Hello! Mia here, the newsletter editor for New York Times Cooking, filling in for Emily. I hope everyone is enjoying a happy and healthy new year.
I am a grown woman who enjoys eating her vegetables. I say this not as a terrifically awkward introduction, but as a reminder to myself. When it’s cold and dark and somehow only Wednesday, I tend to slide into dinners that resemble those an unsupervised toddler would assemble: chips and salsa, a fistful of cookies, a piece of cheese with five slices of bread.
Which is why I’ve begun seeking out — and cooking on repeat — recipes that welcome increasing their vegetable matter, particularly those good-for-you leafy greens. Am I essentially hiding vegetables from myself? Yes. Am I effortlessly upping the nutritional and virtuous content of my easy dinner? Also yes.
A note that several of the recipes that follow are on the spicy side — I love a bit of heat, especially when it’s cold out. But if that’s not you, or the lucky people you’re cooking for, just pull back the amounts of spicy things called for in the recipe.
1. Gochujang Potato Stew
Eric Kim is a bona fide hitmaker, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made his spicy-sweet, deeply satisfying stew. Sometimes I’ll slice my potatoes to cut down on cook time, and when I reheat my leftovers I add an extra handful of torn kale or baby spinach. Eric calls the sour cream optional, but I’m going to say it’s necessary — that cool, plush sourness against the savory heat of the stew is so, so good.
