “To Asia, With Love”

It’s week trazillion-and-twelve of pandemic cooking, and you’ve hit a rut. Nay, a trench. You’ve done all the things one can do to a bean, and while the digital cook-o-sphere is loaded with ideas, there are just too many of them. You scroll a few blogs, flip through some cookbooks, and give up. Beany Thursday strikes again.

We’ve been there. We are there. But help is here. To sort through the noise of TikTok tortilla wraps and feta pastas, Eater has compiled a handful of the recipes — from blogs, magazines, publications, and cookbooks — that put the pep back in our pans this week and that we hope will do the same for you. These are the dishes that Eater editors from across the country actually made recently, and we’re passing along any firsthand tips, hacks, or dietary substitutions that, hey, worked for us. Here, then, are this week’s must-try recipes from Eater’s very-much-average but highly enthusiastic home cooks.

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April 16, 2021

Farro Salad with Leeks, Chickpeas, and Currants

Melissa Clark, NYT Cooking

Long before the pandemic I was a devoted fan of the “big fridge salad” — something bulky and bright that can sit in a container all week and get scooped into bowls for a quick laptop lunch. Mine have historically been a recipe-less jumble of something grainy with something hearty and green, some tangy cheese, some kinda bean, and some vinaigrette. A few weeks ago, though, I was looking for a way to use up a few leeks (I never know what to do with leeks) and stumbled upon this gem from the one and only Melissa Clark. I’ve since made it thrice; it’s that good. The leeks get roasted (who knew?) with a bunch of olive oil that eventually becomes the dressing for a mix of farro, chickpeas, celery leaves, and dried fruit. The recipe calls for currants but I’ve subbed dried apricots and dried cherries to excellent results. I like to undercook the farro a bit for extra texture, and adding some walnuts couldn’t hurt either. One recipe makes enough for my husband and I to feast off for five days without getting sick of it, the ultimate fridge-salad test. — Lesley Suter, Eater travel editor

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Maida Heatter, Happiness Is Baking: Cakes, Pies, Tarts, Muffins, Brownies, Cookies: Favorite Desserts from the Queen of Cake

Every Saturday night, my mother-in-law comes over to babysit my kids. It’s a privilege I never take for granted, especially given these strange times, so I try to return the favor by making sure there are sweets in the house to satisfy her impressive appetite. My go-to for inspiration is often Maida Heatter, an iconic source for deceptively simple but delicious sweets. This week, since I had a quart of blueberries about to turn, we made her blueberry crumb cake. It is dead simple as a parent-kid activity, uses pantry staples, and is a perfect dessert or breakfast cake to have with your coffee. I find it superior to other blueberry crumb cakes because the cake itself is not very sweet and only uses half a stick of butter, but the crumb coating is excessively rich and buttery. Plus it has an intense blueberry-to-cake ratio. We followed the recipe exactly as written and I wouldn’t change a thing. — Amanda Kludt, editor in chief

Lamb Chops with Red Lentils

Nik Sharma, Sunset

While making this dish, I was completely in awe of Nik Sharma’s mind. I make dal all the time, and I love lamb, and yet the idea of putting chile-spiced lamb chops over lentils flavored with both cumin and thyme never occurred to me. It takes some flavorful kitchen standards and elevates them just so, resulting in a dish that comes together in under an hour but is fit for a dinner party. Or just a Wednesday night when you’re feeling a little celebratory. — Jaya Saxena, staff writer

Stefania Orrù

Chocolate Thumbprints

Martha Stewart

My deep desire for freshly baked cookies often comes at inopportune times, like in the middle of the workday. Thankfully, working from home allows me to sneak in a quick bake during lunch and type away while whatever I’ve haphazardly shoved in the oven does its thing. Enter Queen Martha’s chocolate thumbprints: A buttery, not-too-sweet cookie with some kind of chocolate element really covers all the bases for me, and this is perhaps the easiest batch of cookies I’ve ever made. This dough comes together in a stand mixer with relative ease in just a few minutes. I skipped the double boiler for the chocolate filling in favor of microwaving in short bursts to get everything melted just right. My own personal riff? Flaky Maldon salt sprinkled right over the filled cookies. Sprinkle it over everything you eat. Sprinkle it directly on your tongue. Flaky salt forever. — Stefania Orrù, coordinating producer

Simple Quiche with Sweet Potato Crust

Chris Morocco, Bon Appétit

I don’t have any particular dietary restrictions, but I am fond of healthyish versions of classic dishes. Case in point: this Bon Appétit quiche that swaps in sweet potato for crust, subs Greek yogurt for cream, and stars an entire (small) bunch of kale. Sauteed sweet potato makes a flavorful shell for the eggy, oniony center, but it was tricky to press into a consistent crust and didn’t crisp as much as I expected. Despite baking the quiche for 75 minutes (toward the top of the recommended range) and the fact that it appeared set, I found the center remained pretty loose once I cut in. That said, my partner and I ate it all with no regrets. It’s excellent for dinner with a hunk of sourdough, breakfast with coffee, or an afternoon snack straight from the fridge. I would make it again, if only to see if I can’t iron out the kinks. — Nick Mancall-Bitel, associate editor

Whole Roasted Gochujang Cauliflower with Smashed Roasted Butter Beans

Hetty McKinnon, To Asia, With Love

I’ve been cooking out of Hetty McKinnon’s new cookbook To Asia, With Love ever since it arrived on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago. Every recipe I’ve tried has been a keeper, most recently the whole-roasted gochujang cauliflower with smashed roasted butter beans. As someone who loves cauliflower and eats gochujang straight from the jar, I appreciated the opportunity to put these two things together, particularly in the manner McKinnon does here: She creates a sauce from the gochujang, yogurt, and a bit of olive oil, and both massages it into the roasting cauliflower and serves it as an accompaniment to the finished dish. Have you ever massaged a roasting head of cauliflower? If not, it is oddly relaxing, and I recommend that you do so. While my butter beans didn’t roast properly and had the consistency of drywall, the flavor — enhanced with cumin, coriander, and ginger — still won the day, and I’m looking forward to cooking this one again. — Rebecca Flint Marx, senior editor

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April 9, 2021

Rebecca Flint Marx

Buckwheat Banana Bread

• Roxana Jullapat, Mother Grains

Kuku Sabzi

• Samin Nosrat, NYT Cooking

Air Fryer Cracklin’ Chicken

• Nom Nom Paleo

Spiced Coconut Chicken Rice

• Shayma Owaise Saadat, Bon Appétit

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April 2, 2021

Missy Frederick

8-Inch Flour Tortillas

• Cooks Country

Maeun Dwaeji Galbijjim (Slow Cooker Pork Ribs)

• Hyosun, Korean Bapsang

Cheddar-Walnut Gougères

• Dorie Greenspan, NYT Cooking

Llubav’s Green Spaghetti

• Julia Turshen, Simply Julia

Roast Chicken with Apricots and Olives

• Susan Spungen, NYT Cooking

Orange-Cardamom Olive Oil Cake

• Carolina Gelen, Food 52

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March 26, 2021

Nick Mancall-Bitel

Fresh Pineapple Syrup

• Stella Parks, Serious Eats

Ande Ki Kari (Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

• Julie Sahni, NYT Cooking

Mexican Stewed Beans With Salsa Fresca

• Diane Unger, Milk Street

Broccoli Pesto Pasta

• Dawn Perry, Bon Appétit

Instant Pot Italian Beef Sandwiches

• Lindsay Ostrom, Pinch of Yum

Soft Dinner Rolls

• Sally McKenney, Sally’s Baking Addiction

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For the complete list of everything Eater editors have enjoyed cooking so far this year (pizza babka! air-fryer ube cheesecake! spiced coconut chicken and rice!), head to the archive.

Source : food