Hello you, hello 2020, and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. We can now get back to blessedly normal cooking, not event cooking, or showstopping cooking, or let-me-just-feed-all-these-people-in-my-home cooking.
It’s also a prime opportunity to establish a new normal, which is where Melissa Clark comes in. Her latest column, “The Meat-Lover’s Guide to Eating Less Meat,” brims with sane and very delicious strategies for reducing your meat consumption, if that’s a goal of yours for reasons ethical or environmental, or for your health. (It’s a goal of mine.)
Two of Melissa’s excellent new recipes are below, though not the one I am most excited to try: mushroom Bourguignon, which is more of a Sunday night affair than a Wednesday night grind. Still, try it. Also send me ideas, tips and thoughts at dearemily@nytimes.com. I love to hear from you.
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Here are five dishes for the week:
I can’t resist the shmaltzy, briny pairing of chicken and olives; the addition of tomatoes, capers and anchovies puts this recipe even further over the edge for me. Serve this with egg noodles or pasta, alongside something green.
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3. Orecchiette With Corn, Jalapeño, Feta and Basil
Yes, I’m giving you a summery corn recipe in midwinter; this is intentional. My friend Scout, who calls this elote pasta, just made it using frozen sweet corn, adding chorizo, lemon and Parmesan, and doubling the jalapeño. She relayed this to me, and I thought it sounded so much like something that you’d want to eat in the grayest time of the year that here I am now, relaying it to you.
5. Black Bean Tacos With Avocado and Spicy Onions
This is a superb way to do a vegetarian taco night, with chili-ish black beans wrapped in flour tortillas and adorned with pickled onions. You don’t have to use jalapeño in those onions if that doesn’t work for you, but I strongly urge you not to skip the onions altogether; that’s the little touch that make these shine. Lay it all out on the table with as many toppings as you can muster: cilantro, sour cream, cheese, salsa.
If you have resolved to cook more this year (or just this month), then set yourself up for success with a subscription to NYT Cooking, which gives you unfettered access to more than 20,000 recipes. Browse them for fun! Browse them for inspiration! Cook them! Save them! You’ll love it. You can also follow NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, or follow me on Instagram. Previous newsletters are archived here. I’m dearemily@nytimes.com, and if you have any problems with your account, email cookingcare@nytimes.com.
