Three Things

Dinner salads for summer, tips for cooking more vegetarian family meals, and some great news for farm share people

DALS kitchen ca. 2012

Greetings eaters and readers! It’s hard to believe I’m even writing this, but Dinner: A Love Story, the book that made me a book mom, was published exactly ten years ago this week. Where do I even begin with how much has happened since? Well for starters…

DALS kitchen ca. 2022

1. …The kitchen is a little different now.

The cabinet doors have been re-surfaced. There’s an additional Boston Terrier begging for dinner table scraps. There’s no longer an unholy amount of once-exotic quinoa in the pantry. The daily commute to and from NYC that dominated so much of my early parenting life, and therefore this book, seems like something out of a dusty history textbook, as do all the references to iCarly, Pretty Pretty Princess and, uh, print magazines. That girl reading Hugo Cabret in the 2012 photo is now a junior in college commuting to the city herself for a summer job (in the 2022 photo she’s holding her latest obsession Wendy); and my “little” one sitting on the counter is currently on track to triple major in political science, history, and cacio e pepe. But if I can stop weeping long enough to articulate this next thought, what I found really remarkable is the recipe collection itself. I mean sure, I still make a lot of the dishes in there (shout-out pork ragu, yogurt-marinated chicken, spicy shrimp with yogurt, grilled fish tacos with pineapple, and campfire potatoes which just graced my Weber last night!) but I don’t think 2012 Jenny would have ever believed 2022 Jenny if she saw a copy of The Weekday Vegetarians, and learned that meat was now more of a treat in her house than a default. Actually, if you told me this even a few years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you’re here reading my newsletter, I’m guessing you’re onboard with this next chapter of my love story, but if you’re new here, or here mostly for the chicken, or you’re still wary of the whole weekday vegetarian operation, I thought you’d appreciate a few tips I’ve collected through the years to help steer the family dinner table in a more plant based direction. The key is to start gradually. It’s not as hard as you might think.

Cheesy Baked Beans from The Weekday Vegetarians

As long as we’re on the subject…

Recommended reading: You Want to Buy Meat? In This Economy?
Recommended listening: How I Built This Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck, co-founders of the company Wildtype, discuss the dangers of modern seafood production, and how they are cultivating salmon from stem cells for human consumption without harming any fish; Food With Mark Bittman: There is No Meat in this Episode, featuring the Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown, and Francis Moore Lappe, who was 50 years ahead of everyone (or, well, me) when she wrote her vegetarian manifesto Diet for a Small Planet in 1971.

Happy double-digits Dinner: A Love Story!

2. A Side That Can Also Be a Main

I’m always on the lookout for the kind of vegetarian salad that has that certain “can-hold-its-own” quality as a main dish. It’s a murky, personal calculus to be sure, because this salad above — arugula, grilled halloumi, and nectarines — absolutely makes the cut in my house, while a green salad with tomatoes and feta would not, even though, on paper they look fairly similar. Why is this? I think it has something to do with the fact that I used halloumi here, a salty, firm-enough-to grill cheese, that is not as routinely thrown into my Trader Joe’s shopping cart the way my container of crumbled feta is. Halloumi feels once-in-a-while special, and also like it might scrap its way to victory against, say, a chicken drumstick if it had to. But you could totally serve this salad as part of a dinner party spread with Picnic Chicken, and assume any vegetarian guest would be satisfied. I made it over the weekend (just for my family) and served it with grilled bread — olive-oil brushed bread, toasted on the grill for a minute a side. Definitely easy enough for a weeknight.

Arugula Salad with Grilled Halloumi and Peaches
Two things: I did not have mint which is why you don’t see it in the photo. I was really missing that herby hit, though, so please try to include! Next, if you are religious about protein in a salad, a handful of roasted or slivered almonds would check that box very nicely.

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for brushing
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
12 ounces halloumi, halved horizontally and sliced into blocks as shown (about 3-by-1 1/2-inches each, but just eyeball it)
1 teaspoon Dijon
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons minced red onion
3 nectarines or peaches, tossed in about 1 tablespoon oil
¼ cup fresh mint, chopped finely
4 ounces arugula (6-8 cups)

Whisk together pomegranate molasses (if using), olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside. Place halloumi on a plate, brush with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Make dressing: Whisk together the Dijon, balsamic, onion, olive oil, salt and pepper until combined. Set aside.

Grill Prepare your grill. Add peaches or nectarines to a grill basket and place over medium-hot coals, tossing until they are slightly wilted and charred. Push to the side of the grill so they are not over direct heat. (Or just remove the basket altogether.) Place the cheese blocks on the grill, turning each after a minute or so, then brushing with pomegranate glaze, continuing to turn, for a total cooking time of about 3 minutes. Remove to a plate after they have attained grill marks and a glistening shellac-y glaze. (If you have omitted the pomegranate molasses, it will be a little lighter.)

Assemble: Toss the arugula with dressing, then add peaches (or nectarines) and cheese to the arugula. Garnish with mint and serve.

P.S. It’s Salad for Dinner Season!

3. Are you in a Farm Share?

If so, I have great news for you. Ali Stafford of Alexandra Cooks has just started a substack, The Farm Share Newsletter, devoted to that CSA box of deliciously dirty produce that, let’s be honest, can sometimes be a little head-scratching. (Raise your hand if you have already spent way too many minutes of your life googling “what to do with kohlrabi?”) Those of you who are familiar with Ali know that her food is all the things food should be, i.e. simple, fresh, unpretentious. And her recipes are unbelievably well organized and un-intimidating — last year, she even got yeast-phobic me to bake a loaf of peasant bread. (Less well-known about Ali is that she was a D1 college center midfielder which warms this soccer mom’s heart.) Each week, Ali’s Farm Share Newsletter aims to give you ideas for what to do with the produce that is most likely to be in your box; I loved Week One’s, where she listed three go-to salad dressings, including the lemon vinaigrette shown above that she recommends using with tender lettuces and arugula. Sign up now to ensure you make the most of the season.

Have a good week!

Jenny

P.S. Congrats…

…to all the James Beard Award winners, especially this one which reminds me: I need to make that stew again asap!

Photo credits: Family Kitchen 2012, Jennifer Causey; Family Kitchen 2022 Cyrus Perkinson; Cheesy Beans, Christine Han; Salad Dressing, Alexandra Stafford.