I love cooking for other people, I do. It gives me warm fuzzies to feed the people I love, to cook their favorite things or introduce them to their new favorite things. To say to them, I can’t fix everything, but I can fix dinner.
But I really love cooking for myself. Making myself exactly what I want to eat, exactly the way I like it? Heaven. I will gladly lean into this “cook like no one’s watching” freedom any night I can.
That’s how I once ate a whole tray of this blackened cauliflower as dinner because I really wanted cauliflower; polished off a thing of beet dip with labneh because I had beets and I love labneh; and ate a crispy-edged quesadilla instead of a stir-fry, even though I had everything for the stir-fry. I just wanted a crispy-edged quesadilla.
But Mia, you’re saying, you should be eating a more balanced meal, something a bit more nourishing. First, thanks for reading this newsletter, Mom, and second, I have some good ideas for that.
Ali Slagle’s miso-Parmesan noodle soup for one is, as the miso and Parmesan would suggest, full of savory umami flavors. It’s also full of vegetables — leeks, peas and kale — and ginger and black pepper to provide a little bite. It’s the sort of speedy, satisfying meal to trot out anytime you want soup, but also noodles and also some veggies. (For me, that’s basically every winter day.)
Featured Recipe
Miso-Parmesan Noodle Soup for One
Genevieve Ko’s curry roasted half chicken and peppers is another lovely meal. (Look at that rich orange color!) “It’s great over rice or with bread,” Genevieve notes, “and leftovers can be simmered with coconut milk for a stewed curry, or chopped and mixed with mayonnaise for a chicken salad sandwich.”
The next time my cauliflower craving hits, I think I’ll do Anita Lo’s cauliflower chaat for one, a recipe adapted by Tejal Rao. This is an ideal “cooking for myself” meal because I can make it as kicky as I’d like, adding more ginger, jalapeño and chaat masala to the cauliflower and a squeeze more lemon to the sauce.
We can’t talk solo suppers without mentioning instant ramen. Here’s Roy Choi and Jeff Gordinier’s perfect instant ramen; the “perfect” part is the addition of a just-cooked egg, butter and two shiny sheets of American cheese. Also cheesy and buttery is Andy Baraghani’s cacio e pepe ramen, which has garnered this excellent comment: “This recipe is dangerous. So easy and delicious that I’m not sure if I have the power not to make it all the time. Bravo!”
I leave you with Naz Deravian’s Persian love cake, which is not formatted to serve one but sounds too good to ignore. The ingredient list has everything I want in a cake — almond flour, ground cardamom, lemon zest, Greek yogurt, rose water. And those pretty dried rose petals suspended in lemony icing! To paraphrase (and with apologies to) RuPaul: If you can’t Persian love cake yourself, how in the hell are you gonna Persian love cake somebody else?
