2 days ago
Seven Ingredients or Fewer, Because Summer
Hello! Mia here, jumping in for Emily. Always a pleasure to be with the Five Weeknight Dishes crew.
So: I love grocery shopping. When I travel, I don't always hit the landmarks and must-sees. Instead, I'm beelining to supermarkets, open-air markets, specialty stores, convenience stores. My corner grocer has only two aisles, and on every visit I go up and down each one to see if there's anything new, or anything discounted. 'Oh, does this recipe need something we don't have? I guess I'll go get it,' I fake-exasperatedly say as I'm already walking out the door, tote bag on arm.
But maybe this isn't you. It's not always me, either, especially as we enter the part of the year when it's much nicer to spend free time outdoors than under fluorescent lights. In that spirit, I'm passing you Krysten Chambrot's excellent collection of recipes that have seven ingredients or fewer, and sharing some of my favorite fast, seven-items-or-fewer dishes below. (We're not counting oil, salt or pepper.)
Anything with ginger and fish sauce — both so sharp and sparkly — gets my vote. Serve Kay Chun's five-star, nuoc-cham-inspired meatballs with rice, in lettuce cups or (picnic alert!) in a bánh mì.
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Lemons (rightfully) get a lot of love, but I don't think limes get enough credit for their distinctly sour, lightly saline flavor. Eric Kim lets limes shine in this easy recipe, which one reader calls 'absolutely lovely.'
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Pasta, butter, miso, Parm, nori. Alexa Weibel, I (along with over 11,000 reviewers) salute you.
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This quick Hetty Lui McKinnon recipe is easy to scale up or down. Serve your saucy, cheesy mushroom saucers with bread (garlic bread for extra points) and arugula tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
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Use Ali Slagle's hyper-versatile recipe as a satisfying and creative fridge cleaner-outer. Add the remnants of that rotisserie chicken or that half-container of feta; top with some fried eggs or oil-packed sardines; drizzle with chile crisp, hot sauce, green sauce, tahini sauce. Then please report back in the comments to inspire your fellow New York Times Cooking cookers.
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