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The Washington Post •

Column | Chipotle’s spicy tofu sofritas let me down, so I made my own

My most recent takeout experience at Chipotle — one of our teenager’s favorite sources of quick food — didn’t go so well.I had ordered bowls for him and my husband, and for myself I wanted hard-shell tacos filled not with my usual beans but this time with sofritas, the tofu protein option the chain debuted more than a decade ago (to much gratitude from vegan customers).When I unpacked the bags at home, just a few minutes’ drive from the nearest Chipotle, my tacos had gone soggy — so much so that...
The Washington Post •

Crunchy Tacos With Spicy Tofu

These tacos are filled with a spicy, smoky tofu mixture inspired by Chipotle’s vegan protein option, which it calls sofritas. You roast peppers, onion, tomato and garlic, blend that into a sauce with spices and the all-important canned chipotles in adobo, and combine the sauce with roasted crumbled tofu. The toppings include roasted corn, cheese and salsa, but you can use whatever you like best. You can also use the tofu in burritos or on bowls, salads or tostadas.

Storage: Refrigerate the spic...
The Washington Post •

Column | Fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese: Southern stars align on a bun

Foods, like people, can have surprising pasts.Sketch out family trees for fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese, for instance, and you’ll see roots that snake outside the South. As writer Robert Moss explained in two fascinating historical explorations for Serious Eats, the former has ancestors from all over the country but perhaps most from the Midwest, while the latter’s ties are Northeastern, through and through.These were no carpetbaggers. To the contrary, Southern cooks and chefs welcomed...
The Washington Post •

Fried Green Tomato and Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

Fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese are Southern classics separately, and together they make magic on a sandwich. This recipe was inspired by a dish on the menu at Pennyroyal Station restaurant in Mount Rainier, Maryland. The sandwiches make a welcome vegetarian option at a cookout. If you’d like, you can omit the bread, lettuce and pickle, cut the tomato slices into halves or quarters and serve this as an appetizer.

Make ahead: The pimento cheese can be prepared and refrigerated for up to...
The Washington Post •

Column | A cherry tomato bounty calls for this quick, luscious pasta sauce

The first time I heard the phrase “your eyes are bigger than your stomach,” it was uttered by my father at Luby’s Cafeteria in San Angelo, Texas.You can guess what prompted him. As we went down the line, I would grab just about every plate I saw, but at the table I’d get full long before they got clean. I can’t remember: Did we throw all that uneaten food away, or did we — I hope — pack doggy bags?The same dynamic occurs at the farmers market, but my eyes, at least so far, haven’t been bigger th...
The Washington Post •

Column | Yemeni shakshuka is a warm, aromatic, scrambled delight

Hassan’s family escapes — first to a refugee camp just across the Kenyan border, then to an apartment in Nairobi, and finally to Oslo. But before that last move, Hassan separates from them, moving at age 7 to Seattle to live with a family friend for “more opportunities,” as her mother tells her. And she finds them, ultimately landing a modeling gig and traveling the world before turning her attention to founding a sauce company (Basbaas) and writing cookbooks (“In Bibi’s Kitchen” and the new “Se...
The Washington Post •

Yemeni Shakshuka (Spiced Scrambled Eggs)

This vibrant Yemeni dish transforms scrambled eggs into a fragrant, spiced meal good for breakfast or a light dinner. Unlike the more common version in the Middle East and North Africa, in which the eggs are poached in the sauce, here they are lightly scrambled with a tomato sauce spiced with a Yemeni blend called hawaij and a touch of heat from jalapeño. Serve with warm flatbread, for scooping.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.
The Washington Post •

Column | I took a break from cooking for my family, so I made myself a sandwich

A few weeks ago, I complained about the reception I got from my family when I went to the trouble to make arancini, the classic Italian stuffed and fried rice balls. To recap (cue the TV-style voice-over: “Previously on Weeknight Vegetarian …”), I found their reaction lacking, and I mused about how it led me to realize that I needed to have more dinner parties, where friends would surely appreciate the effort.That hasn’t happened. What did happen is that I went on a bit of a cooking strike. My s...
The Washington Post •

Column | An Italian-inspired rice salad tweaks tradition for today’s busy cooks

When I first came across Italian rice salads, I was listening to the radio. On “The Splendid Table,” my friend and food journalist Russ Parsons was talking about them to cookbook author and chef Rolando Beramendi, and I was captivated.On the show and in his 2017 book, “Autentico,” Beramendi tells the story of a woman he worked with in Turin: Contessa Rosetta Clara Cavalli d’Olivola. (How fun is that to say, preferably with an Italian accent?) She told him that in the 1960s, when she began making...
The Washington Post •

Rice Salad With Greens and Beans

This riff on an Italian-style rice salad combines carnaroli or arborio rice (typically used for risotto) with arugula, white beans and vegetables pulsed in a food processor so they’re about the same size as the grains of rice. Adding a generous amount of arugula to the mix changes the typical proportions in a way that might remind you of tabbouleh. This dish is ideal for a picnic or cookout, as it is delicious at room temperature and the flavors improve over time.

Make ahead: The rice can be co...
The Washington Post •

Quiche, drag brunch and sit-ins: How food informs queer identity

Is the food itself queer, though? Author John Birdsall has convinced me that it surely can be, that plenty of foods can be considered so through the meaning added from history, people and cultures. Among many other examples in his fascinating new book, “What Is Queer Food?,” Birdsall breaks down the case for quiche, which appeared in ads in gay weekly newspapers for a brunch restaurant promising New York City’s “finest quiche Lorraine” in 1971 and more than a decade later was part of Phyllis Sch...
The Washington Post •

Column | This homemade vegan cottage cheese is quick and protein-rich

Make it or buy it? When it comes to food, the answer depends on so many variables, such as: How much time are you willing to spend? How much money? Will the homemade version be better than what you can buy? Or will you get enough satisfaction from the DIY process that none of the previous questions matter?The answer for cottage cheese used to be an easy one, at least for me. There was little reason to make it at home when I could get such high-quality versions in stores at reasonable prices. I’m...
The Washington Post •

Tofu Cottage Cheese

This vegan cottage cheese is made with two types of tofu, plus miso for flavor, and nutritional yeast and hemp seeds for more protein. Eat as a snack or appetizer with crackers and fruit, or use as the base of a main-course tartine, topping it with roasted or raw vegetables, salsa or berries.

Make ahead: The cottage cheese is fine when freshly made, but it gets even better — the flavors marry and the consistency thickens — after being refrigerated for at least 2 hours.

Storage: Refrigerate for...
The Washington Post •

Column | Making arancini just got easier with this clever shortcut

This is no news to parents, but here it goes anyway: Kids just don’t know how good they have it.Take Anna Gass. When she was growing up in New Jersey, she said, she didn’t appreciate her mother’s risotto. “I was so spoiled,” said Gass, who hosts “Instant Italian” on the FYI Network. “My mother was putting in all this great stuff, like porcini mushrooms, and I was like, ‘Yuck! Porcini mushrooms!’” Even more to the point, Gass realized that if she pushed the risotto around her plate rather than ea...
The Washington Post •

Arancini (Fried Rice Balls With Cheese)

These Italian fried rice balls, sometimes called arancini and sometimes called suppli al telefono for the “telephone wires” that the stretchy cheese inside resembles, are traditionally made with leftover risotto. But you can also start by making a stripped-down, no-stirring-needed take on risotto. It takes time to chill the rice mixture, before and after forming the balls, to keep them from losing their shape in the oil, but it’s worth it. The longer you can chill the mixture, the easier the bal...
The Washington Post •

Column | Spring onion kebabs with romesco celebrate the season in Spanish style

Every year about now, my heart skips a beat the first time I spy those gorgeous spring onions in farmers markets and grocery stores. You know the ones, I hope? They look like scallions that have gotten as swole as a tech bro.And every year, I think to myself: Why am I not in Spain right now? Or, more accurately, why wasn’t I in Spain a month or two ago? That’s when restaurants in Catalonia host dinners celebrating calçots, their version of spring onions that are planted twice to bulk up their gr...
The Washington Post •

Spring Onion and Halloumi Kebabs With Romesco

By Joe YonanGrill skewers of spring onions, zucchini and halloumi cheese while you also char the ingredients for the classic Spanish romesco sauce that will accompany them. The idea comes from the Catalan calçotada, an annual celebration of spring onions at which they’re charred over a fire and served with lots of romesco (and lots of wine). Halloumi elevates this to main-course status, but the cheese is also particularly high in sodium; see Substitutions for lower-sodium alternatives. For broil...
The Washington Post •

Column | Double down on carrots with a hearty pearl couscous salad

Meat and seafood cooks double up on ingredients all the time: They poach chicken breasts in chicken stock, make a quick shrimp broth with the crustaceans’ shells and use it in shrimp risotto, and include beef stock as a component in beef stew. For traditional duck confit, you cook the duck legs in duck fat.I know, because I’ve done all of the above as a way of concentrating and amping up a main ingredient’s flavor — making it taste even more like itself. But what’s the vegetable equivalent? Of c...
The Washington Post •

Warm Carrot, Bean and Couscous Salad

This summery salad gets extra carrot flavor from juice you use to cook the carrots and pearl couscous. White beans add heft and protein to elevate it to main-course status, but it would be perfectly at home as a cookout or picnic side dish. It also holds up well as leftovers, making it appropriate for brown-bag lunches.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days, preferably without the pistachios and mint.

Where to buy: Carrot juice can be found at well-stocked supermarkets and natural food stores.
The Washington Post •

Column | This pasta with cauliflower captures the best of California cuisine

When you walk into Greens, the landmark San Francisco restaurant, one of the first things to catch your eye is a masterpiece redwood installation by sculptor JB Blunk: The main piece rises from the floor like some kind of giant’s gnarled hand, shadowing smaller tables and chairs — all of it cut from a single stump. When you get closer, you can’t help but run a hand along the smooth polished wood, and you can practically feel its energy simultaneously lifting and anchoring the room.The installati...
The Washington Post •

Pasta With Cauliflower and Chard

This riff on a classic Sicilian dish uses sweet-tart golden raisins, briny green olives, lemon zest and butter to bring zippy flavors to roasted cauliflower and pasta. The formula works with many other vegetable combinations; see Substitutions for ideas.

Make ahead: The cauliflower can be roasted and refrigerated for up to 4 days before tossing with the pasta and other ingredients.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days, preferably without the breadcrumbs, which can be stored at room temperatur...
The Washington Post •

Domino’s thin-crust pizza has a cult following. Here’s how to make your own.

Since this opinion seems to go against the grain of food snobbery, I generally keep it to myself. But I felt vindicated a while back when I read in Hanna Raskin’s great newsletter, “The Food Section,” that some of my favorite Southern chefs have a thing for Domino’s pizza. Not just any Domino’s, though. They are exclusively into the chain’s Crunchy Thin Crust variety, so much so that it’s their go-to order for their sometimes-raucous after parties.I hadn’t tasted a Domino’s pizza in years, so I...
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