Is It Bad to Run Your Dishwasher Every Day?

Plus, four more recipes to try this week

Sometimes we all hit a cooking rut — and maybe, for you, that sometimes is now. 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. So you scroll a few blogs, flip through some cookbooks, and give up. Beany Thursday strikes again.

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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July 23, 2021

Spicy Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese

Barbara Lynch, Stir: Mixing it Up in the Italian Tradition

It’s been raining a lot, so I’ve been in the mood for soup. I finally got around to making one of my all-time favorite Boston dishes, the spicy tomato soup with grilled cheese from one of Barbara Lynch’s restaurants, Sportello. (It’s in her cookbook, Stir.) The grilled cheese is super skinny, super crispy, and covered in a toasted caraway seed-infused butter. I also added crispy basil and the resulting basil oil to the soup because why not? It was awesome. The grilled cheese method — which involves freezing the bread, toasting caraway seeds, baking, and more — was a little bit more finicky than what I’d want to do for a usual weeknight grilled cheese, but totally worth the extra effort now and then. — Rachel Blumenthal, Eater Boston editor

Maple and Miso Sheet-Pan Salmon With Green Beans

Colu Henry, NYT Cooking

I love salmon (PNW all the way, baby!), but for some reason, I rarely make it (or any seafood) at home — I’m always too scared of overcooking an expensive protein. But a sale on sockeye this past week led me to search for a foolproof salmon recipe, which led me to this truly foolproof sheet pan version from NYT Cooking. All of the required ingredients were already in my pantry, it comes together just as quickly as advertised (as a bumbling cook, this is rare for me), and the miso-maple marinade encased the fish nicely and ensured it didn’t dry out in the oven. Salmon cooking just got 80 percent less scary. — Erin DeJesus, Eater.com editor

Lesley Suter

Paella on the Grill

Lan Lam, Cooks Illustrated

My sister and I rarely are able to get together without our parents also crashing the party, but last weekend we swore ourselves to secrecy and had a clandestine gathering of our families around her backyard pool with zero parental supervision. On the menu was paella — a dish we’ve made together before, but our parents are weird about shellfish so we’re always forced to leave it out. Not this time! We cooked two paellas side-by-side on the grill with this easy but mind-bendingly good Cooks Illustrated recipe. We bolster ours with a stock we make with a smoked turkey every Thanksgiving and freeze, which honestly does make a huge difference. Leftovers were even better the next day, stir-fried till crispy and topped with an egg — with mimosas. Mom and Dad don’t have to know. — Lesley Suter, Eater travel editor

Gochujang-Glazed Eggplant With Fried Scallions

Eric Kim, NYT Cooking

On the constant hunt for vegetable-based side dishes and inspired by the contents of our weekly CSA box, my partner Daniel and I were led to this gochujang eggplant last weekend. The recipe itself, from NYT Cooking, is not particularly complex, but in this case that doesn’t mean it’s boring or not worth the prep time. It’s basically eggplants (cut in big, easy wedges), gochujang (we use Mother-in-Law’s garlic variety), and scallions, sliced thinly and fried. Cutting the scallions is the most painstaking part, but worth it once they’re fried up to crunchy matchstick perfection — and know that they shrivel down when cooked, so prep more than you think you’ll need. You can save time by frying the green and white parts together (though the recipe says to do them separately), and use the scallion frying oil for the eggplant. Serve it hot, then watch the entire impossibly delicious dish disappear. — Ellie Krupnick, Eater director of editorial ops

Grilled Steak and Elote Tacos

Gina Homolka, Cooking Light

Elotes (well, esquites technically, since I tend to serve it as a salad) is one of my go-to side dishes when I’m cooking Mexican food in the summer, so this recipe that cuts out the middleman and puts the corn directly on the tacos was pretty appealing to me. The corn mixture works terrific as a topping, and the steak has an impressive amount of personality to it, given that cumin is really its only seasoning. This is a low-stress taco dinner that’s perfect for casual summer. And if you decide to add a little guacamole to the situation like I did, no one here will label you “extra.” — Missy Frederick, Eater cities director

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Shutterstock

July 16, 2021

Easy watermelon margarita

• Erin Lives Whole

Japanese-style mapo tofu

• Harumi Kurihara, NHK World-Japan

Chicken Mole and Salsa Borracha

• Bricia Lopez, Oaxaca

Broccoli Caesar salad

• Chris Morocco, Bon Appétit

Sesame, date, and banana cake

• Yotam Ottolenghi, NYT Cooking

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July 9, 2021

Crab and shrimp etouffee

• Spicy Southern Kitchen

Salted PB&J ice cream pie

• Sohla El-Waylly, Bon Appétit

Grilled chorizo soup with kale and sweet potatoes

• Chris Schlesinger, The Thrill of the Grill

Pasta with favas, tomatoes, and sausage

• Smitten Kitchen

Oven-roasted chicken shawarma

• Sam Sifton, NYT Cooking

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July 2, 2021

Spicy Peanut Soba Noodles With Green Beans

• Aaron Hutcherson, the Washington Post

Impossible Street Tacos

• J. Michael Melton, Impossible Foods

Simple Butter Roasted Salmon

• Alison Roman, YouTube

Kale Pesto

• Nancy Silverton, The Mozza Cookbook

Dark Chocolate Tahini Swirl Bundt Cake

• Soom Foods

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June 25, 2021

Tzatziki Potato Salad

• Hetty McKinnon, NYT Cooking

Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

• Sally McKenney, Sally’s Baking Addiction; Sam Sifton, NYT Cooking

Shaking Tofu

• Andrea Nguyen, Food & Wine

Tomato and Cucumber Salad and Honey Hush Cornbread

• Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: An American Roadhouse

Easy Sheet Cake with Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting

• Claire Saffitz, Bon Appétit

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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