Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes, where we are always about simple cooking, but especially so this week. The holiday has passed, the days are getting hot, school is off, work is somehow still on — sometimes you just need dinner to be easier than easy, the culinary equivalent of screwing the cap off a bottle of white wine.
The dishes below are about as fast and fuss-free as home cooking gets, topped only by throwing hot dogs and a few ears of corn on a grill. (That move, by the way, is Five Weeknight Dishes-approved.) Thoughts? Ideas? I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and I love to hear from you.
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Here are five dishes for the week:
CreditLinda Xiao for The New York Times
1. Broiled Salmon With Chile, Orange and Mint Butter
This is one of those recipes that pairs obscenely easy prep with smart and fresh flavors, making you look pretty good in the process. Serve with a green salad and small boiled potatoes. This one is destined for repeats.
2. One-Pot Spaghetti With Cherry Tomatoes and Kale
That’s correct: one pot (O.K., and one kettle to boil water). The pasta cooks directly with the cherry tomatoes, which collapse into a sweet and jammy sauce. You could add more kale, or anchovies for oomph, or red-pepper flakes for heat. I’d do all three.
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3. Vegetarian Mushroom Shawarma Pitas
All it takes is a little bit of slicing and a little bit of roasting (or grilling would be nice), and you can have this ingenious meatless dinner. Play around with the yogurt sauce, go crazy with the herbs and serve with a simple cucumber or green salad, or just on its own.
Casual, flexible and eminently satisfying, if you’ve got the right toppings on hand — the “extras” in the title. (Warm tortillas! Pickled jalapeños! Avocado! Hot sauce! Toppings are the weeknight cook’s best friend.) You could make this dish with sausage or ground beef or pork if you like, or leave it meatless. Heads up: This is a no-recipe recipe, so when you click through you’ll see all the information you need in the intro.
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5. Grilled Cheese With Jalapeño, Tomato and Fried Egg
What’s easier and more delightful than grilled cheese for dinner? (Don’t disregard it as kid food, which is really just food that makes everyone happy in the purest, most unguarded way.) This version, another no-recipe recipe, tucks jalapeño in with the cheese and adds a fried egg on top, like a cheeky vegetarian American croque madame. Tomato soup really is the perfect companion; a tomato salad works well in its place.
Bonus: Here’s your easiest summer baking project, in which you can use pretty much any seasonal fruit. (I used sour cherries this week, and tossed them in a little sugar first.) You can find and save all of the recipes above in your weekly plan. Follow me on Instagram, or NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Previous newsletters are archived here. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and if you have any problems with your account, email cookingcare@nytimes.com. Love NYT Cooking? Subscribe!
