The Saucy
I’ll get the bad news out of the way: Your vegetable adviser Tanya can’t be in your inbox this week. The good news, though, is that she’s churning out new episodes of her video series on YouTube and gearing up for next month’s release of the “Veg Everything” cookbook. And hopefully this is well-received news: I’m filling in for her today and came prepared with some hits. In other important news, did you see Marcello Hernández saying all sauce should be on the side? That was the moment I fell out of love with him. (Kidding, Marcello, I am yours forever.) Unfortunately for our future together, I belong to the opposite school of thought: Sauce should be everywhere, and it should especially be on and under every vegetable. Sauce can be a bed …The ultimate case-in-point: Alexa Weibel’s roasted broccoli and whipped tofu with chile crisp crunch. Roasted broccoli on its own is a very fine thing, but it’s not A Meal until it meets this thick, cashew-rich tofu sauce. Lex, and I don’t say this because she’s one of my favorite colleagues, is combining sauces and vegetables better than anyone’s ever done it. Her recipe for roasted carrots with whipped tahini (oh, would you look at that, I’m writing about tahini again) is another one on permanent rotation in my house. Roasted Broccoli and Whipped Tofu With Chile Crisp CrunchSauce can be a blanket …A bowl of bright vegetables — say ripe cherry tomatoes and crunchy cucumbers — is always happier with a sauce on top, like the one gracing this crispy tofu shawarma bowl. Chunks of carrots and curry-spiced tofu in a rice bowl are even better when dolloped with a big, beautiful blob of garlic-and-ginger-laced coconut yogurt sauce. These sauces all fall under the category of creamy, but, and such is the case with silken tofu with peanut chile crisp, a sauce can be crunchy, oily, spicy and nutty. And sometimes a sauce can be something else altogetherSometimes a sauce isn’t even a sauce, per se. Sometimes it’s a big hunk of burrata, like in Hetty Lui McKinnon’s recipe for charred eggplant with burrata and fried capers or Melissa Clark’s sweet-and-spicy grilled vegetables with burrata recipe. A blob of creamy cheese with a flourish of salt, some olive oil and maybe a light dressing if you’re an overachiever, forms its own rich, dreamy sauce. Sometimes, as in Eric Kim’s gyeran bap, the “sauce” is just the browned butter, soy sauce and sesame oil that eggs are cooked in; or, in Christian Reynoso’s recipe for buttered cabbage and eggs, the rich yolks are the sauce. The final boss of sauceIf you’re ready to quit playing checkers and start playing 3-d chess, it’s time to level up: two sauces at once. This roasted winter squash with citrus chile crisp’s got a yogurt-based sauce underneath and a crispy shallot-and-sesame-seed sauce on top, and these mushroom manti with garlic yogurt and tomato sauce are rocking a strikingly bright, beautiful double-sauce situation.
Sweet and Spicy Grilled Vegetables With Burrata
Crispy Tofu Shawarma
Silken Tofu With Peanut Chile CrispFor 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. One More Thing!BLEAK: Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach making vegetarian borscht and being funny without me. Invite lost in the mail, I guess! CHIC: Yewande Komolafe reminding us how much better the world will be when everyone has access to a beautiful meal. Email us at theveggie@nytimes.com. Newsletters are archived here. Reach out to my colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com if you have questions about your account.
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