Good morning! Today we have for you:
Dan dan noodle salad for delicious lounging
Hello! Mia here, filling in for Melissa today. This week — these seven days between Christmas and the new year — is maybe my favorite week of the year. The decorations are still up. The outside is cold; the blankets are warm. The streaming services are overperforming, the pants are stretchy and the house is full of leftovers and snacks and cookies. If you’re lucky, there’s not too much to do beyond shuffling between the couch and the fridge, or maybe running an errand or two if you’re feeling particularly industrious. I tend to cook a lot during this week, not just because my family is usually visiting (and we’re prepping for our giant Japanese New Year’s feast), but also because it’s one of my favorite things to do whenever I have some free time. Typically, my lunches are pretty piecemeal, but this is the week that I’ll actually put together something nice for the midday meal. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s dan dan noodle salad, adapted from her cookbook “Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor,” is exactly the sort of dish I want to make: sustaining but not heavy, full of vegetables, spicy and savory and rich with sesame nuttiness. Hetty serves her noodle salad at room temperature, but I imagine a lot of my servings will be eaten cold, pulled in a messy, happy tangle from the container in the fridge to a shallow bowl to be eaten in front of the TV in my favorite sweatpants. Featured Recipe Dan Dan Noodle Salad
Today’s specialsOne-pan shrimp scampi with crispy gnocchi: If classic shrimp scampi can be considered a warm-weather dinner, something to eat outdoors with a glass of white wine, the crumbs from the crusty bread brushed from the table by a gentle breeze, then this Melissa Clark iteration is its cold-weather cousin. Crisp, plump potato gnocchi soak up that garlicky sauce and match the chewy bounce of the shrimp; serve with a big green salad to complement this hearty but lighthearted dish. Slow cooker spicy black bean and sweet potato chili: Are you tired of sweet potatoes yet? Good, me neither. In this Sarah DiGregorio recipe, their sweetness provides a nice counterpoint to smoky canned chipotles in adobo (and some of that adobo sauce). It’s an easy, economical vegan meal that really warms and satisfies. (To make this without a slow cooker, click here.) Red cabbage salad with orange vinaigrette: I also don’t think it’s possible for me to get tired of cabbage, perhaps the most thoughtful of all the brassicas — it’s so cheap and lasts forever in the fridge. This citrusy salad from Christian Reynoso adds crunch and color to any table and would be a perfect partner to a roast (or rotisserie) chicken.
Thanks for reading!
|
.jpg)
