Hi and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. Perhaps you or someone you know exclusively had candy for dinner last night? Or candy and French fries? Candy and string cheese? It happens. Yesterday, somehow, instead of lunch I had half a chocolate-chip scone, a slice of sourdough bread with paprika butter, a piece of cheesecake (a recipe that Melissa Clark is testing for the holidays) and a few handfuls of caramel corn (ditto).
This is to say: It is the season. And so I’ve got recipes for you that are not heinously indulgent, but are still satisfying.
Last night, after trick-or-treating, I roasted cauliflower for dinner, and served it with farro and a small amount of leftover lemony chicken and chickpeas, the recipe below. Does that sound punitive, roasted cauliflower for dinner? It totally is not. As always, let me know what you think at dearemily@nytimes.com. (Thank you so much for your emails about last week’s newsletter, fellow bean people!)
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Here are five dishes for the week:
1. Braised Chicken With Rosemary, Chickpeas and Salted Lemon
I can’t lie to you: This recipe, by Yewande Komolafe, may just be a little too much for some people on a weeknight (in terms of time, not skill or effort). It takes an hour to make. But it’s so delicious, so full of things you’ll want to eat, that I had to tell you about it, and I’ve given you three pretty speedy recipes below to compensate.
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The marinade for this fish — lime juice, olive oil, soy sauce, maple syrup — is good enough to sip from a spoon. Smaller fillets work fine here if you can’t easily pick up one bigger fillet; just be sure either way that the fish fits snugly in the baking dish, so you don’t lose any of that outrageously good marinade. You’ll want to drizzle it on rice (make extra for the meatballs below).
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4. Korean Barbecue-Style Meatballs
It’s kind of miraculous how good these savory-sweet meatballs are, and how fast they are to make; I always double the recipe because they freeze well too. Serve these with rice and dipping sauce.
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