Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes! It’s our first official newsletter, devoted to weeknight recipes for busy people who still want something good to eat. I’m Emily Weinstein, a Food editor at The New York Times, and every Friday I’ll send you those recipes, the food I want to cook at this moment and hope you’ll want to cook, too.
There are bolts of weeknight brilliance in this week’s recipes, the types of techniques or ingredients that make a dish that much more delicious or easier to prepare. In the skillet chicken, the kale, beans and lemon cook in the fat rendered from the chicken so they can absorb its deep flavor. The salmon for the farro bowl is steamed directly on top of the grains, delivering succulent fish and saving you a pan. Eggs Kejriwal joins serrano chile and Dijon mustard on egg-and-cheese toast, a flavor combination I wish I’d trademarked.
Are you drawn to any of these recipes? Do you have requests? Send them my way, or just tell me what you think, at dearemily@nytimes.com.
Here are five recipes for the week:
1. Skillet Chicken With White Beans and Caramelized Lemon
Kitchen alchemy: There are only five ingredients in this recipe (not counting salt, pepper and oil), but it yields deep, savory flavors and a pleasing mix of textures. The cook time here falls on the longer side of weeknight — just shy of an hour, including prep — but it’s a one-skillet meal, so dinner is done. (If you wanted a little extra something, set a pot of rice or other grains on the stove before you start browning the chicken.)
You won’t believe how delicious this is, and how lightning-fast. A bubbling egg, cheese and chile-laced toast from Mumbai, it makes a light dinner with a robust green salad, though you could prepare two pieces of toast (and two eggs) per person for a more substantial meal.
5. Curried Carrot and Coconut Soup
An ideal summer-to-fall soup, this one is right for the moment, conjuring neither shorts nor sweaters. You could tinker with the spices. You could add chickpeas, lentils, rice or farro to make it a more filling main course. You could make it vegan by using oil instead of butter to sauté the vegetables. Or you could make this vibrant recipe exactly as is.
View this recipe in your weekly plan.
That’s it! Thanks for joining me here; all of the recipes above are available in your Weekly Plan, where you’re able to save them to your Recipe Box. You can reach me at dearemily@nytimes.com, or follow me on Instagram. Follow NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for more ideas; if you like what we do then please consider subscribing. For technical support, or if you encounter issues with the recipes, contact our great colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com.
