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Flex your brussels sprouts
Happy Wednesday! We’re over a few big humps — elections, the World Series (go, Dodgers!), the New York City Marathon (go, runners!) — and thoroughly in fall, when the vegetables of the season make for the best midweek dinner. Most nights, I’ll pour a kiddie pool of olive oil into a foil-lined sheet pan, grate in a garlic clove and mix in some chile flakes, then toss in vegetables, salt and pepper, and roast in a hot oven on the bottom rack until charred and tender. (Nope, no need to flip anything.) Out of the oven, I’ll stir in a drizzle of vinegar or lemon juice and serve the vegetables straight from the pan with fish I’ve roasted on a rack above it. Kristina Felix turns a tray of roasted vegetables into a magical meal by mixing brussels sprouts with tofu cubes and drizzling a spicy, tangy sauce all over the crispy, deeply browned goodness. The sharp citrus and salty fish sauce in the easy dressing take inspiration from nước chấm, the essential Vietnamese condiment, and remind me of the chef David Chang’s brussels sprouts from Momofuku Ssam Bar. It was 2006 and it was the first time I was ever blown away by brussels sprouts, their leaves crackly from the deep fryer and their juicy centers bursting with an intense blend of chile, lime and fish sauce. That combination of deeply browned sprouts with hot-sour-salty-sweet seasonings spread far and wide, and I’ll never get tired of it. Or of any take on caramelized roasted sprouts, especially when they become a complete meal with salmon, toast, polenta or crispy rice. (If I don’t have time to roast, I stir-fry my brussels sprouts for my favorite fall 10-minute dish.) Featured Recipe Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Tofu With Chile Lime DressingMore fall meals for this weekBrown-butter salmon with scallion and lemon: The key to pulling dinner together quickly is timing dishes efficiently. So, while you’re roasting your brussels sprouts at a high heat, start the brown butter base of this simple salmon from Ali Slagle. Once the sprouts are out, drop the oven temperature and slip the salmon into the nutty sauce fragrant with scallions and lemon peel and bake until the fish is silky. Squeeze lemon juice over everything and eat it all together. Sheet-pan malai chicken and potatoes: A little cream, or malai as it’s known in parts of South Asia, goes a long way in this warming meal from Zaynab Issa. In her sheet-pan take on more traditional tandoori or curried versions, chicken thighs soak in a spiced yogurt blend of cilantro, garlic, ginger and chiles. (If you’re planning ahead, definitely marinate overnight for even more flavorful and tender meat.) Scraping that marinade off the meat and onto a bed of potatoes and onions before roasting everything together ends in dinner delight. Lemony hummus pasta: Here’s a behind-the-scenes for you. When Christian Reynoso pitched this idea, I wasn’t sure hummus would work as a pasta sauce. But I did know that I always make more hummus than I need as a dip and that when I’m dead tired in the middle of the week, I want the easiest possible pasta dinner. I shouldn’t have doubted him. He transforms the chickpea spread (store-bought works great!) into a silky sauce, rich with caramelized shallot and light with lemon. Crispy tofu shawarma: Nisha Vora calls for super-firm tofu for her dish, which, with its hearty, dense texture, reminds me of the Chinese pressed bean curd I grew up on. Frying thin soy-seasoned slices mimics the savoriness of meaty shawarma, and stuffing it into pitas with lightly pickled onions, tahini sauce, cucumbers and tomatoes turns it into a satisfying meal. Chewy brown butter cookies: I created these cookies for Election Day baking last year and, like clockwork, am craving these quick pecan treats now. The nuts toast in brown butter, deepening their richness. A touch of maple syrup underlines that fall fireplace vibe. As with other drop cookies, these become more complex when the dough chills for days so you can bake off a few each day or save the whole batch for the weekend. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
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