Good morning! Today we have for you:
Our simplest, best kale salad
That’s Margaux Laskey on this five-star kale salad with over 9,000 reviews, a veritable New York Times Cooking classic. It’s part of our collection of staff favorite Thanksgiving recipes, a brilliant place to start if you’re drawing out your dinner plans and want dishes that are vouched for not only by readers, but also by editors and writers and reporters who are, by our own admission, very picky. (My submission is this Basque cheesecake from Marti Buckley and Tanya Sichynsky, the only cheesecake I make, because it’s very good and very easy.)
I should say, too, that Julia’s kale salad is the perfect “we need something green” dish for any meal, not just Turkey Day. The recipe needs just five ingredients (not including salt and optional Parm), one of which is a solid amount of lemon juice. That assertive acidity is as a refreshing counterpoint to whatever you might be serving: something roasted, a hearty stew, lasagna. And it keeps wonderfully: “This is my favorite salad! So flavorful and light,” writes Veronika, a reader. “I mince the garlic into the sauce which adds a great, more potent garlic flavor. Also, instead of keeping the sauce separate, I dress the entire salad and have leftovers the next day. I’ve found that it tastes even better the second day!” Featured Recipe Lemon-Garlic Kale SaladTurkey Day TrackerAn odd way to start a section with the words “turkey day” in it, but here goes: I don’t make a turkey for Thanksgiving. (I actually don’t do the traditional Thanksgiving menu at all.) Maybe you, like me, treat the holiday as an invitation to put together a feast of whatever your heart desires. In which case, this collection of 22 Thanksgiving mains that are better than turkey will be of particular interest. Roast chicken with maple butter and rosemary, anyone? And, hey, if you’re locked in on turkey for the big dinner, consider this your starting point for any other friendly and festive dinners you might have on your calendar.
Today’s specialsButter-basted chicken breasts: I’ve recently gotten into a habit of pairing super simple proteins with more involved (but still unfussy) sides. The mind positively whirls thinking of all the delicious carbs or vegetables you could pair with Ali Slagle’s bronzed chicken breasts: a rice pilaf, or a seasonal lentil salad, or snappy green beans, or … Mushy peas: Eric Kim’s adaptation of Ruby Tandoh’s recipe isn’t traditional. The original “mushy peas,” he writes, come from dried marrowfat peas, which are hard to come by outside of Britain. That’s why I feel fine to serve them with those chicken breasts above. The generous doses of fresh herbs and lemon here will serve as a nice counterpoint to the buttery chicken. Kelewele-spiced pork chops and pears: That being said, when I do want to make a special-feeling protein, something with fruit is a favorite trick up my sleeve. (I frequently trot out this sheet-pan chicken with grapes for friends.) In this beautiful dish, Yewande Komolafe uses kelewele, a popular Ghanaian salty-sweet spice mix, to season bone-in pork chops, pears and shallots. Orange and pomegranate juices added to the pan sauce keep things from veering too sweet. Serve this with mashed potatoes and let the raves roll in.
And before you goWith daylight-saving time having smacked me in the face, I’m seeking a little extra comfort on these dark evenings (or, more accurately, late afternoons). Yewande’s shai magnan (Sudanese burned milk tea) — a mix of molasses, cardamom, star anise, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and black tea leaves simmered and steeped in milk — is exactly the concoction I need to keep my seasonal affective disorder at bay. It often starts the day in Sudan, but it strikes me as a lovely way to end one, too.
Thanks for reading!
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