Welcome to our very first Sifted Specials Board. We started Sifted to take the guesswork out of the dreaded question, ‘What’s for dinner?’ With that in mind, the Sifted Specials Board was born to cut out futile searching, pinning and scrolling by putting five tried-and-true recipes for the upcoming week’s weather, mood, and produce du jour right in front of your face each week. If you’re a subscriber, these will land in your inbox every Monday. If you’re not, enjoy a taste of it today — if you like it, consider subscribing:
MONDAY: White Beans with Herb Oil
If I had zero time to grocery shop over the weekend, Monday night I’m digging into mu pantry for some latent legumes. I love this Colu Henry recipe because it’s the perfect vehicle to clear out my crisper drawer of all the wilting, half-dead herbs leftover from my last shop. Chuck them all into my mini food processor along with some olive oil and whir it up. I love the half-mashed half-whole approach to white beans, allowing their inner creaminess to shine. I’ll dish up a bowl of this alongside a piece of thick cut sourdough, pan-toasted in some good butter and rubbed with raw garlic. My kind of weeknight meal.
TUESDAY: Miso Maple Tahini Harvest Bowl
This newsletter famously hates sw**tgr**n, though we can’t deny how decadent-yet-wholesome a bowl of kale, chicken, goat cheese, roasted almonds, rice and roasted sweet potato (a combo you might know as the “harvest bowl”) tastes. This version gives that bowl’s balsamic dressing a serious upgrade with the creamy, nutty addition of tahini, some salty funk from a spoonful of miso and a glug of sweet maple syrup. Besides that nonnegotiable, the recipe is pretty malleable — I’ll definitely be shredding the rotisserie chicken in my fridge to use in place of the marinated tempeh, another thing I famously hate.
WEDNESDAY: Perfect Roasted Cauliflower
Food writer (and Sifted’s inaugural guest editor!!!) Rebecca Firsker has many, many yummy recipes over on Food52. I adore her vinegary sweet-and-sticky-and-sour chicken thighs, but am finding myself eating less meat as I attempt to capitalize on the last few months of seasonal produce here on the East Coast. That’s why I’m making her roasted cauliflower, with its crispy edges and vinegary golden raisins, over and over. Very ~agrodolce~, very yummy. I’m working with what I have so I’ll sub in currants, the gorgeous sprouting ‘baby’ cauliflower I found at the greenmarket (or at Trader Joes lol), and sherry vinegar. While I will never condone calling vegetables ‘steak’, a few long stalks of this cauliflower hold their own at lunch when paired with some farro or rice, or alongside a simply sautéed piece of fish for dinner.
THURSDAY: Not Quite Emily Mariko’s Rice Bowl
The ASMR heard round the world. The hottest ice cube on the Internet. Rice with seaweed and spicy salmon for dinner? Groundbreaking. All jokes aside, a version of her rice bowl has been my go-to meal for the past few years on nights when I don’t feel like cooking, don’t have a lot in the fridge, or am craving sushi but can’t justify spending more on delivery fees than the actual California roll. A batch of rice with sugar, salt, and rice vinegar plus julienned cucumber, avocado, and any leftover protein I have in my fridge create the base. I love using wasabi-flavored seaweed for a little more flavor, then adding, drizzling, and dipping in whatever in the fridge door happens to inspire me: chile crisp, pickled ginger, spicy mayo, miso-ginger dressing. It’s delicious, cheap, and tastes chirashi-adjacent.
In my humble opinion, Emily’s need a little more umph, but I am (clearly) more of a maximalist than she. What’s your take on the Emily Mariko bowl? We, along with every social media manager everywhere, are dying to know.
THE WEEKEND: Apple Crumb Cake
I came home this weekend to a table full of crunchy red apples, just-picked by my roommate. I took two huge ones straight to the kitchen to cut (into tiny cubes because I was in a rush and didn’t read the directions) and toss (in sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice) before topping a thick, vanilla batter with them and covering all of that with big, sugary crumbs of streusel. Apple pie-y enough to eat warm with vanilla ice cream as dessert, and crumb cake-y enough to call breakfast the next morning. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: thank you, Deb!