With all the pre-Thanksgiving preparations going on — the list-checking and turkey brining, the stock-simmering and pie-crust rolling — making actual dinners this week can feel like too much. A legit move is to order in, of course. But here’s another thought: Why wait for takeout when we at New York Times Cooking have a veritable cornucopia of excellent alternatives that are nearly as easy, just as fast (if not faster) and certainly more economical?
I can personally vouch for Kenji López-Alt’s San Francisco-style Vietnamese American garlic noodles (above), which come together in a mere 15 minutes — less time than it takes my family to even choose a takeout menu. Made from pantry staples and few tablespoons of butter, Kenji’s recipe is a paragon of umami deliciousness.
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Easy Dinners for the Night Before Thanksgiving
In the same recipe collection, Priya Krishna’s tomato rice with crispy Cheddar, which she describes as pizza in rice form, is a hybrid of classic South Indian tomato rice and a Spanish rice recipe that Priya and her mom, Ritu Krishna (a co-author of the recipe), copied out of Priya’s seventh-grade Spanish textbook. It’s a 20-minute marvel.
Eric Kim brings another excellent rice vibe with his sheet-pan bibimbap. To make it, he roasts a colorful array of vegetables on one pan while crisping rice and cooking eggs on another pan at the same time. Then the contents of the two pans meet to become “a kaleidoscope of flavors and textures,” rounded out with a drizzle of sesame oil, a dollop of gochujang and some kimchi.
Either of these dishes makes a meal on its own, or you could serve Genevieve Ko’s sweet and savory maple-baked salmon alongside. Save any leftover salmon for lunchtime salads or sandwiches.
But wait, I have two more cooking inspirations for you for this week! Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest column features spicy roasted mushrooms with polenta, and it’s a beauty. A mix of roasted mushrooms and charred tomatoes is spooned over a soft mound of polenta, and then the whole thing is bathed in a ruddy, fiery oil seasoned with cinnamon, fresh ginger, Aleppo pepper and Sichuan peppercorns. Gorgeous, and vegan, too.
And then there’s Colu Henry’s cozy pasta e ceci, a tomatoey stew of chickpeas and escarole dotted with pasta and showered with Parmesan.
It would be so virtuous to skip sweets this week and wait for the Thanksgiving dessert-a-palooza. But I’m not known for that kind of forbearance. Whatever your case, having a sour-cream coffee cake on the counter for swipes and nibbles is never a bad idea.
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🧊 Turkey Tracker 🧊
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If you’re a guest for Thanksgiving dinner and you’re looking for something thoughtful to bring that’s not food, the Wirecutter crew has some terrific ideas for you.
