Good morning! Today we have for you:
I’m all spearsA cool spring in the Northeast led to a slow start to asparagus season. Even this far into May, the bunches are sparse at my local farmers’ market. I wrote about how to best take advantage of local asparagus in my column for New York Times Cooking. The answer? Turn it into lemon chicken with asparagus, a sheet-pan number that’s an utter breeze. There’s almost no chopping: just a few scallions to slice, some garlic to grate and the asparagus to snap (or you can trim them, but I love the succulent sound of snapping those spears). The vegetables are piled next to chicken pieces, and then everything is roasted until the chicken crisps and the asparagus stalks turn bright green and tender. To finish, I drizzle it all with a lemon-mustard dressing for brightness and zing. Add some buttered sourdough toast and you’ve got a satisfying meal for these still chilly nights. Featured Recipe Lemon Chicken With AsparagusMore food for thoughtBrothy spinach and peas pasta: Featuring two kinds of peas (green peas and black-eyed peas), Kay Chun’s light, vegetable-filled pasta is full of flavor and protein, vigor and vim. It’s soupy and slurpy in the best possible way. Honey sesame halloumi spinach salad: Seared halloumi vies with croutons as my favorite way to garnish a salad. Yasmin Fahr glazes the mild cheese with honey and sesame seeds to yield a caramelized crust, and then lays it on a bed of tahini-dressed greens. It’s delightful. Hoisin-peanut shrimp and slaw: Hoisin sauce does double duty in Ali Slagle’s speedy shrimp dinner, adding sweetness and umami to the glaze for the shrimp and the dressing for the cabbage and carrot slaw. The recipe makes a lot, but the leftovers are excellent repurposed for lunches all week long. Grilled asparagus with burrata and furikake: Also from Ali, here’s something else to do with your asparagus. After grilling the stalks, she strews bits of creamy burrata on top and sprinkles everything with furikake. I love this with flatbread or salad for a light dinner or hearty lunch. Baked oatmeal breakfast bars: Like a cross between a muffin and a granola bar, these cakelike gems from Samantha Seneviratne have a light, moist texture and a warm cinnamon scent. They are lovely served plain, or toasted and buttered, or dolloped with yogurt for breakfast or a midafternoon snack. Adding a handful of raisins or chocolate chips to the batter couldn’t hurt, either. And as always, if you need any technical help, the brilliant people at cookingcare@nytimes.com are there for you. And I’m at hellomelissa@nytimes.com if you want to say hi. That’s all for now — see you on Wednesday. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
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