Palak Paneer and More Recipes We Made This Week

The Bon Appétit Staff
·15 min read

All products featured on Bon Appétit are independently selected by Bon Appétit editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission.

Photograph by Doan Ly, Food Styling by Pearl Jones, Prop Styling by Christina Allen

It’s no secret that Bon Appétit 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, entertain our friends, satisfy a sweet tooth, use up leftovers, and everything in between. For even more staff favorites, click here.

September 27

Comforting mac and cheese

After a particularly trying work day, my partner was in need of comfort. Out went the shaved cauliflower and pear salad I had on the roster, in swooped Molly Baz’s Adult Mac and Cheese, which she makes entirely with Parmesan. I opted for a mix of cheddar and parm. It’s seasoned with a heap of black pepper, which is bloomed in butter; I tossed in diced hot dogs at this point too. Finished with peas, because health, the pasta soothed my love, filled our bellies, and made our dog ravenously jealous. —Joe Sevier, senior SEO editor

Adult Mac and Cheese

Molly Baz

Seasonal snack cake

Some recipes can’t be rushed; you can only make them when the time is right with seasonal ingredients. Such was the case with this Italian Plum and Almond Cake. I’ve had my eye on it for a while (nine months to be exact), but needed to wait until Italian plums popped up at my farmers market. And surely enough, they arrived. I eagerly loaded up a bag and brought my haul home to make what I knew would be the perfect snack cake. Could I have found a workaround by swapping in another fruit, like peaches or cherries, in place of the plums? Absolutely. But there’s something nice about the reminder to be patient, especially when you’re rewarded with a heavenly slice. —Carly Westerfield, associate manager, audience strategy

Italian Plum and Almond Cake

Rick Martinez

Birthday oysters

I celebrated my birthday over the weekend, so I was off kitchen duty and my husband, a wonderful cook in his own right, offered to cook. I was a little worried: He has a penchant for going too far with “special dinners.” One time, after I returned from a work trip, I walked in on him cooking a seven-course seafood feast from food writer Richard Olney’s seminal classic, Simple French Food, which if you ask me, is anything but “simple.” My only request was that he didn’t go overboard. He obliged, starting dinner with broiler-popped oysters from Sohla El-Waylly’s recent book, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook. Shucking oysters can be a chore, but the genius of this recipe is that, under the heat of a broiler, they open up with ease. Topped with a simple compound butter of tomato paste, garlic, and herbs and browned until golden, they’re an impressive appetizer that feel fancier than they are. He followed up with pasta, then ignored my initial request completely and surprised me with a three-layer peach Chantilly cake. Happy birthday, indeed. —Joseph Hernandez, associate director of drinks

Palak paneer

This Palak Paneer, developed by associate director of social media Urmila Ramakrishnan, was featured in September’s romance-themed issue. So naturally, I made this for date night. I fried cubes of milky paneer in ghee, sizzled cumin seeds until they popped, and tossed dried cayenne peppers into my Dutch oven. The bag of frozen spinach I had tucked away in my freezer was transformed into a smooth green sauce with the help of boiling water, butter, and cream. My boyfriend and I scooped up the palak paneer with doughy, garlic-studded naan—the best utensil. —Nina Moskowitz, editorial assistant

Palak Paneer

Urmila Ramakrishnan

Pasta alla vodka

Though I had ventured to Mitsuwa market for Japanese staples—like udon, nori, and bonito flakes—along the way I stumbled upon a box of tennis-racket-shaped pasta. By this point my cart was overflowing, but how am I supposed to resist something like that? I’m only human. I saw Challengers. And I consider it a beacon of self-control that I bought only one. At home, the destiny was obvious: vodka sauce. This reader-favorite recipe is my go-to for “fun” noodle shapes. It’s creamy, cozy, almost childlike, with enough booze to remind you that you’re an adult. For the rest of the box, I have my eyes on this spicy pumpkin sauce. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking

Pasta Alla Vodka

Claire Saffitz

September 20

The perfect espresso cocktail

One of my summer projects was learning to make the perfect cup of espresso and, more importantly, the perfect espresso cocktail. While I’m not above ordering an espresso martini at a bar, I find them a bit finicky to make at home. Enter the carajillo. This cocktail features two ingredients: freshly brewed espresso (or other strong coffee made from an Aeropress or Moka Pot) and Licor 43, a citrusy Spanish liqueur. I combined them both in a cocktail shaker with ice, mixed thoroughly, and was left with a punchy drink reminiscent of lemony Roman coffee. —Alma Avalle, editorial operations associate

All products featured on Bon Appétit are independently selected by Bon Appétit editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission.

The 2-Ingredient Carajillo Puts Espresso Martinis to Shame

This Mexican coffee cocktail is your pick-me-up on a lazy summer afternoon.

Chard and white bean stew

I’ve been making this Chard and White Bean Stew from Deb Perelman, the creator of Smitten Kitchen, for years now. And honestly, I only looked up the recipe to share it here (it comes together by muscle memory at this point). It’s kind of a magic dish, tasting bright and tomatoey in early fall, but still cozy and nourishing by the time winter really hits. Plus, it’s easily adaptable to the ingredients you’ve got on hand. This week I used a mix of spinach and rainbow chard, one can of cranberry beans and one can of garbanzos, and several extra tomatoes. Each bowlful had the same savory depth and toothsome bite as always. The unskippable step here is a final drizzle of vinegar. It adds a welcome dose of fresh flavor to the starchy stew. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor

Doctored-up banana bread

To know a recipe well means you also know when and how to bend the rules. For me, that recipe is BA’s Best Banana Bread. I experimented with a combination of hazelnut, millet, and all-purpose flours. And to up the ante with warming flavors, I sprinkled in five-spice powder, ground and candied ginger, plus a handful of walnuts. Don’t get me wrong, the OG recipe is very, very good (and you should always follow recipe instructions), but I’ll be coming back to this version soon. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

BA’s Best Banana Bread

Dawn Perry

Vacation salad

Perhaps an unconventional fixation, but I’ve been thinking about kale and carrot salad ever since I ate it on vacation. There were very few ingredients, so I thought it would be easy enough to make at home. I shaved carrots into ribbons, chopped up a bunch of kale, and tossed it in this good-on-anything miso-sesame vinaigrette. Dressing the salad in advance meant the kale could get tender while I sat at my desk waiting for the clock to strike an appropriate time to call lunch. —Phoebe Feinberg, associate talent manager

One-pot salmon and rice

Deputy food editor Hana Asbrink’s One-Pot Salmon and Shiitake Rice has become a near-weekly staple in my house since I had the pleasure of cross-testing it for the August issue. Flaky fish and tender rice are bulked up with nutty quinoa, and a soy-sesame dressing gets poured on top. These are the flavors and textures I crave, especially when I want a wholesome-feeling meal. But the real reason I keep coming back to this recipe is because of the technique Hana employs. Everything cooks together in one small pot (I use my three-quart lidded saucepan), with mushrooms and fish steaming atop the mixed rice. A fast track to buttery salmon at home, without sending fishy spatters all over my stove and kitchen walls? Sign me up, again and again. —Kendra Vaculin, test kitchen editor

One-Pot Salmon and Shiitake Rice

Hana Asbrink

September 13

Chili crisp sprinkle

There is no vegetable I get more fired up about at farmers markets than snap beans: Romano beans, wax beans, haricots verts. They have the kind of freshness that means they practically shatter when you snap them, as opposed to the bendy, weedy-looking ones in the supermarket year-round. These are the beans I love to simply blanch to temper their raw bite and pile on top of a densely flavorful dressing like tahini mayo or tahini ranch (which I made last weekend). As a final flourish, I have been dusting them with a liberal shake of Chili Crisp Sprinkle, a spice blend I developed in collaboration with Burlap and Barrel. It combines familiar elements from some of our favorite chili crisps, like warming chile flakes, a touch of smoked anise, and pungent fried shallots. I call it flavor fairy dust, ideal for pretty much any place you want an extra pop of liveliness. —Chris Morocco, food director

Chili Crisp Sprinkle

$12.00, Burlap and Barrel

Stone fruit caramel

I had people over for dinner on Monday and went all out with the savory food (even made fresh pasta, which I never do), so I wanted to keep dessert easy. I sent my husband out for a pint of vanilla ice cream and turned the three ripe black plums on my countertop into Stone Fruit Caramel—a juicy, fruity sauce that feels so much more complex than it is thanks to the addition of vinegar. I used a fun-flavored one to punch up the base and double down on the produce angle. I’m already scheming about how to make this format work with fall fruit. —Kendra Vaculin, test kitchen editor

Stone Fruit Caramel

Sarah Jampel

One-pot pasta

When my partner said he wanted to make pasta for a week’s worth of lunches, I sent him this gallery of one-dish pasta recipes, not expecting him to pick this one-pot number. Is it quick and easy? Yes. Delicious? Absolutely. A reheatable wonder? Not its strong suit. To compensate, I had him swap in short pasta for the spaghetti, which is less prone to clumping (rotini did the trick). We also threw in a handful of shredded rotisserie chicken (without it, I knew he’d come home hangry). I told him to slice the lemon and pack a wedge with each portion and break out the chili crisp when he was ready to eat—a little zhuzh can make anything taste fresh. —Joe Sevier, senior SEO editor

Focaccia for family

With family coming to town for the weekend, I wanted to have something special, impressive, and most importantly, complete before their arrival. I decided to make Claire Saffitz’s Classic Focaccia Bread. The recipe explained that the dough would initially look more like batter—and sure enough, when I left it to rest and do its bready magic, large air pockets bubbled up, signaling the yeast was alive and well. The focaccia turned out bouncy, chewy, and tangy—thanks to the overnight rest in the fridge. When my family came, we ate torn chunks of the bread with cheese and caponata, and there was even enough yield for sandwiches the next day. —Mallary Santucci, culinary producer

Classic Focaccia Bread

Claire Saffitz

Basil fried rice

One of the many upsides to indulging in rice every chance you get is there’s a good chance (most times) there’ll be some leftover. This week I found myself with a quart of two-day-old white rice, a shriveling red chile pepper, and some scallions on their way out. On my way home from work, I grabbed a bouquet of fresh basil and knew exactly what to make: Basil Fried Rice. In 20 minutes, my dried-up rice transformed into a crispy, herbaceous weeknight meal. —Inés Anguiano, associate test kitchen manager

Basil Fried Rice

Kendra Vaculin

September 5

Gluten-free brownies

I am impressed by anyone who manages to cook dinner and make dessert for the same meal, and frankly, I do everything I can not to. If you are coming over, chances are I am serving dinner, with dessert little more than culinary sleight of hand: some fruit with whipped cream, or ice cream with a 2-minute hot fudge that distracts you from the fact that I barely tried. (I am convinced that s’mores were invented by a tired parent just trying to get their kids out of the house even if it meant letting them play with fire.) There is one dessert, though, that represents an ideal balance of effort and reward, even if you are throwing it together at the last minute. Tahini Brownies check virtually every box: fudgy, rich, gluten-free, and swirled with nutty tahini for extra complexity. They are fully makeable in about an hour (and they go great with ice cream and hot fudge as well). Then again, if you are coming over and want to bring dessert, I won’t stop you. Especially if you feel like making some brownies. —Chris Morocco, food director

Gluten-Free Chocolate-Tahini Brownies

Chris Morocco

Late-summer eggplant

I’m already cozying up to autumn in my mind. I’m ready for light jackets, real shoes, and hot coffee, but the market keeps reminding me that it’s definitely still summer. On the bright side, that means there’s still plenty of time to make test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin’s Japanese Eggplant With Cashews and Chiles before the seasons change. I picked some gorgeous long and narrow eggplants. After a quick high-heat roast, their deep purple paper-thin skin easily gave way to an ultra-creamy interior, with barely any seeds inside. As luscious as they were, the topping is the real star here: crispy garlic oil (made with 10 cloves!), lots of buttery cashews, a couple of Fresnos for heat, and a splash of vinegar to wake everything up. I doubled the batch and covered most of my meals with it all weekend long. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor

Japanese Eggplant With Cashews and Chiles

Kendra Vaculin

Ina’s hot-smoked salmon

It’s not summer in my family until we’ve made cedar-plank salmon on the grill and naturally, we decided to wait until Labor Day weekend to finally make it. We’ve followed this hot-smoked salmon recipe from Ina Garten for as long as I can remember. It’s a very simple rub of granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, peppercorns, and lemon zest—and while it’s best slathered on the night before, the morning of shall suffice for last-minute preppers. Instead of grilling over smoked wood chips like Ina suggests, we adapt this recipe to grill it on cedar planks. The result is smoky, tender salmon that screams summer. It’s equally good the next day, but leftovers didn’t stand a chance this time around.—Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager

Marinated beans for lunch

When I had no idea what to make for lunch this week, contributing editor Amiel Stanek’s Marinated Mixed Beans came to my rescue. It’s a back-pocket dish, beloved among our staff, that feels bright and nourishing, even though it leans on a couple of cans that have probably been stashed in your pantry for months. I used all chickpeas (what was in my cabinet), with dill and parsley as my herbs of choice. I spooned the beans over juicy tomatoes—highly recommend while it’s still summer—and used a pizza crust to sop up every last drop of dressing. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking

Marinated Mixed Beans

Amiel Stanek

Back-to-school banana bread

With one last day before the start of the school year, the kids and I decamped to the kitchen to make use of four bananas in need of TLC. BA’s Best Banana Bread became a go-to during the pandemic to not just use those past-their-prime bananas, but involve the kids in the kitchen and keep them entertained. Hibernating meant making use of what was there. If not enough brown sugar, sub a little molasses. No walnuts? Try pistachios (my go-to nut). This time we actually had everything on the ingredient list. The eight-year-old owned measuring the dry ingredients. A week of cooking camp this summer has boosted her kitchen confidence. The five-year-old helped with the mixer. For both, dumping measured ingredients brought them great joy, and they teamed up to mash the bananas. A speedy exercise it was not. To their discontent, the bread wasn’t ready until after bedtime. But a slice for breakfast was a great propeller to quickly get ready for school. —Pervaiz Shallwani, associate director of dining and food culture

BA’s Best Banana Bread

Dawn Perry

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit

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