I have a special dinner for those rare evenings I cook for just myself. When my (cabbage-shy) daughter and (dairy-avoiding) husband aren’t home, I’ll treat myself to a pan of cheesy, spicy cabbage. I sauté shaggy slices of the crucifer in olive oil with garlic or onion, and then finish the dish with chile, either flakes or freshly sliced, and a handful of grated whatever-cheese-is-around. Piled onto buttered sourdough toast or topped with a fried egg, it’s a perfect meal that perfectly feeds one.
Genevieve Ko writes about the joy of cooking solo meals in her latest piece for The New York Times, accompanied by a recipe for curry roasted half chicken and peppers. Half a roasted chicken is a hearty meal for one, with some leftovers for the next day. Genevieve makes her chicken extra savory by coating the bird with a garlicky curry rub, and then roasting it on a sheet pan full of sweet bell peppers that caramelize in the oven and absorb the rendered chicken fat. She suggests simmering the leftovers in coconut milk for an easy curry, or tossing the extra meat and peppers with mayo for a deluxe chicken salad.
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Curry Roasted Half Chicken and Peppers
More excellent leftovers are in the offing after making Eric Kim’s silky, umami-rich doenjang salmon and rice bowl. Eric likes to eat his leftovers in the style of the TikTok star Emily Mariko, with chile sauce, mayonnaise, avocado and gim. Then again, according to a recipe note by Dinner Dude, this could be moot: “Followed pretty much as written with a little extra onion and broiled for last two minutes to caramelize a bit. Don’t know what ‘leftovers’ they are talking about!”
Leftover vegetables can find a home in Kay Chun’s spring cleaning ribollita, a delectable destination for any carrots, peas and greens that might be loitering around your fridge, not to mention that hunk of day-old bread. Simmer it all with herbs, canned beans and tomatoes until you’ve got a bubbling, aromatic brew, ready to be showered with Parmesan.
I also love the look of Kay’s new Southern broccoli salad, which gets loads of tangy flavor from grated Cheddar cheese, cider vinegar and mayonnaise, as well as sweet pops from golden raisins. And along those same sweet-savory lines, Yasmin Fahr’s roasted eggplant pasta salad is topped with sliced dates, which taste honeyed and rich next to the salty feta and fresh mint.
You might be in the market for a sweet treat this Memorial Day weekend. Samantha Seneviratne’s scotcheroos are filled with Rice Krispies, peanut butter and, naturally, chocolate. They’ll knock your socks off, even if you’re wearing sandals.
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Sheet-pan meals make the prettiest one-pots, especially when they feature crescents of plump, pink shrimp. Case in point: Mark Bittman’s sheet-pan shrimp with tomatoes, feta and oregano, which is even more eye-catching when you use a mix of red and yellow tomatoes.
