Orange you glad it’s citrus season?Over the weekend, I emerged from the train station to chaos. Puffer-fitted pedestrians did their best to navigate slushy sidewalks narrowed by embankments of ashen snow. Some shuffled single file like penguins. Some, buried in their phones, careened into passers-by. Others froze in place entirely, befuddled by the asterisk of an intersection that is Christopher, West Fourth and Grove Streets, and Seventh Avenue. It looked like the Battle of Hoth out there. The cold is unrelenting. And while warming soups and beige meals still manage to comfort, I’m craving brighter days and brighter meals. The most effective antidote to this harsh winter might be herbs and citrus, to perk up both the meal and the cook. I need Sarah DiGregorio’s new green goddess chickpea sauté, stat. She deconstructs the beloved dressing, transforming its components into a hearty salad that’s heavy on the tangy and herbaceous notes you know and love. A whole bunch of scallions, spinach, a heap of basil, dill, parsley, chives or tarragon (or a combination, but I wouldn’t skip the tarragon and basil, personally) and avocado provide a verdant backdrop for toasty chickpeas, while a drizzle of buttermilk adds necessary acid. Green Goddess Chickpea SautéScallions and herbs team up again in Kayla Hoang’s toasted coconut rice salad, a nutty, gingery grain bowl for those of us craving some real texture after weeks and weeks of soft foods. There’s crispy rice; there’s crunchy cabbage; there’s spongy tofu. No box is left unchecked with this one, which has all the makings of a desk lunch you’ll actually thrill to eat. This is really the season to be eating citrus, if not for the vitamin C, then for the vibrancy. Do not fall for the summer propaganda! Citrus is a winter fruit! Sue Li combines both lemon and orange juices for the dressing in her white bean salad with fennel and celery, which only gets better as it sits, soaking up all those tart flavors. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s chickpeas al limone with burrata is both comfort food and light, lemony elegance, taking notes from the classic spaghetti dish and adding soft cheese for richness. Or, if you’re beaned out, just make spaghetti! With lemon, of course. Preserved lemon adds floral, salty depth to Hetty’s quick preserved lemon pasta, a buttery dish with only a handful of ingredients. And it also lifts Nargisse Benkabbou’s creamy tomato spaghetti, a simple and fragrant meal that exceeds all expectations of “pantry pasta.” Hetty’s five-star lemon-miso tofu with broccoli, a vegan twist on a Cantonese dish, could do the trick just as well. The sauce is enlivened not only with citrus, but also fresh ginger and shiro (white) miso. “I could eat that miso lemon sauce with a spoon,” wrote a reader. Here’s the thing: You can. On the hotlineA reminder that I am taking your vegetarian cooking questions — beginner queries you’re too embarrassed to ask a friend, highly specific situational requests, you name it — for our Veggie video hotline. Need help catering to a picky palate? Stuck in a desk-lunch rut? Blessed with an abundance of, say, beets? Here’s what to do. Record a quick voice memo on your phone describing your predicament or question and send it to theveggie@nytimes.com. I may answer it in a future episode!
Toasted Coconut Rice Salad
White Bean Salad With Fennel and Celery
Preserved Lemon PastaOne More Thing!Would you “eat” a liquid salad? In editing this story from Ella Quittner on the ascent of aspirationally branded meal-replacement products, I was struck the most by this paragraph:
Chew on that! Thanks for reading, and see you next week. 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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