Cozy/Easy/Healthy/Cheap
Revisiting two old reliable recipes
Before I was a married Lower East Side woman with well-equipped, great-for-New-York kitchen, I was a hyper-budget-conscious Murray Hill girly who shared a diminutive kitchen with two roommates (Shea and Lindsay, I love you and I am so happy our friendship survived that apartment). At the time, I worked in an area that lacked Sweetgreen (gasp!) as well as all the other fast-casual usual suspects and therefore brought my lunch every single day for two years. I faithfully batch-cooked twice a week — Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights — and relied on extremely simple, cheap, healthy meals. Think: lots of hard boiled eggs, grilled chicken, soups, beans, smoothies, microwavable quinoa and rice.
I’ve leveled up a lot since then. During Covid, I spent a lot of time inside cooking Instagram and learned new methods, new recipes, have picked things up from friends, experimented with dishes I’ve tried in restaurants… but some of my OG go-tos still really hit. Today, I launched into an afternoon of meal prep in anticipation of a busy week and felt compelled to revisit some old favorites: my super basic soy sauce roasted tofu and mushroom brown rice soup.
Soy sauce roasted tofu is a lifer for me. I press super-firm tofu and cut it into 1-inch cubes, spray it with olive oil, toss it in a glug of soy sauce poured right on the parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, then sprinkle it with black pepper and garlic powder. It’s then baked at 425F for 25 minutes. Today, I made it alongside sautéed cabbage and mushrooms — also hit with some soy sauce and garlic powder — and served it over brown rice, of which I made a big pot. It’ll be a work lunch for Zach this week.
With the rest of the cooked brown rice and mushrooms, I decided to make another light-but-cozy old standard: mushroom brown rice soup. This is something I remember bringing to work at Hillel all the time that I haven’t made it years. It’s a brothy soup made with finely diced onions, carrots, and mushrooms, cooked until fragrant with olive oil and a little bit of vegetable Better than Boullion. Then, I pour water over all of it — today, about 6 cups felt right — and let it come to a boil, then simmer it for a couple hours so the broth gets rich and flavorful. When it’s been simmering for a bit, I taste it and then season it with salt as needed, and then add the cooked rice right before I serve the soup so it doesn’t get soggy.
Note: this is fundamentally how to make virtually any soup — cook the stuff, add the water or broth, boil it, then turn the heat down and simmer it for a few hours. You can then blend it (like a roasted cauliflower or tomato soup) or keep it chunky and brothy, like chicken soup. You can even purée half of it — with an immersion blender, or by putting some of it in your standing blender — so it’s thick but not completely smooth, like a lentil soup. This is the case for any vegetable, any bean, any meat — if you boil and simmer anything long enough, it will become soup. And you can take that to the bank.
What’s on the menu this week? Latkes, of course, although I have never made my own — I buy them frozen from Trader Joes and pop them in the oven. Deep-frying scares me, and the ones that come in the freezer are pretty good. Tomorrow, for our friends Madeline and David who are coming over for a Chanukah party, I’m serving latkes alongside sour cream and apple sauce (obviously), paprika-dusted deviled eggs, and some absolutely perfect Keys-style smoked fish dip with Ritz crackers, just because I was craving it and had most of the ingredients for it. I’ll also throw together a simple green salad, for our health, and maybe some ice cold dirty martinis, because they’re festive.
During the day this week, I’ll live on green smoothies and pots of lemony green tea, egg whites in a tortilla with hot sauce, and lots of grapefruit — they’re in season right now and very delicious. I also made chocolate covered dried figs by melting down some stevia-sweetened Lily’s chocolate chips with a drop of olive oil — they’re sprinkled with flaky salt and live in a little container in my fridge if I want something sweet.
My friend Liz is making my arroz con pollo tonight, and I want to remind you that it’s easy and delicious, and my recipe can be found here. If you’ve made any of my recipes, I’d love to hear about how they went — it makes me so happy.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about my favorite seasonal item at Trader Joe’s right now: figgy cheddar. This is beyond. I won’t say anything more but you should buy it.
Anyway — that’s it from me. I hope you’re enjoying festive holiday vibes and that your Secret Santa knocks it out of the park with a gift that is just so you. And don’t read Instagram comments this week, OK? Also, hydrate, wear your SPF, tell your friends you love them, and I’ll see you soon. Bye!
I’m also afraid of frying!