Every week, I check in with our newsletter editor, Mia Leimkuhler, to make sure whatever recipes I’m featuring here in Five Weeknight Dishes don’t overlap with the dishes that Sam Sifton and Melissa Clark are writing about in our flagship New York Times Cooking newsletter. (If you don’t get it yet, it’s free to subscribe!)
But I called dibs on the new honey garlic shrimp recipe below as soon as I saw it. This one was mine.
It’s exactly the kind of recipe I want to send your way every week: smart, fast and built on ingredients you may keep around. It’s also the recipe I need these days. Can I be real with you all? I’m losing steam in the kitchen, a symptom of late-winter blahs. A fast recipe that punches hard on flavor is a good midweek win. (Here’s another nice midweek win if you have a sweet tooth like I do: microwave Nutella pudding cake, a homemade treat in five minutes flat.)
I’m living for the promise of spring (and spring food and spring break). We have an amazing new collection of spring pastas for you, as green as the shoots we’ll soon see in the trees. Ideas? Requests? Email me anytime at dearemily@nytimes.com. I love to hear from you.
1. Honey Garlic Shrimp
Wondering what to cook tonight? Here’s your answer, courtesy of Lidey Heuck. The early reviews are raves. I keep frozen shrimp on hand to make recipes just like this one.
2. Spiced Roast Chicken With Tangy Yogurt Sauce
This dish from Kay Chun jumps off from the halal carts that draw long lines in New York City. It’s a simple but boldly spiced roast chicken recipe that uses boneless thighs, though you could use boneless breasts and reduce the cooking time.
3. Pasta With Garlicky Spinach and Buttered Pistachios
Like a lot of people, I’m trying to eat more protein, which has meant fewer pasta dinners. But my love of pasta is powerful and real, and so instead of banishing it altogether I’m looking for recipes that add filling flourishes and pack in vegetables, too, like this one with its nut topping from Dawn Perry. Add shrimp or white beans to the pan if you like, or a piece of the pan-seared salmon below.
4. Pan-Seared Salmon
Lidey’s method for cooking salmon is your weeknight rescue plan, a straightforward way to cook fish that goes with nearly any grain, noodle and vegetable. Keep the lemon to serve, swap it out for lime or abandon the citrus and spoon chile crisp on top (or this zhong sauce, a favorite at our house). Stock your freezer with salmon, and you can make this anytime.
