Hello! Mia here, the newsletter editor for New York Times Cooking, filling in for Emily. I hope everyone is enjoying a happy and healthy new year.
I am a grown woman who enjoys eating her vegetables. I say this not as a terrifically awkward introduction, but as a reminder to myself. When it’s cold and dark and somehow only Wednesday, I tend to slide into dinners that resemble those an unsupervised toddler would assemble: chips and salsa, a fistful of cookies, a piece of cheese with five slices of bread.
Which is why I’ve begun seeking out — and cooking on repeat — recipes that welcome increasing their vegetable matter, particularly those good-for-you leafy greens. Am I essentially hiding vegetables from myself? Yes. Am I effortlessly upping the nutritional and virtuous content of my easy dinner? Also yes.
A note that several of the recipes that follow are on the spicy side — I love a bit of heat, especially when it’s cold out. But if that’s not you, or the lucky people you’re cooking for, just pull back the amounts of spicy things called for in the recipe.
1. Gochujang Potato Stew
Eric Kim is a bona fide hitmaker, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made his spicy-sweet, deeply satisfying stew. Sometimes I’ll slice my potatoes to cut down on cook time, and when I reheat my leftovers I add an extra handful of torn kale or baby spinach. Eric calls the sour cream optional, but I’m going to say it’s necessary — that cool, plush sourness against the savory heat of the stew is so, so good.
2. Maple and Miso Sheet-Pan Salmon With Green Beans
Yes, crowding your sheet pan with additional green beans means that some of them will have to be tucked underneath the maple-miso marinated salmon, where they’ll steam instead of roast. That’s OK! I just remove my salmon when it’s done and stick the pan of beans back in the oven for a few extra minutes of browning. Perfect salmon, and even more roasty-toasty green beans? I think Colu Henry — the genius behind this recipe — would approve.
4. Skillet Hot Honey Chicken
One of the most fantastic ways to make leafy greens lovable is to slick them in a schmaltzy vinaigrette. (See: Zuni Café’s famous roast chicken, served on a bed of mustard greens and croutons dressed in chickeny juices.) This recipe from Ali Slagle is a weeknight-friendly version of that idea, with crispy-skinned chicken thighs resting on barely cooked hearty greens. And I absolutely increase those hearty greens — escarole, kale, mustard greens — to make sure I don’t waste any hot-honey-anointed pan drippings.
5. Chile Crisp Fettuccine Alfredo With Spinach
Genevieve Ko calls for a five-ounce bag of baby spinach in this salty, spicy, just-creamy-enough pasta dish. I use a 10-ounce bag instead, adding more chile crisp and pasta water to account for the extra roughage. I end up with a dish that’s about half spinach, half pasta, which I then count as a salad.
