Extra flavorful vegan chili
In my years on this earth, I have made a lot of bean chili. Sometimes black beans, sometimes pintos. Sometimes tomatoey, sometimes tomatillo-y. Sometimes a lot of veg, sometimes very little. They’ve all been fine. Good for the freezer but nothing to write home (here) about. Then I tasted my coworker Jesse Szewczyk’s Vegan Chili in the Test Kitchen. With smoky chipotles and cocoa powder, it’s just as satisfying as a chili with meat. It’s also just as easy as the vegetarian versions I’ve been making, but approximately 17 times more flavorful. To stretch the mixture even further (and because they were languishing in the pantry), I threw in a couple cans of lentils. A nourishing meal I’ll look forward to thawing for lunch for months to come. —E.L.
March 6
Sweet corn in winter
For those nights when the winter blues hit a little too hard, I turn to my freezer for some out-of-season brightness. Mine is mostly filled with fruit and veggies (crammed in alongside a tower of butter sticks) and, among the assorted bags, I always keep some charred corn. While senior Test Kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s Miso-Brown-Butter Rice Cakes With Corn absolutely shines in late summer with fresh kernels, it’s equally satisfying to pull together during a once-in-a-decade blizzard with the frozen stuff. Paired with Korean rice cakes, almost a stick of butter, and a pantry powerhouse sauce (miso, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil), each bowl tastes like a ray of sunshine. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor
Repeat-worthy chicken and couscous
My weekly comfort meal is this One-Pan Garlicky Chicken Couscous by Carolina Gelen. I make it like clockwork. But this week my oven broke, so I needed to split the dish up, making the chicken in the air fryer (which unlocked a new level of crispy goodness) and the grains on the stove (I opted for rice since I was out of couscous). Both elements get topped with a tangy dill sauce, which I like to double and mix into salads the next day. Though the schmaltzy edge was missed, it was still chef’s kiss. —Abi Lieff, assistant to the editor in chief
Bitter veg season
There are only a few weeks left to enjoy peak bitter vegetable season, a joyous time of year! Wanting to take advantage of radicchio’s vibrant offerings, I turned to this hearty salad. I used Castelfranco leaves since it’s a sweeter and milder variety, and substituted the brussels sprouts with red endive for even more crunch. The subtle bitterness is complemented with creamy cheese and a mouth-puckering lemon dressing. Any white bean will do—I opted for cannellini since it has a delicate bite. —Marisa Alia Malanga, research fellow
Choose-your-own-adventure challah
I was testing stand mixers for an article last week, which was essentially an excuse to bake many batches of challah. Instead of making each loaf plain (boring!) I polled fellow staffers for topping ideas and scoured the Test Kitchen for spare ingredients. In the end, I wound up with six different varieties: furikake, a fairy-bread-inspired sprinkle number, sun-dried tomato and Parmesan, cinnamon sugar, butter-brushed dinner rolls, and my favorite, a scallion-pancake-esque loaf stuffed with scallions and toasted sesame oil, and rolled in black and white sesame seeds. It was the best kind of baking marathon, and I’m already dreaming up new flavor combinations for the next update. —Alaina Chou, commerce writer
Sheet-pan chicken and grapes
One of my go-to lazy-chic dinners is former BA staffer Kendra Vaculin’s Sheet-Pan Chicken With Grapes and Fennel. Skin-on chicken thighs roast alongside grapes and fennel, dressed in paprika, vinegar, and Castelvetrano olives. The jammy, blistered fruit is undoubtedly the best part. It’s great with crisped torn sourdough as written, but sometimes I like to sub in baby or fingerling potatoes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t change a thing. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager
