Hi and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. Some personal news: After months of languishing on a wait list, I have finally been able to join an elite bean-delivery club — elite not because membership is carefully controlled or restricted, but because, as I understand it, there are only so many spots, and pounds of beans. I can’t wait for my first quarterly shipment to arrive.
After years of some measure of indifference to beans, I have come to love them, and now rely on them more as I eat less meat. This is especially true because — don’t judge — I am not a tofu enthusiast.
So: Beans. Which are delicious! Ideally, I’ll have vats of those clubby beans in my fridge that I’ve cooked on the weekend in my pressure cooker, and I’ll sub them in for canned in the recipes below, three of which are beany. Until then (and probably past then too), I’ll crack open cans as needed. Do you have ideas for excellent weeknight bean ideas that we may not have thought of over here at NYT Cooking? Notes on how you like to do them after work? Send those along, as well as thoughts, feelings and other feedback, to dearemily@nytimes.com.
[Sign up here to receive the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter in your inbox every Friday.]
Here are five dishes for the week:
1. Roasted Sausages With Grapes and Onions
This clever, delicious and highly autumnal recipe comes from Melissa Clark, and I thought it was perfect with a scoop of farro and a green salad, though it would also be great tucked into a split baguette. While the sausage is good, the combination of roasted grapes and onion is truly exceptional.
_____
2. Cannellini-Bean Pasta With Beurre Blanc
I can’t wait to make this freshly published recipe, and if I didn’t have a fridge full of perishable groceries to use up, I’d do it tonight. I already have the ingredients kicking around: shells, butter, stock, vinegar, white beans and the lingering glugs of a bottle of white wine. Beurre blanc is just butter sauce, so feel free to call it that while you eat a bowlful of this pasta on the couch as you watch “The Great British Baking Show” on Netflix. (Just me?)
_____
3. Weeknight Lemon Chicken Breasts With Herbs
I always have a ton of herbs in the fridge in various stages of life and death; I use them to garnish dishes like crazy, but even so there are still some left over. This is a great way to use them up — as a flash of flavor and green in this simple lemony chicken recipe. Shower more chopped fresh herbs on top, and serve with rice, other grains or my new, slightly retro favorite: orzo.
4. Coconut Curry Chickpeas With Pumpkin and Lime
Canned pumpkin — it’s the season — is actually the star of this creamy coconut-chickpea-ginger stew, which should be made in vast quantities and served with warmed flatbread or rice. The recipe is mostly made from pantry ingredients, and so if you love it, you can keep yourself well stocked for repeats.
5. Baked Eggs With Beans and Greens
Eggs cooked in sauce is one of my favorite recipe genres, and so I was predisposed to love this easy recipe for eggs baked in tomatoes with beans and greens (and sausage, if you like). Your choice of beans, really — it’s flexible — but what is nonnegotiable is serving with bread on the side. Bake this, slice that, dinner is done.
Did you know you can give a subscription to NYT Cooking as a gift? It could be for your dad who loves to bake, your friend who wants to learn, your partner whom you’re passive-aggressively trying to motivate (partners love this, trust me). Or just become a subscriber yourself and make so much delicious food for everyone you know that your popularity skyrockets. You can follow me on Instagram, and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Previous newsletters are archived here. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and our wonderful colleagues are cookingcare@nytimes.com are here if you have any trouble.
