It’s no secret that BA editors cook a lot for work. So it should come as no surprise that we cook a lot during our off-hours too. Here are the recipes we’re whipping up this month to get dinner on the table, to entertain our friends, to satisfy a sweet tooth, to use up leftovers, and everything in between. For even more staff favorites, click here.
April 7
Nourishing berry smoothie
As if on cue, just when I was thinking I should try to eat more fruit, associate food editor Zaynab Issa developed this Get Up & Go Blueberry Date Cocoa Smoothie as part of her Sehri menu. It hits all the right notes. Dates (blended first so you don’t get bitsy, chewy pieces while you’re drinking) and two whole bananas make it so filling. Cocoa and coffee are flavors I wouldn’t think to pair with blueberries without Zaynab’s guidance. They give this just the right hit of roastiness that keeps it from veering into cloyingly sweet territory like so many fruit smoothies do. It’s become my morning go-to. —Antara Sinha, associate cooking editor
Crispy, frizzled chickpea bowls
I’ve met Ali Slagle exactly once, yet I have written about how much I adore her (and her very weeknight achievable recipes) on the internet so many times that it’s almost creepy. Here I go again with her Chile-Crisp Chickpea Rice Bowls recipe. Canned chickpeas are frizzled in a crunchy, vibrant slick of chili crisp for a few minutes until they absorb all of that salty-umami-spicy goodness. Then the chickpeas are piled on fluffy rice with a crunchy cucumber and tomato salad and—if you’re me—devoured so fast your mouth tingles. —Ali Francis, staff writer
Cheesy, crispy arancini
I already knew just from reading the recipe that these arancini would be a winner—how could you go wrong with fried cheese-stuffed rice balls? The only possible way to improve on this recipe, as I discovered last night, is to make the arancini with leftover Via Carota lemon risotto. The resulting fried rice balls are a study in contrasts: soft, creamy risotto meets stretchy, melty cheese and a crispy fried coating. Even after a plunge in hot oil, the lemon in the risotto shines through, leaving a lingering brightness. So here is your weekend plan: (1) Make this risotto al limone and (2) use the leftovers to make these arancini. —Zoe Denenberg, associate cooking & SEO editor
No-recipe crispy tuna patties
I added this adaptable formula to my weeknight dinner arsenal shortly after this story was published, and I haven’t looked back. These choose-your-own-adventure tuna patties call for canned tuna, eggs, panko, and little more—let your imagination and your condiment preferences carry the rest. I opted for Kewpie mayo, hot sauce, and a drizzle of soy sauce on the first go. I ate one hot off the presses for dinner and another one cold, stuffed into a Hawaiian roll the following day. On my second pass at these (they’re that good), I introduced furikake to the mix, just because. —Li Goldstein, digital production assistant
Nora Ephron’s bread pudding
I’m a pretty terrible baker, but it’s really hard to get bread pudding wrong: It’s a giant pile of bread, sugar, and butter. Or, as Nora Ephron writes in Heartburn, “caramelized mush.” I’ve been reading Heartburn for the first time, and after dinner last week, a friend and I decided to make the bread pudding in the book. We tossed together a dairy-and-sugar laden mixture, soaked chunks of old bread in the whole thing (the older the better), and added raisins. Then we poured everything into a casserole pan and baked it for a couple hours. It came out, as promised, like warm, moist, sweet-buttery mush. Super easy, super comforting for a chilly spring evening. —Karen Yuan, culture editor
