Good morning! Today we have for you:
Very nice warm rice salad
Hello, friends. Welcome to the winter friction of fresh cooking goals clashing with the weather. Take salads: A well-composed one is among my favorite foods, but not what I crave when it’s cold out. As much as I love greens, right now I need something that feels like slipping on a puffy jacket — not too heavy, but deeply warming. That’s the brilliance of this dish from Ashley Lonsdale, in which salmon steams over rice as it cooks and then is folded into the pot with arugula. The peppery leaves bow to the warm grains, rippling them green along with dill, and everything ends up savory with Dijon and slicked with a lemon caper dressing. This is just one of 17 easy recipes in our new roundup of healthy salmon meals. Featured Recipe Warm Rice Salad With Salmon and ArugulaThe “warm” part of this rice salad isn’t just seasonal, it’s necessary. The texture of rice slopes downward as it cools. After steamed hot grains hit their tender peak, they start to dry out as their liquid evaporates in cool, dry air, and their starches — which swell, gelatinize and soften during cooking — recrystallize in a process known as starch retrogradation. Basically, the colder cooked rice gets, the harder and drier it’ll be. That’s ideal for fried rice, but unappealing for salad. Ashley’s recipe delivers just-right rice and is utterly delicious. But if you’re looking to use up cold, hard leftover rice in salad form, try Alexa Weibel’s crispy rice salad with halloumi or Sherry Rujikarn’s chile-lime take with roasted vegetables. For more wintry yet light meals, try these: Seared orange chicken and broccoli: It’s citrus season, and this quick chicken dish from Ali Slagle makes the most of tangerines, clementines or any other small orange-adjacent fruit. Ali squeezes the sweet juice into a sesame-ginger sauce, savory with soy and tart with vinegar, and tosses in the spent halves. Thinner than orange rinds, which can be bitter, these delicate shells impart a floral aroma to the seared chicken and stir-fried broccoli tossed in the sauce. And the sauce works with anything: I’ve swapped in flank steak and slender Chinese broccoli (gai lan), as well as tofu and bok choy. Spicy shrimp puttanesca: A restaurant meal at home always feels special, especially when there’s red pasta sauce involved. Andy Baraghani adds shrimp to a classic puttanesca, the Neapolitan sauce savory with olives, capers and anchovies, so all you need to complete the meal is a simple arugula salad. I’ve kept out the tall tapered candles from my holiday table, and I like to light them when slurping this pasta. You know what else would be nice? A glass of this (nonalcoholic!) negroni to sip while stirring the sauce. Sesame scallion buns: It’s been so fun seeing how many readers are trying the savory buns I created this winter and reading about their fun adaptations. Honestly, when I develop a new recipe, I rarely return to it right away, having just tested it at least four or five times. But these? I baked them throughout the holidays and keep starting new batches. I sliced my latest spiral of dough into flatter rounds before baking so that I could use them to sandwich fried eggs and bacon. The baked buns also keep really well in the freezer, so you can eat a freshly baked one today and one that tastes just as nice any other time: Just thaw and heat them in a toaster oven or 350-degree oven until warm throughout. Balilah (warm chickpeas with lemon and olive oil): Chilly Sundays are for simmering, and making this lovely version of balilah from Noor Murad means you’ll have delicious chickpeas all week. A common dish in the Middle East, balilah combines very soft chickpeas with a lot of lemon juice and olive oil. Noor recommends soaking dried chickpeas overnight, but you can also start soaking in the morning and cook in the late afternoon. Or follow her tip for using canned chickpeas. I reheat leftovers in the microwave and give them another squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle of olive oil before eating so each bowl gets a flash more flavor. Chocolate chia pudding: This make-ahead pudding tastes just as satisfying for breakfast as it does as a midday snack or post-dinner treat. Naz Deravian offers a foolproof formula for a creamy pudding along with tips on how to achieve your ideal jiggle and sweetness. As for toppings, I think the dish is especially good when you combine crunchy toasted nuts with tangy fruit, like sweet wedges of Mandarin oranges. Thanks for reading!
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