By Emily Weinstein, The New York Times
Less is more: These are words to live by in the kitchen, especially midweek between 5 and 8 p.m. There are no trophies for the most time spent toiling on dinner after work, no awards for the most elaborate dishes sailing off your stove on a Tuesday evening.
I love a particularly ingenious less-is-more recipe, which is why I’m excited about Eric Kim’s new five-ingredient recipe for peanut butter noodles — a Parmesan-tossed classic in the making.
Eric’s noodles, and four other stunningly simple recipes, are below.
1. Peanut Butter Noodles
This nutty midnight pasta is a dream to cook, as it requires just a handful of pantry staples and one pot. Peanut butter (the less fancy, the better) anchors a creamy sauce swathed in umami. Accentuated by a good, salty Parmesan, these noodles recall those cheesy peanut butter sandwich crackers. They make an ideal dinner for one, but the amounts can easily be doubled or quadrupled as needed. For an equally gripping vegan alternative, try swapping out the butter for olive oil and the cheese for nutritional yeast.
By Eric Kim
Yield: 1 serving
Total time: 20 minutes
Ingredient
- Salt
- 4 ounces spaghetti or 1 individual package instant ramen (seasoning packet saved for another use)
- 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon finely grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
Preparation
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil (and salt it, if using spaghetti). Cook the noodles according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain the noodles and return to the pot. Turn off the heat.
2. Add the peanut butter, butter, Parmesan and soy sauce. Vigorously stir the noodles for a minute, adding some reserved cooking water, a tablespoon or two at a time, until the sauce is glossy and clings to the noodles. Season to taste with salt.
3. Top with more cheese, if you’d like, and serve immediately.
2. One-Pan Crispy Chicken and Chickpeas
This speedy, no-fuss meal comes together in one pan with a minimal ingredient list — and barely requires any chopping. The chicken skin crisps as it roasts, and the chickpeas, garlic and spinach soak up any juices at the bottom of the pan. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end brightens up the whole dish. Make sure to stir the chickpeas and spinach together gently at the end to avoid breaking up the chickpeas too much. For added flavor, you could dust the chicken with smoked paprika, ground turmeric or your favorite spice blend before cooking. Serve this dish with yogurt and hot sauce on the side, and flatbread, if you like.
By Yossy Arefi
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1 3/4 pounds)
- Kosher salt and pepper
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, plus more as needed
- 2 (15-ounce) cans of chickpeas, rinsed
- 4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 4 (packed) cups or 1 (5-ounce) package baby spinach
- 1 large lemon, halved
- Yogurt and hot sauce (both optional), for serving
Preparation
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees with a rack in the center.
2. Pat the chicken dry and season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Put the chicken thighs in the skillet, skin-side down, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until light golden brown. Flip and cook for 2 more minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
3. Add the chickpeas and garlic to the skillet and stir to coat in the oil and juices. If the pan seems at all dry, drizzle in a bit of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Place the chicken on top of the chickpeas, skin side up, in an even layer and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until the chicken is deeply golden and cooked through.
5. Remove the chicken to a clean plate, put the pan back on the stovetop over medium heat and add the spinach to the chickpeas in the pan, one handful at a time, stirring it until just wilted. Add the chicken back to the pan and squeeze a lemon half over the top; cut the remaining lemon half into 4 wedges. Serve the chicken, chickpeas and spinach with the lemon wedges on the side, and yogurt and hot sauce for serving, if you like.
3. Orange-Glazed Baked Salmon
Baking salmon gently at a low temperature is a low-effort approach that results in a flaky, moist piece of fish. This simple preparation utilizes oranges, but lemons would work nicely, too. You’ll reduce some fresh orange juice in a skillet to concentrate its flavor, then whisk in some honey to sweeten. The glaze gets drizzled over the salmon before baking but also doubles as a dressing for salad greens. Keep this dish simple, with just its side of greens, or pair this easy weeknight meal with cilantro rice or olive oil mashed potatoes.
By Farideh Sadeghin
Yield: 2 to 4 servings
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 (2-pound) piece skin-on salmon fillet
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 oranges
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 5 ounces salad greens
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Preparation
1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the salmon in a baking dish, skin-side down, and season the top with salt and pepper.
2. Finely zest one of the oranges onto the salmon then squeeze its juice into a small skillet along with the juice of half of the other orange. Bring to a boil over high and cook until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Let cool, then whisk in the honey. Drizzle half of the glaze on the salmon; reserve the remaining.
3. Thinly slice the remaining orange half into circles and lay on the salmon in an even layer. Bake until salmon is just cooked through and slightly flaky, about 20 minutes.
4. In a medium bowl, toss the salad greens with the reserved glaze and the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the salmon.
4. Roasted Broccoli With Shrimp
Here is a fast, delicious one-pan supper that could not be simpler or tastier. Just coat your ingredients with a generous amount of olive oil, season well with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, and place them on a baking sheet. Put it in the oven at a high temperature (in this recipe, 425 degrees) and let the heat do the work. The vegetables will soften and caramelize, offering real depth of flavor. Here, we add shrimp at the end, which cooks quickly, to deliver an easy weeknight meal.
By Melissa Clark
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 pounds broccoli, cut into bite-size florets
- 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon hot chile powder
- 1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
- 1 1/4 teaspoons lemon zest (from 1 large lemon)
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, toss broccoli with 2 tablespoons oil, coriander, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and chile powder. In a separate bowl, combine shrimp, remaining 2 tablespoons oil, lemon zest, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
2. Spread broccoli in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 10 minutes. Add shrimp to baking sheet and toss with broccoli. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until shrimp are just opaque and broccoli is tender and golden around edges, about 10 minutes more. Serve with lemon wedges, or squeeze lemon juice all over shrimp and broccoli just before serving.
5. Cheesy, Spicy Black-Bean Bake
Whether or not you’ve fallen for this cheesy white-bean tomato bake, we’d like you to meet its bolder counterpart, smoky and spiced, with lots of melty cheese. Black beans shine in a deep-red mixture of fried garlic, caramelized tomato paste, smoked paprika and cumin. The whole skillet gets coated in a generous sprinkling of sharp cheddar or manchego cheese, then baked until melted. The final result is what you hope for from a really good chili or stew, but in a lot less time. For a spicier rendition, add a pinch of cayenne with the paprika or douse the final skillet with hot sauce. Serve with tortillas, tortilla chips, rice, a baked potato or fried eggs.
By Ali Slagle
Yield: 4 servings
Total time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 (14-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar or manchego cheese (from about a 6-ounce block)
Preparation
1. Heat the oven to 475 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Fry the garlic until lightly golden, about 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste, paprika, red-pepper flakes and cumin (be careful of splattering), and fry for 30 seconds, reducing the heat as needed to prevent the garlic from burning.
2. Add the beans, water and generous pinches of salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top then bake until the cheese has melted, 5 to 10 minutes. If the top is not as browned as you’d like, run the skillet under the broiler for 1 or 2 minutes. Serve immediately.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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