Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. I get lots of emails from readers with recipe requests, and so I’m devoting today’s newsletter to a few that come up often: dishes that can be made ahead and are strategic wins for busy people; dishes that can feed one or two people without waste; and dishes that young children will eat, since I have a 16-month-old daughter at home. Some of the recipes below do all of the above. Recipes! They can really bail you out.
One note about kids: My daughter has simple tastes. She enjoys stealing your shoes and then running away, tearing all the tissues out of the box one by one, and munching on handfuls of noodles with cheese. So you won’t find anything too wild below. But I have found a few dishes that she loves and that we love too, since my goal is to feed us all in one go rather than toil as her private chef.
You can reach me at dearemily@nytimes.com. It’s always a delight to hear from you.
Here are five dishes for the week:
CreditMichael Graydon & Nikole Herriott for The New York Times. Prop Stylist: Kalen Kaminski.
1. Lemony Chicken Soup With Fennel
I love stumbling on a new chicken soup, and I find this one from Alison Roman particularly thrilling, stewy and herby and bodacious. Soups and stews are excellent contenders for making ahead — they often improve on Day 2, as their flavors mingle, and they tend to reheat beautifully. (They freeze well, too.) Hold off on making the toasted dill and fennel-seed topping until you’re ready to serve.
2. Eggs Poached in Marinara Sauce
The base of this dish is great marinara — I like this one, which takes about 30 minutes to pull together. So Step 1 is to make that, and maybe double or triple it in a big pot, and prepare it ahead (or freeze it) if you like. Put some aside for pasta or meatballs. (My daughter loves meatballs.) Use the rest to make these poached eggs, a recipe that is written for one but can be scaled up in a larger pan to feed four. Fresh bread or toast on the side is a must, and I’d serve with sautéed spinach or a little salad.
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I’m eager to both eat this recipe by Kay Chun myself and try it with my daughter, who will most likely eat those rich chunks of salmon and will certainly eat rice soaked in that coconut-milk broth. It’d also be very easy to cut this in half to feed two. The recipe calls for five cups of spinach, which means that it’s a complete meal, one that the adults will eat garnished with lime juice, fresh herbs and sliced chiles.
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4. Pressure Cooker Classic Beef Chili
I tend not to share dishes that use a pressure cooker, even though I love mine, simply because not everyone has or wants one. But some of you have asked for recipes, and this chili is a winner across age demographics. I’ve made it with beef, turkey, pork; I’ve also dialed down the chile powder and omitted the jalapeños for my daughter (top your bowl with chiles if you like, to compensate). It freezes well, and let me tell you, pulling a stash of chili out of the freezer is a thrilling weeknight victory. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you could just cook it on the stove, or make this fast stovetop turkey chili as an alternative.
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5. Pasta With Fresh Herbs, Lemon and Peas
A dinner you can make in winter that speaks of spring. My daughter will, of course, always eat pasta with sweet peas, and for the adults I’ll go crazy with the herbs, increasing them to at least a full cup and upping the citrus as well. You could increase the peas, too, and call it dinner, or add flakes of good olive oil-packed tuna. This would be very easy to cut down for one or two people, and adjust to your liking.
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Thank you, as always, for reading and writing in. You can find these recipes in your weekly plan; if you’re enjoying NYT Cooking then consider becoming a subscriber. Follow me on Instagram, and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, where pretty mouthwatering things are happening. Previous newsletters are archived here. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and if you have any problems with your account, email our great colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com.
