Welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes, where each Friday we present five different answers to the eternal question: What’s for dinner? Depending on the distractions of any given day, this question penetrates my consciousness some time between 12 and 6 p.m. The hour helps determine the answer and how much time I have to cook.
This has been an exceptionally distracting week, so I’ve been looking for last-minute dishes with quick-cooking shortcuts like frozen puff pastry, boneless chicken breasts, and canned beans: ingredients that I tend to keep on hand anyway. Making dinner is an excellent way to keep your mind off current events, if only for half an hour. (As a soundtrack, try out a food podcast like The Splendid Table or the tireless Kitchen Sisters instead of the news.)
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Here are this week’s recipes:
1. Longevity Noodles With Chicken, Ginger and Mushrooms
This is a wonderfully basic recipe — stir-fried noodles with protein, vegetables and a few aromatics — that functions as a complete meal. Swap in other quick-cooking greens, replace the chicken with tofu, or leave it out altogether and top with sunny-side-up eggs and a drizzle of soy sauce and chile oil.
2. Vegan Caesar Salad With Crisp Chickpeas
It’s the umami-rich seasonings of Caesar salad — usually some combination of Worcestershire sauce, anchovies and Parmesan — that make it so satisfying. Fortunately, garlic, miso paste and nutritional yeast are also packed with umami, but derive from plants — making this edit of the classic totally vegan.
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3. Potato Tart With Goat Cheese and Thyme
Three things that I usually stock, but had never put together before this week: puff pastry, goat cheese and potatoes. With thyme leaves, what sounds like a stodgy combination becomes fresh and lively. Make sure to assemble this right before baking, so the bottom crust won’t soak up moisture from the cheese.
Red wine has complex flavors that make it work really well as a cooking medium, as in coq au vin or beef Bourguignon. Skip rinsing the canned beans and add them directly to the pot — the starch that’s already in the canning liquid gives the sauce body and softens the edge of the wine.
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