If you’re reading this, I’m en route to the airport and leaving you in the capable, kale-massaging hands of my colleague Becky Hughes next week. But before I go, I wanted to tackle a few of your hyper-specific recipe requests, lightly edited for length. Could this really be the first Recipe Matchmaker of the year? Forgive me.
And in case you missed it: You can now preorder my new cookbook “Veg Everything,” out Sept. 15! You’ll get 100 of your favorite vegetarian New York Times Cooking recipes (51 of which are vegan) to have and to hold. A perfect match.
Summer baby supremacy
“Friends and other first-time parents have given us the sound advice to meal prep before the big day, leaning on freezable foods as much as possible. In the winter we love to freeze soups or a veggie Bolognese. The only problem is my wife is due in June. Look, we’ll take what we can get those first few weeks, but the idea of living on soups and lasagnas in NYC July is throwing us for a loop.” — Aidan
Congratulations! For the hot times ahead, stock the freezer with meal components that can come together in fresh and inventive ways, rather than casseroles that must be baked. A double batch of Jenné Claiborne’s crispy tofu nuggets can be prepared in an air fryer or a conventional oven, frozen and then reheated without thawing.
Eat them with ketchup or honey mustard, or toss them with buffalo sauce and throw them onto a simple salad with ranch or blue cheese. You can also tuck them into wraps with fresh crunchy vegetables and either hoisin or peanut sauce (or, hell, both!), at the recommendation of a couple of readers in the comments. (The nuggets can be frozen for up to three months.)
Prep not only dinners but also breakfasts and snacks, like Naz Deravian’s make-ahead egg, spinach and feta wraps (good in the freezer for three months) and a stash of Zaynab Issa’s sweet and salty frozen grapes to break into on especially hot days. If you’re feeling spontaneous, you might even try a batch with citric acid (which you can buy online or at specialty stores) for more of a Sour Patch Kids feel. (They’ll keep in the freezer for six weeks.)
Grill sergeant
“Summer is coming and we love to grill almost anything outdoors for dinner. But I have a hard time finding anything else but tofu and halloumi cheese to anchor vegetarian main dish grilling. Can you give us some suggestions?” — Laurie
I don’t mean for this to sound obvious, but I want you to grill every vegetable in sight. Pairing smoky, in-season vegetables with a quick-cooking bean will make for a filling centerpiece, as I understand that the concern here might be protein. Think Hetty Lui McKinnon’s grilled eggplant, herby lentils and turmeric tahini. Prep the sauce and the lentils before you head out to the backyard or patio, then assemble this earthy salad when you’re ready to eat.
Ali Slagle employs the same strategy in her barbecue vegetable salad. A can of drained and rinsed white beans adds heft to a colorful assortment of zucchini, eggplant, peppers, carrots, scallions — really, whatever you like to grill — and peaches. Don’t skip the peaches.
And if you are open to cheese of the nongrilling variety, I think you should make Ali’s grilled corn panzanella, which features a little bit of creamy mozzarella.
Party full
“I love hosting people for dinner, but I have a hard time coming up with main courses that have sufficient protein to satisfy my meat-eating friends while still feeling a little fancy. I like the idea of a dinner of steak and potatoes or an herby roast chicken, but I don’t feel like tofu is always a satisfying alternative to those more classic/simple meals since it’s such a blank canvas on its own. I’ve done some classy vegetable pasta mains (think sun-dried tomato or zucchini and lemon), but I’m in need of new ideas!” — Jelena
LENTILS! The idea you seek is a lentil. That Hetty recipe above isn’t a bad place to start, but let me point you in a few other directions for every season of entertaining. Make your friends Ali’s lentil soup potpie in the winter. Forget the taper candles and bubbly wine. Nothing says “I like hosting and I’m good at it” like puff pastry.
