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It’s no secret that Bon Appétit editors cook a lot for work. So it should come as no surprise that we cook a lot during our off hours too. Here are the recipes we’re whipping up this month to get dinner on the table, entertain our friends, satisfy a sweet tooth, use up leftovers, and everything in between. For even more staff favorites, click here.
October 18
I needed some comfort food this week, and for me that means making a huge bowl of rice or pasta, tossing it with an equal portion of veggies, and covering it all in a zippy sauce. So test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin’s Swiss Chard Tiny Pasta Salad was due for a reappearance in my kitchen. It’s my favorite way to use—and enjoy—every bit of Swiss chard (stems absolutely included) without feeling like I’m gnawing on fibrous stalks for the virtue of it. Finely sliced alongside the leaves, the stems get tender on the stove before soaking up a sherry vinegar and caper dressing. Add in toasty pistachios, crispy sage, and nubs of feta, and the world is right side up again. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor
For the Jewish high holidays, I made four babkas. A whole lotta babka, I know—but I only make this labor of love once a year. One each for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, my neighbors, and, of course, my freezer (so I can eat it whenever I please). I have been using this recipe for years now, and I can confidently tell you, it’s a keeper. I take my time rolling out the spongy, honey-colored dough, and slather it with an intense chocolate spread spiked with punchy espresso, warm cinnamon, and turbinado sugar. I usually braid it, then unbraid it, rearranging the logs of dough until I’m pleased with my knot. After baking, the result is a lofty, brioche-like loaf oozing with ribbons of chocolate. And if there’s any left over, my go-to is Babka Cereal. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor of cooking
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I was tasked to make sweets over the weekend for Durga Puja—a Bengali religious festival, where you often offer sweets, flowers, and fruits. When looking for something easy and nut-free, I knew I had to make senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s cute Salted Coconut Ladoos. They are rich from the coconut, sweet from condensed milk and balanced with a pinch of salt. I’m newish to making Indian sweets from scratch. When I was growing up, my mom would make very simple ones, like gajar ka halwa, but we always had store-bought gulab jamuns and rasmalai at home. In recent years, I’ve tried making kaju katli. Shilpa’s ladoos are very simple, take under an hour to make, and can scale up if you need to make a big batch for a gathering. And a major bonus? They’re auntie-approved! —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media
Years ago at Ootoya I tried soboro don—a classic Japanese comfort food traditionally featuring ground chicken, egg, and peas over fluffy white rice—and ever since I’ve been determined to recreate it myself. A half-package of ground chicken in my fridge presented me with the right opportunity this week. I halved this recipe from the blog Just One Cookbook, seasoning my ground meat with mirin, sugar, soy sauce, and ground ginger, then cooking it over low heat. I steamed some peas, poached an egg (rather than scrambled as the recipe suggests—I wanted a runny yolk), and laid it all in satisfyingly symmetrical sections over a comforting bed of rice. —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor
Summer was the season to eat a whole cucumber, but I reckon fall is the time to eat a whole cabbage. The easiest way to do that is by making this Fall-Apart Caramelized Cabbage from cookbook author Andy Baraghani. It’s been on my want-to-cook list for a long time. I’ve seen my friends make it, and it’s even on the Bon Appétit 56. So when I realized I had a purple cabbage sitting in my fridge, I knew it was time. Adding in tomato paste, spices, and a good glug of olive oil, I roasted the wedges in a cast-iron skillet until they became tender and caramelized. I paired the saucy veg with some lemon-thyme chicken, and that was dinner. —U.R.
It is no secret to those who know me that I love Korean food. When deputy food editor Hana Asbrink first made Irene Yoo’s Kong-Bul in the test kitchen, I knew immediately this was something I’d make myself regularly. A two-minute blender marinade, quick-cooking protein (thinly sliced rib eye), a good amount of vegetables (soybean sprouts! carrots!), and basically one pot? Immediately, yes. I made it again this weekend, using the last of a mealy Granny Smith apple, and topping it off with some pretty purple shiso. (Other times I’ve skipped the shiso and finished with scallions instead.) Serve with rice and a glass of cider. —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor
October 11
One of my most sacred traditions is chaotically making cookies at 11 p.m. on a weeknight because I am desperate for something sweet and too stubborn to walk one single block to the 24-hour bodega for a store-bought treat. For years, these late-night baking sprees featured a litany of “easy” recipes sourced from far corners of the recipe blogosphere. They were never the same cookie twice, and were also never very good, but they were speedy and didn’t require any fancy equipment. At close to midnight, that was good enough for me. But this week, when my craving struck, I made senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s chipless cookies, and I will never be the same. These are just as easy and quick as the one-bowl bites I’d been making, but with browned butter, toasted flour, dark brown sugar, and a good amount of vanilla bean paste, they are actually great. My nighttime baking habits are forever changed by this recipe—and dramatically, deliciously improved. —Kendra Vaculin, test kitchen editor
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I love to make pasta at home. It takes me nearly the same amount of time to whisk together a half pound of noodles as it does to boil a few quarts of water and wait for dried fettuccine to get to al dente. That’s because I make small amounts and cut the time using household appliances. This Fresh Pasta Dough recipe is quite simple, with only three ingredients. But types of flours, oils, and other add-ins are a matter of taste. I like for my pappardelle to have a little bite, so I usually swap in a mixture of 00 and semolina flour. And I prefer to use one egg, plus two yolks for a rich taste. Some light kneading, rolling, and my stand mixer attachment does the rest. —Jamila Robinson, editor in chief
It’s early October and the morning air is crisp, the leaves are starting to show a tinge of gold on their edges, and I’ve already spotted Uggs on the streets of New York City. But I’m defiantly clinging to the very last vestiges of summer. I’m enjoying the last of the season’s heirloom tomatoes, stone fruit (let’s give it up for plums, an unsung hero of early fall), and even potato salad. Senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s Korean Potato Salad to be exact. Featuring crunchy carrots, cucumbers, and boiled eggs, this potato salad keeps well in the fridge, getting even better with time. And it’s the perfect accompaniment to my desk-side sandwich. —Hana Asbrink, deputy food editor
I am happily working my way through a 14.1-oz. tin of S&B Curry Powder. A few weeks ago, many spoonfuls went into a big batch of this cozy Japanese curry from recipe developer Christina Chaey. Instead of the winter veg called for, I did a last hurrah of summer produce and packed my freezer with pints (I like these wide-mouth ones with these reusable lids) to pull out when the weather turns chilly. And this past week, I riffed on these stir-fried curry noodles from cookbook author Hetty Lui McKinnon. Instead of homemade noodles (which you absolutely should make), I opted for a bag of rice cakes that was languishing in the freezer. The result was delightful for a tired weeknight, and I’m saving the full recipe for a lazy Sunday afternoon. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking
I had no intention of eating this roasted delicata squash over lemon yogurt for dinner when I popped the veg into the oven past 9 p.m. on a Sunday. Instead, I planned to divvy it out for lunches throughout the week. A few crispy, caramelized squash ring snacks later, I had just enough for tomorrow’s dinner. I reheated the leftovers the next day, whipped the yogurt sauce, and assembled a plate with store-bought crispy onions, golden raisins in place of the pomegranate seeds, and some leftover pork belly from a Korean grill I’d visited over the weekend. Lunches be damned. —Joe Sevier, senior SEO editor
October 4
I have a bone to pick with carrot cake. I dread the process—slouching over a box grater, shredding a fat stack of carrots, and doing everything in my power to avoid grating a knuckle. So when I was tasked with making it for my friend’s birthday, I braced myself with a laborious endeavor. That was until I remembered senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s brilliant recipe. Shilpa’s is inspired by Brazilian bolo de cenoura—carrots are blended right into the batter, resulting in a plush and tender crumb. There’s still plenty of texture, with specks of candied pineapple, crystallized ginger, and crushed pecans folded in. The unfussy cake has converted even the greatest skeptic: me. —Nina Moskowitz, editorial assistant
My mother and I always take a divide-and-conquer approach to cooking for the holidays. For this year’s Rosh Hashanah, I signed up to manage all the supporting actors to the main event: our giant brisket. I like to keep the sides simple, so I opted for this Three-Minute Red Wine Vinaigrette on a verdant salad, Burnished Potato Nuggets (for which I subbed in these upstate abundance potatoes from Row 7), and Ina Garten’s Green Beans Gremolata, which has been a mainstay on our holiday table for a decade. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager
This past week, I found myself with a slumped pile of withering herbs, a knob of Parmesan, and baby arugula—so I decided to make senior test kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk’s Herby Cauliflower Fritters. No, I did not have a bag of riced cauliflower on hand, but that didn’t stop me. I managed to find a bag of frozen cauliflower florets, dumped those in a food processor, and pulsed until the texture was fine. More in line with my vibe, I shaped my fritters into falafel-like balls, shallow-fried them, and placed them over a bed of yogurt with cucumbers. —Inés Anguiano, associate test kitchen manager
Content director Hali Bey Ramdene brought an overflowing bag of plump tomatoes to the office, straight from the vines of her garden. So I obviously brought a few home and made this one-pan salmon. I cut them into fat wedges and dumped them, along with Sun Golds, into my pan. I then added a soy-based poaching liquid, globs of butter, and salmon fillets. Twelve minutes was all it took for the tender fish to cook through and the tomatoes to burst into sweet nectar. —N.M.
Every couple weeks, I make a clean-out-the-fridge tomato sauce that I use to ladle over noodles, rice, or toast or eat on its own. This week I had some ground meat that I turned into food director Chris Morocco’s Tuesday Night Meatballs. Instead of using ground beef, I swapped in lamb that I spiced with garlic powder and oregano. The meatballs came together in no time at all, and were the perfect way to bulk up my Sunday sauce. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media
