Whether you're actively trying to eat less meat this year or simply miss the look and taste of vegetables after a month of holiday cocktails, cookies, and butter-glossed everything, I am probably not alone in craving hearty vegetable dishes right now. But it's still freezing out and I need wintry comfort too. These dishes tick all the January boxes for us, and I hope for you too. And if nothing else, make that luxe butterscotch pudding; I consider it a winter essential.
Cheers,
Deb
FRESH AND NEW
crispy rice and egg bowl with ginger-scallion vinaigrette Meet my new favorite thing to eat for lunch, dinner, or honestly, I'd eat this for breakfast too; a crisped-up bowl of leftover rice (it gets crackly at the edges and almost smells like popcorn), a crispy fried egg, a mash-up of a classic ginger-scallion sauce and a vinaigrette, and some crunchy vegetables. May all of your leftovers be this delicious in 2019.
VEGETARIAN COMFORT FOOD
mushroom lasagna This lasagna has a creamy sauce, cheese and four layers of pasta and still manages to be one of the most simple, lightweight and completely addictive lasagnas I've made. Don't like mushrooms? Use another sautéed vegetable. But promise you'll make this.
baked chickpeas with pita chips and yogurt Deeply spiced baked chickpeas, pita chips, lemon-tahini yogurt, pine nuts and a finely chopped tomato-cucumber salad make for a delicious, addictive mess we liken to Middle Eastern nachos. You can totally pull this off for dinner tonight.
crispy tofu pad thai Not to overdramatize, but it took me 11 years to work up the courage to make pad thai and then 11 days to finish writing about it and I hope it's worth the wait because this is one of my favorite dishes and I wanted to do it crispy/crunchy, sour/sweet, salty/funky justice. The best part? The speed. Once you get a little prep out of the way, the faster you cook it, the better it tastes.
stuck-pot rice with lentils and yogurt Cooking your rice until it sticks to the pot (something I was already an expert in) is raised here to an art form, because the crunchy bits are the best bits. Lentils, caramelized onions, cumin, yogurt and lemon juice give it a mujardarra vibe that I find hard to share.
potato pizza, even better This pizza has only three ingredients (potatoes, onion, and rosemary) beyond olive oil, salt, pepper, and your favorite dough, which means it's vegan too. Not yet sold? The topping looks and tastes like potato chips.
punjabi-style black lentils Tiny black lentils and a little "French" finish make this taste like the most luxurious thing in the world without the gluttonous implications, hooray. Eat it soup-style or ladled over rice. Double it and be glad you did.
spaghetti pie with pecorino and black pepper Spaghetti, pretty much the coolest way I know how to make it: in a tall, bronzed torte of a springform pie, wound with an abundance of cheese, black pepper and sometimes I add minced greens too.
spinach and chickpeas Who'd have thought two such aggressively wholesome ingredients could taste exceptional together? To be honest, not me. But we come back to this again and again whenever we need a reprieve from heavier eating and it tastes like a luxury, not a compromise.
A FAVORITE DESSERT
luxe butterscotch pudding So fitting for the frigid weather outside, Luxe Butterscotch Pudding: Inspired by a very famous butterscotch budino, I decided my classic, homey butterscotch pudding needed an upgrade: this one is more caramelized, rich, and intense, and we eat it in small portions, with or without a puddle of salted caramel on top.
