My latest work

Column | Mac and cheese, but make it with beans, in this speedy one-pot meal

“I don’t know how to make things complicated,” Jenny Rosenstrach tells me. “I kind of wish I did, because I think my recipes would be next level.”Rosenstrach is being modest, because the truth is, her recipes are indeed next level. As the force behind the popular book, website and newsletter “Dinner: A Love Story,” Rosenstrach keeps her focus squarely on the most important quality of any recipe: its accessibility. “The reality is, my zone has always been in helping people figure out real-life di...

Beans and Cheese

This twist on mac and cheese uses white beans as the carb instead of pasta, but keeps the cheese and crunchy topping. The more flavorful the cheese, the better. This recipe can use either canned beans or ones you cook from dried, depending on your capacity for planning. Serve with a crunchy green salad.

Make ahead: The casserole can be assembled, covered and refrigerated up to 2 days in advance. Let it come to room temperature for about 1 hour, then bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until...

Column | These saucy stuffed shells are satisfying, even without the cheese

“What did you put in the ricotta?” Ann Maloney asked me.We were at a holiday party for the Food team at my house, and Ann — The Post’s recipes editor at the time — was raving about a dish of baked stuffed shells I had made. In our years of working together, Ann and I got to know not just each other’s cooking style, but our communication style, too. So my response was nonverbal: a raised eyebrow, a sly grin and a shake of the head.Her reaction was everything I had hoped for: As an Italian America...

Vegan Baked Stuffed Shells

This vegan take on an Italian American classic fills the pasta shells with a savory, slightly tangy concoction made with jarred artichokes and cashews. It's is a great option for dinner any night of the week, or for potlucks, dinner parties or as a gift for a friend who needs some comfort food. Make sure to look for shells labeled jumbo, not large.

Make ahead: The cashews need to be soaked overnight before making the dish. The dish can be assembled, covered and refrigerated up to 2 days in adva...

Column | A fragrant chickpea tagine captures the essence of a Moroccan classic

The subtitle of Steve Sando’s latest cookbook is “100 Recipes for Cooking with All Kinds of Beans.” And this is no understatement: With his wildly popular company, Rancho Gordo, Sando has made heirloom bean varieties so popular that his quarterly membership-club shipments go out to tens of thousands of customers — and tens of thousands more are on the waiting list.In “The Bean Book” (Ten Speed Press, 2024), before a reader gets to a single recipe, Sando lays out descriptions and photos for 50 he...

Column | For flavorful, crispy and versatile tofu: Just grate it

Nisha Vora’s evolution as a vegan cook sounds so familiar. When she first decided to go vegan eight years ago, she says, “I didn’t know how to make my food taste interesting.” That’s because, like so many others in her position (including me), she was single-mindedly focused on what she subtracted from her go-to dishes to adapt them to her new diet.“So once I took out all of the chicken and the fish and the sour cream and the mayo and the butter, I was just left with the other stuff that I was e...

Spicy Grated Tofu

Pan-frying grated tofu gives it a delightfully crispy and chewy texture, while pan-Asian condiments combine for an umami-rich, savory sauce. The result: a surprisingly meaty dish that you can eat with rice or noodles, in lettuce cups or fresh spring rolls, on salads or wrapped in tortillas.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.

Where to buy: Gochugaru and Chinese black vinegar can be found in well-stocked supermarkets, Asian and/or global markets and online.

Column | Summer peaches and corn shine in an end-of-season bread salad

September always makes me a little wistful. Whether it’s because of the deep-seated childhood memories of going back to school, the fact that my birthday is mid-month or merely the seasonal change in the air, I find myself reflecting on Septembers past — and wondering what fall might bring.It’s also when I try to get my fill of my favorite farm-fresh summer produce, before it disappears for another 10 months or so.You might expect me to be talking about tomatoes, but I’m not. Every year, in fact...

Column | Plant-based cooking is its own cuisine. We all can learn from it.

Editor’s note: This is an edited excerpt from “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking” by Joe Yonan (Ten Speed Press, 2024).Of all the eating trends over the last few decades, few have gotten more traction — or press — than the move toward plant-based cooking.The truth is, vegetarian and vegan diets date back millennia, to the Buddhism and Jainism of the Indian subcontinent and to ancient Greece. And what’s really grown over the last decade or two is not the number of people who label themselv...

Vegan Buttermilk

This vegan buttermilk brings its characteristic tangy flavor and thick texture to a variety of plant-based recipes, including biscuits, cornbread and pancakes. It’s made by combining pureed cashews with full-fat coconut milk and letting the contents of a probiotic capsule transform the mixture through fermentation.

Make ahead: The cashews need to soak for at least 2 hours before blending. The buttermilk needs to ferment for at least 1 day to develop flavor.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 2 wee...

Fluffy Vegan Pancakes

By Joe YonanHomemade vegan buttermilk and a little vinegar give these plant-based pancakes the flavor and lift you want. A generous amount of vanilla and a little sugar give them family-friendly appeal. They also take beautifully to additions and other flavorings; see Variations.Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Adapted from “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking” by Joe Yonan (Ten Speed Press, 2024).Ingredientsmeasuring cupServings: 4 (makes 8 pancakes)1 1...

Jerk spice adds spark to this vegan, teen-approved Rasta pasta

“He doesn’t like vegan food.”That was what my husband has said multiple times about our son, and just about every time I have to correct him. Doesn’t he remember the vegan sausages the teenager destroyed on a fridge raid, or the red beans and rice that almost always prompt him to go back for seconds, even thirds?Besides, saying someone doesn’t like vegan food is saying that they don’t like, say, rice. Or strawberries. So many foods, of course, contain no animal products at all, and pretty much e...

Rasta Pasta With Tempeh Crumbles

By Joe YonanThis vegan version of a popular Jamaican vegetarian dish — pasta with multicolored bell peppers in a creamy sauce — adds crumbled tempeh, which takes well to the intense jerk spice, for an extra dose of protein and texture. (According to one story, the dish earned its name because the peppers reminded eaters of the Rasta flag of the Rastafarian movement.) If you prefer a milder dish, feel free to leave out the habanero.Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.From Food and Dining editor...

Sumac unlocks the flavor in this Turkish chickpea salad and a lot more

It’s awfully tempting to refer to it as lemony, but I think that sells this spice — a Middle Eastern staple — woefully short. Sumac, ground from a berry, is more than tart. It’s also a little floral, a little fruity, and a little earthy, maybe something like Meyer lemon mixed with Aleppo pepper. And it possesses a gorgeous deep purple color.My favorite thing about it, beyond the flavor, is that it’s shelf-stable. So even though I use it in plenty of Middle Eastern dishes, sumac is also at home a...

Chickpea Salad With Sumac Onions

This refreshing variation on Turkey’s classic bean salad, fasulye piyazi, uses chickpeas along with tangy sumac-infused onions. The sumac, which is not just sour but also fruity and a little floral in flavor, is crucial to this dish. Rubbing the sumac and salt into the onion slices causes them to wilt and pick up maximum flavor, so don’t skip it.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days.

Where to buy: Sumac can be found at well-stocked supermarkets; at Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and global spe...

Channel summer in Nice with this breezy French couscous salad

Some foods just don’t get a fair shake. I’m thinking about how cooks scarred by, say, the canned beets or mushrooms of their youth can’t bring themselves to revisit the root vegetable or funghi, even when in its fresh form it bears little resemblance to what tormented them.We all do it. I’m not a purist (anymore) about too many dishes, but tabbouleh is one of them. Ever since I had the Levantine original, with its bounty of parsley combined with a fairly small amount of bulgur, I haven’t been ab...

Column | Greek salad is perfect, if you make it right. Here’s how.

The first thing Diane Kochilas does when our conversation starts is turn her laptop around so I can see what she sees: the waters of the Aegean Sea. She is just back from a swim on the remote Greek island of Ikaria, her hair is damp and her smile is wide. On my end of the Zoom, the view is of my home-office wall, so let’s just say my jealousy is palpable.Kochilas, prolific cookbook author and host of the public-television series “My Greek Table,” was born and raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. B...

Gordon Ramsay helped me unlock the secret to homemade vegan ‘bacon’

I never thought I would utter the following words, but here goes: Thank you, Gordon Ramsay.A few years ago, Ramsay posted a TikTok for his version of a vegan BLT, and, no, it wasn’t just an LT. He started by showing how he makes vegan “bacon” with rice paper. The first time I saw a reference to it, I figured it was pretty much the same idea I had tried a few years before: whisking up a smoky-salty-sweet marinade for rice paper strips and baking them until crisp. Been there, done that, liked it.I...

Chickpea quinoa cakes are like a grain salad in crispy-patty form

What’s in your cooking repertoire? Do you have one?When colleagues Becky Krystal, Aaron Hutcherson and I talked to host Cristina Quinn for the third season of her Post podcast, “Try This,” the subject came up quickly. The podcast’s goal is to help listeners learn how to overcome a common challenge, and this season is about finding joy in cooking. Becky (The Post’s recipes editor), Aaron (our Dinner in Minutes columnist) and I found ourselves beating the same drum: We made the case for cooks to l...

Three-bean salad sandwiches have the makings of a new picnic classic

I can no more remember the first time I tasted a three-bean salad than I can remember the first time I breathed. It’s always been there, at every picnic, every cookout of my life, as unchanging as the air. And for the longest time, I loved it. My mother, like so many of her generation, would combine three kinds of canned beans — including green — in a sweet-tart (let’s be honest: mostly sweet) dressing, along with chopped onions and celery. But as I grew up and my palate matured, I had to admit

This cherry gazpacho is my new favorite summer dish

Fruit is overtaking my family’s yard. And I love it. This year, for instance, I learned just how invasive raspberry plants are. I let them double their footprint on one side of our backyard, and this year’s harvest, at its peak, has hit almost 2 pints a day. Every morning of their run I gathered berries as soon as I had my coffee, putting them right in a bowl that I filled with yogurt and granola for breakfast.

Down the fence a ways, the fig tree is finally looking like, well, a tree. In the fr

This Cava-inspired salad bowl boasts spicy feta and a date vinaigrette

I have two businesses to blame for this idea, both of them born in the D.C. area: Cava and Sweetgreen. I’ve been a longtime customer at both, but these days I tend to gravitate to Cava, perhaps because of my genetic predilection for Middle Eastern flavors and perhaps because it’s one of the few places that’s just as beloved by my husband and teenage son. I’m not alone: Yelp recently named Cava, which now has more than 300 locations in 25 states (plus D.C.), the nation’s fastest-growing brand.

M

Pav bhaji is a saucy, spicy Indian classic to riff on at home

In her stellar first cookbook, “Amrikan,” Khushbu Shah takes aim at one of the tropes of Western food writing: describing a foreign dish by tying it to an American equivalent, however much of a stretch it might be. Take pav bhaji, toasted bread (pav) topped with mashed, seasoned vegetables (bhaji), for example. She writes: “People like to describe it as ‘Indian sloppy joes,’ and while visually they have similarities, the taste could not be more different.”

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with
Load More