beans! beans! (co-starring: lentils)
plus: an interview with clarice lam
Monday, January 13, 2025
Good morning!
Where Do Your Spices Come From? [NYT, unlocked]
Some tasteless braggery:
Thank you, The Kitchn! [My Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup recipe is here.]
It’s been a heartbreaking week. I know so many people who have been displaced from their Los Angeles homes or lost them entirely and it’s been tough to watch from the comfort of anywhere else. There many lists circulating with various fundraisers to help people get what they immediately need or to help provide emergency funds for people in crisis and while I cannot gather them all, this page is a great starting point. World Central Kitchen, one of my favorite charities, is on the list and has been out there feeding anyone who needs a warm meal, something that really speaks to me as someone who loves to cook for people.
At home, I’ve been in a cooking frenzy, too — in part because I missed cooking when we ate almost every meal out on our trip to South America, and in part because the cold weather has made me way too lazy to want to hustle anywhere. Below, a few of my favorite bean and lentil-centric meals, all cozy and perfect for right now. Plus, let us not forget: chocolate also come from beans and we’d never leave it out of the lineup. Last but never least, we have an interview with Clarice Lam whose cookbook, Breaking Bao: 88 Bakes and Snacks from Asia and Beyond, came out last fall and I want to cook every-single-thing in it.
xo
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Wondering what you might cook from Smitten Kitchen Keepers in the depths of winter? I thought you’d never ask! Try the ginger garlic chicken noodle soup, charred salt and vinegar cabbage, creamy coconut rice with chili-lime vegetables, and oven-braised beef with harissa. To finish, I recommend the oatmeal date shortbread, the chocolate dulce puddle cakes, and/or the white Russian slush punch. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
“One of the winning elements of ‘The Recipe’ is that it’s not prescriptive — rather than settling on one universal ‘perfect’ recipe, the chefs explain their personal preferences, then give listeners the information they need to make their own adjustments. By breaking their recipes down ingredient-by-ingredient, digging into what each one is doing, they make the science of cooking approachable and fun.” — New York Times, 7 Podcasts to Inspire a New Hobby
“J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman’s new podcast gets to not only the heart of how they make their recipes—but also the why behind each decision, too.” — Esquire, The 26 Best Podcasts of 2024
The latest full episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, is all about Onion Soup! You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts, such as Apple, Spotify, and more. A few weeks ago, we ran an excerpt of the new special audiobook edition of Smitten Kitchen Keepers, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: A Kitchen Counter Conversation. You can listen to it here.
black bean soup + toasted cumin seed crema
A magically simple soup: You dump everything in a slow- or pressure-cooker and walk away and upon return you have an exceptional black bean soup that's already so good, but even better with a mess of help-yourself toppings.
lentil soup with sausage, chard and garlic
This lentil, sausage, and swiss chard soup from the late, wonderful Gina DePalma via Adam Roberts is a forever favorite -- cozy and filling but never boring due to a perfect finish of sizzling garlic oil. You'll be so glad you made it.
chickpea and kale shakshuka
Eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce with kale and chickpeas, too, so perfect and filling for dinner on a chilly night.
falafel
I once presumed making falafel would be complicated, best left to the experts. Once I learned how staggeringly simple it is -- oh and by the way, vegan, gluten-free, and so quick to assemble, you might decide you have time enough left over to make homemade pitas worthy of your perfect falafel -- I see exactly no reason not to make it all of the time.
french onion baked lentils and farro
These french onion baked lentils and farro are a dream of a winter dish, as perfect for a hibernation dinner as it is for a vegetarian main at a dinner party. It's loose like risotto, hearty enough to be utterly filling, and tastes precisely like french onion soup, blistered broiled gruyere on top and all.
sheet pan meatballs with crispy turmeric chickpeas
A dinner packed with flavors, textures, and color. We like to scoop it all into bowls with salted lemony yogurt, lightly pickled onions, and pita wedges and I always wonder why we don't make it more often.
spinach and chickpeas
This is a longtime favorite of a hearty vegetarian meal that tastes like a luxury, not a compromise, especially when heaped on grilled or fried bread. (Don't forget to rub it with a halved garlic clove while still hot, then douse it in olive oil for peak toast bliss.)
red kidney bean curry
It felt so chilly this morning, all I could think about was this spin on rajma, a longtime favorite weeknight dinner. It's a spicy mix of beans, chopped and sauced tomatoes, ginger, onion, garlic and spice that can be on the table in 15 minutes. Eat with rice or toasted naan and a dollop of yogurt, repeat regularly.
my favorite lentil salad
My favorite lentil salad is really, truly inhalable: one part salsa, one part lentils, plus tomatoes, avocado, hot sauce, and a dream of a lunch scooped up with tortilla chips. [Video below!]
chana masala
Unquestionably the best chana masala I have ever made, a hint of sour transforms the whole dish. Have it for dinner with rice, toasted naan and/or a dollop of plain yogurt and end your day warm-bellied and content.
double chocolate chip muffins
A towering dark chocolate muffin as pretty as the one I usually gaze longingly at in coffee shops, made simply at home: one bowl, unfussy ingredients, heavenly aroma.
best chocolate pudding
Old-school from-scratch chocolate pudding fixes almost anything, no, everything.
AN INTERVIEW WITH CLARICE LAM
My shelves are full of wonderful cookbooks I don’t get to talk about enough, so I’ve added this section so you can get to know the cool people behind them. Today we're chatting with Clarice Lam. Her new cookbook, Breaking Bao: 88 Bakes and Snacks from Asia and Beyond, came out last year.
1. What inspired your cookbook?
I wanted to share the different techniques and flavors I have picked up through my life whilst living all around the world and show people how to use Asian ingredients in a way that would relate back to their own personal histories, proving that no matter where you come from, we are all connected, through food.
2. What recipe are you the most proud of in the book, or felt the most triumphant when you got it right?
I definitely felt the most triumphant when I got the dragon's beard candy recipe right. It's a dying art form in Hong Kong, where a lump of sugar is pulled into thousands of strands eventually resembling a "dragon's beard." Because it is not so widely taught or documented I really had to do a lot of research and testing to get the perfect texture.
3. What recipe is so low-effort, high-reward that it's worth cooking for dinner tonight, even if we're tired and don't want to cook?
The Thai Tea Gelati recipe is so easy. You can literally do the whole thing in 10 minutes and then set it and forget it in the freezer. Also happens to be one of my fiancé's favorites.
4. What's something you wish more people knew about your book?
There are some savory recipes too, and it's not all bao. There's also a cakes and dessert chapter, and a snacks chapter!
Thank you, Clarice! You can order Breaking Bao right here.
my favorite lentil salad
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most — yes, including the the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser (currently out of stock but we’ll have more in soon!). For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
