This week we’re celebrating the release of “Veg Everything” by Tanya Sichynsky, our latest New York Times Cooking cookbook! Tanya is an editor for Cooking and the host of “The Veggie,” our show and newsletter devoted to meatless recipes.
This book is full of fun, bold, occasionally even rambunctious vegetarian cooking, with 101 recipes from writers including Melissa Clark, Eric Kim, Yewande Komolafe, Andy Baraghani, Hetty Lui McKinnon, Ali Slagle and Priya Krishna, whose clever coconut saag recipe below both appears in the book and embodies its spirit.
1. Coconut Saag
Saag paneer is a classic North Indian dish — but itap also endlessly riffable. Swap out the paneer for feta or halloumi, the mustard greens for kale or spinach, and so on. This is a particularly stellar riff, in which coconut milk enriches an already aromatic and verdant sauce that can be paired with either the traditional paneer, or extra-firm tofu. The final hit of coconut oil infused with smoky cumin seeds and red chile powder adds loads of depth, making this dish quite possibly the most luxurious way to eat a pound of greens.
By Priya Krishna
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 3 green cardamom pods or 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (freshly ground is best)
- 1 small yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 1 (1/2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 pound mustard greens, tough ends trimmed and greens roughly chopped, or fresh baby spinach (10 to 12 cups)
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- 1 small Indian green chile, serrano chile or Thai bird’s-eye chile, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt (such as Morton)
- 1 (13-ounce) can coconut milk
- 1 (12-ounce) block extra-firm tofu or 1 (8-ounce) package paneer, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon asafetida (optional, but really fantastic)
- 1/4 teaspoon red chile powder, such as cayenne or Kashmiri
- Rice or roti, for serving
Preparation:
1. In a large, deep pan or Dutch oven over medium heat, warm the vegetable oil. Once it shimmers, add the coriander and cardamom and toast the spices until fragrant and starting to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute more.
2. Add the mustard greens, a large handful at a time, and cook until just wilted and still bright green. Don’t overcook the greens!
3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the lime juice, chile and salt. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend into a chunky paste. Return the mixture to the same pan over low heat. Stir in the coconut milk, then gently stir in tofu. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes more, until the tofu is warmed through and has soaked up some of the sauce.
4. While the tofu cooks, in a small pan or butter warmer over medium-high heat, melt the coconut oil. Add the cumin seeds, and once they start to brown and dance around in the pan, about 1 minute, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the asafetida, if using, and red chile powder.
5. Pour the coconut oil mixture over the saag, and serve with rice or roti.
2. Grilled Za’atar Chicken With Garlic Yogurt and Cilantro
This garlicky, herby chicken is full-flavored and very tender, thanks to its piquant yogurt marinade. Itap flexible, too — marinate the meat for as little as a couple of hours or as long as overnight. And the chicken is just as good cooked under the broiler as it is on the grill (see tip below). You can serve this dish with almost anything, but itap especially nice with pita or other flatbread and a big cucumber and tomato salad. And if you’re looking to substitute chicken breasts for the thighs, you can. Just watch them carefully; they’re likely to cook faster than the dark meat.
By Melissa Clark
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Total time: 30 minutes, plus marinating time
Ingredients:
- 6 garlic cloves, finely grated, pressed, or minced
- 2 lemons, zested
- 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus more sprigs for garnish
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
- 1 1/2 tablespoons za’atar, plus more for serving
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano or marjoram, plus more sprigs for garnish
- 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Preparation:
1. In a large bowl or container, stir together 5 of the grated garlic cloves, half the lemon zest, 1/3 cup yogurt, the cilantro, oil, za’atar, oregano or marjoram, salt and black pepper. Add chicken and toss until well coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. When ready to cook, light the grill to medium or heat your broiler with the rack 3 inches from the heat source. Remove chicken from bowl, shaking off any excess marinade, and grill or broil on one side until charred in spots, 5 to 8 minutes. Flip the chicken and grill or broil for another 5 to 8 minutes, until just cooked through.
3. While the chicken is cooking, place remaining 2/3 cup yogurt in a small bowl. Stir in the reserve grated garlic clove and lemon zest, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cut one zested lemon in half and set aside for serving (save the other zested lemon for another use).
4. To serve, place chicken on a serving platter and drizzle with olive oil and a large squeeze of the zested lemon. Top with cilantro and oregano or marjoram sprigs and serve with yogurt sauce.
TIP: If you’re broiling instead of grilling, you can line your sheet pan with foil for easier clean up. Don’t use parchment paper, it may burn.
3. Sheet-Pan Sausage With Peppers and Tomatoes
Good, flexible and fast, this recipe is a surefire standby: All you have to do is toss together sausage, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, shallots and olive oil on a sheet pan, then slide the entire thing under the broiler. In just 15 minutes, you’ll have nicely seared sausages, tomatoes and peppers, all of which have released juices that you should dunk bread into or spoon over pasta or rice. Experiment with adding cumin, paprika, oregano or red-pepper flakes in Step 1, or swap the garlic for scallions or red onion. You could also scatter crumbled feta, lemon slices, olives, pickled hot peppers or string beans across the top in the last few minutes of broiling.
By Ali Slagle
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 pound fresh sausage, such as sweet or hot Italian sausage
- 1 pound sweet or mild peppers, such as mini sweet peppers, bell or Cubanelle, seeded and sliced into 2-inch strips if large
- 1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 shallots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and pepper
Preparation:
1. Heat the broiler with a rack 6 inches from heat source. Score the sausages in a few places on both sides, making sure not to cut all the way through. In a shallow baking dish or baking sheet, toss the sausages with the peppers, tomatoes, garlic, shallots and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and spread in an even layer.
2. Broil until the sausage is cooked through and the peppers and tomatoes are nicely charred, 10 to 15 minutes. Rotate the pan and ingredients as needed so everything gets under the broiler. If everything is charring too quickly, cover the pan with foil. Serve immediately.
4. Pili Pili Shrimp with Braised Cannellini Beans
Pili pili is the Swahili word for chile, and this recipe uses three common pantry varieties, each bringing something different when it comes to spice level, color and flavor. When sizzled with garlic in olive oil, the chiles create a flavorful marinade, infusing the shrimp with spice but not spiciness. The chiles here are all quite mellow, so that none upstage the others. Instead of adding cilantro as a garnish, here itap added earlier in cooking so it has a more gentle flavor, a trick learned from my grandmother Agnes.
By Kiano Moju
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 pound peeled, deveined large shrimp, tails removed
- Kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup chicken, seafood or vegetable stock
- 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt or heavy cream
- Long-grain white rice, flatbread or grilled sliced sourdough, for serving
Preparation:
1. In a medium bowl, season the shrimp with salt and set aside.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic to a cold pan. Set over medium-low heat and cook until garlic is fragrant and just begins to sizzle, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the paprika, crushed red pepper and cayenne and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Pour the flavored oil into the bowl of shrimp, tossing to coat. Set aside to marinate.
3. In the same pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium. Add the onions, cilantro and cumin, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Add tomato paste, lightly season with salt and stir until the tomato paste has slightly darkened in color, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Stir in the stock and beans and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the shrimp mixture to the pan. Cook until the shrimp start to curl and turn pink, 1 to 2 minutes, then immediately remove from the heat. (The shrimp will carry on cooking from the residual heat.) Stir in the yogurt and season with salt to taste. Serve immediately.
5. Ricotta Pasta Alla Vodka
In a 1974 cookbook, Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi published a recipe for pasta all’infuriata, “furious pasta,” a chile-vodka-spiked tomato number. Itap one of the first written accounts of vodka in pasta. The alcohol is said to help fat disperse more evenly, keeping the sauce emulsion glossy and creamy, and to help you smell, and in turn taste, the sauce’s flavors in a heightened way. The ricotta serving suggestion draws inspiration from the creamy tomato soup with three dollops of cool, sweet ricotta on top from the now-closed Caffe Falai in New York City. The ricotta lends coolness both in temperature and in flavor, offering relief between bites of spicy booziness.
By Eric Kim
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 slices thick-cut bacon (6 ounces), coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons red-pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 4 large garlic cloves, crushed but left whole
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 5 tablespoons tomato paste, preferably double-concentrated
- 3/4 to 1 cup vodka, depending on how boozy you want it
- 1 pound fusilli, penne or rigatoni
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 4 ounces Pecorino Romano or Parmesan, finely grated (1 cup)
- 1 cup/8 ounces whole-milk ricotta
- Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley or basil, for serving
Preparation:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Heat a large, high-sided skillet over medium-high. Add the oil and bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is crispy at the edges, about 5 minutes. Carefully drain all but 3 tablespoons of the fat, reserving any excess for later.
3. Lower the heat to medium. Stir in the red-pepper flakes, oregano and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, just a few seconds. Add the onion, season generously with salt and pepper and cook over medium-high, stirring, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add more bacon fat if the pan dries out. Add the tomato paste and stir constantly until slightly darker in color, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the vodka.
4. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package instructions until 2 minutes shy of al dente.
5. While the pasta cooks, turn the heat under the sauce to high and cook, stirring constantly, until reduced by three-quarters, about 2 minutes. Add the cream and bring to a simmer. Take off the heat.
6. Reserve 2 cups of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the sauce, along with 1 cup pasta water and most of the pecorino. Cook over medium-high, stirring vigorously with one hand while moving the pan back and forth with the other, until the sauce glossily drapes the noodles, 5 to 7 minutes. Add more pasta water if the sauce looks dry. Fish out the garlic cloves. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, as desired.
7. Divide the pasta among plates, sprinkling with any remaining pecorino and dolloping each serving with three spoonfuls of ricotta. Top with the parsley, which adds necessary freshness to counter the richness.
This article originally appeared in .
