Gochujang Sloppy Joes and More Recipes We Made This Week

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 Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Judy Kim, Prop Styling by Nicole Louie

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.

January 31

A citrusy sheet-pan dinner

In the mood for something warming and easy, I flipped through Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine’s Hot Sheet the other night and landed on a recipe for roasted cabbage with sausages and orange. Since I had no cabbage in the house, I grabbed two small heads of broccoli from the crisper, plus a bag of frozen cauliflower florets and got to work. The sausage is squeezed from its casing and dolloped onto the sheet tray, along with slivers of red onion. Then everything is doused in olive oil and tossed with big pieces of orange peel. After 40 minutes, the sheet-pan dinner emerges from the oven, wafting of winter citrus and caramelized veg. The recipe doesn’t suggest it, but I squeezed the juice of half the orange over the tray. The other half? I ate it while I waited. —Joe Sevier, senior SEO editor, cooking

Cake that doesn’t dry out

Recently, I threw a birthday party for my partner and was in charge of making the cake. I wanted to make something that could be baked ahead of time and not dry out. The answer: my chocolate olive oil cake from our BA Bake Club. Because the cake is made with oil, not butter, I knew it would hold up beautifully. Two days before the big day, I made the batter, doubling the recipe and baking it in a 13x9" pan. Because of its size, I let it bake for just a few more minutes than the original recipe. After it cooled, I wrapped it in plastic wrap to seal in the moisture. Once the big day rolled around, I topped the cake with big shards of dark chocolate, showered the whole thing in sea salt, and stuck a giant candle right in the middle. Everyone, including the birthday boy, loved it. And despite making it in advance, the plush cake stood up the test of time. —Jesse Szewczyk, senior test kitchen editor

Chocolate–Olive Oil Cake

Silky-savory greens

I almost mistakenly halved these 15-minute braised collards from test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin. Her method calls for two bunches—which, from afar, sounded like too much for two people, who were also eating rice and beans and cornbread. But we almost finished the entire skillet, with only a few silky-savory greens left. They’re as satisfying as they are quick, with no meat needed for hearty flavor. Instead of water, I used the not-chicken flavor from Better Than Bouillon (a BA staff obsession) and decreased the salt to taste. Such a comforting side dish for winter. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking

Schmaltz-coated squash

I left work last week with a bounty of already-cut kabocha squash thanks to commerce writer Alaina Chou’s quest to find the best chef’s knives. That meant squash with dinner for a few nights and my favorite of the bunch was this Roasted Chicken Thighs With Winter Squash. The squash gets tossed with a maple-butter glaze, slices of lemon, and sage and then is roasted on the same sheet pan as the chicken. As they cook together, the savory schmaltz coats the squash, creating a beautiful depth of flavor. The dish successfully lifted my spirits on a dreary winter night. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager

Grown-up sloppy joes

In search of comfort food, I turned to a favorite of mine: deputy food editor Hana Asbrink’s Gochujang Sloppy Joes. They’re a slightly grown-up version of the delightfully messy sandwiches I remember my mom making when I was a kid, but just as easy to prepare. The sauce is a mix of some powerhouse condiments I always keep on hand: gochujang, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and yellow mustard. Each one is pretty potent on its own, but together they form a thick, jammy sauce that’s smoky, sweet, and Goldilocks-level spicy. I must admit I used crumbled tempeh instead of beef, and it worked great (I just added a bit more vegetable oil to cook the aromatics). I also couldn’t resist cutting rounds out of sliced bread with an overturned glass instead of using potato buns. The thin circles of bread didn’t stand a chance against the sloppy sauce, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor

Gochujang Sloppy Joes

January 24

Humble celery soup

A head of celery, an onion, a potato—that’s the bulk of this humble soup. I stumbled upon it in our Epicurious app and couldn’t stop thinking about it. I adjusted the ratio to be less creamy, more vegetal, by halving the butter and cream quantities. The soup was still plenty rich. It’s a comforting jolt of green for the winter, perfect to accompany a salad or bread, or my preference, both. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking

Baked sweet potato chaat

This week I fell in love with a sweet potato. On a whim, when I realized I had all the ingredients on hand, I made food editor Kendra Vaculin’s Baked Sweet Potato Chaat for dinner. I expected big flavor, and these spuds delivered. There’s a lot going on, but every element fits into the puzzle to make a balanced and complex dish. My favorite part is the green sauce made with a bunch of cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice, and garlic. I’ll be making this sauce again and again to spoon over rice, nachos, and other roasted veggies in need of an injection of bold flavor. —Carly Westerfield, associate manager of audience strategy

Baked Sweet Potato Chaat

Mexican hot chocolate cookies

A bitter cold snap meant it was time to use my oven to make a treat (and to help my ancient radiator heat my apartment). So I flipped through my stack of cookbooks and couldn’t resist the Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies from writer Kiera Wright-Ruiz’s upcoming My (Half) Latinx Kitchen (out February 11, 2025). They’ve got a brown butter base, cocoa powder and chopped dark chocolate, and a heavy dose of both cinnamon and nutmeg. The dough comes together quickly in a stand mixer and chills for only 30 minutes, the perfect amount of time to preheat my oven and line some baking sheets with parchment paper. As the cookies baked, my apartment filled with the most comforting aroma. Each cookie was rich, nutty, and just the right amount of sweet. And what’s a cookie without milk? Honestly, still pretty good, but I couldn’t pass up Wright-Ruiz’s recipe for horchata. The creamy drink was the perfect complement to my ooey-gooey dessert. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor

Salmon without the splatters

It’s easy to see why this salmon rice bowl is part of the 2025 edition of The Bon Appétit 56. It was a reader favorite as soon as it published—not just a delicious weeknight recipe, but a lesson in how to cook fish as efficiently as possible. Instead of searing fillets in a skillet (and all the spatters that come with it), test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin has you chop the salmon into cubes, toss those with a squirt of mayo, and cook on a sheet pan under the broiler. Within 10 minutes—while you’re wrapping up the rest of the recipe or catching up on dishes—the skin becomes crisp while the fish stays juicy. I’m not sure I’ll ever cook salmon another way on a busy night. —E.L.

Spicy Salmon Roll Bowl

January 17

Birthday cake upon request

I made the mistake of asking my son what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He was about to turn 12, with what proved to be alarmingly specific ideas that went way beyond a binary decision between chocolate and vanilla. His vision: a reverse chocolate Swiss roll. In other words, a rolled vanilla cake with a chocolate mousse filling, which he went on to state should also have a thin coating of bittersweet ganache. My colleague Kendra Vaculin mentioned she has adapted the chiffon cake base from Shilpa Uskokovic’s raspberry cream cake to use in rolled desserts, and it proved to be just the bendable yet tender base I needed. I also used Shilpa’s instant vanilla pudding mix trick from her Chocolate Swiss Roll, incorporating some cocoa powder (turned into a paste with hot water) alongside the pudding mix to turn the whipped cream filling into a rich mocha brown. The final touch was a drizzle of ganache across the top. While on paper it was a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster of recipes and ideas, it tasted like it had just stepped out of a kid’s dessert dreams. —Chris Morocco, food director

Raspberry Cake With Whipped Cream Filling

Shortcut arroz caldo

’Tis the season for arroz caldo. This recipe makes a stellar version from scratch, but this week I cheated, using some leftover rice and the second half of a rotisserie chicken. I boiled the bones for about two hours with white and black peppercorns and star anise, plus a bit of celery, onion, and carrot. (I guess making my own stock isn’t really cheating, but I magically had all the stuff and the time. (Boxed stock works too.) After straining, I sautéed aromatics in the same pot, added the rice, some fish sauce and soy sauce, and mixed in the stock bit by bit until it reached a porridge consistency. In went the shredded meat and dinner was ready. Toppings really up the ante, but I only had limes, hot sauce, and canned fried onions on hand. Truly one of the world’s most satisfying foods. —Joe Sevier, senior SEO editor, cooking

Smarter meal planning

I don’t do resolutions, per se. Like so many people, I’d prefer to think I’m always on the road to self-improvement. That said, this year I’m making an effort to meal-plan a little smarter. Instead of depending on sad leftovers, I’m cooking recipes specifically with my workday in mind—including breakfast, an often overlooked part of my day. I remembered listening to an episode of our podcast, Dinner SOS, and hearing food director Chris Morocco wax poetic about Zaynab Issa’s Make-Ahead Breakfast Sandwiches. Convinced these were the things I needed to get my day started on the right foot, I made a batch and have been snagging them from the freezer to reheat in the microwave for about a week now. These sandwiches reheat like a dream and give bodega BEC vibes, without the increasingly pricey markup. —Carly Westerfield, associate manager of audience strategy

Make-Ahead Breakfast Sandwiches

A carrot redemption story

No vegetable to me seems as listless as a carrot, omnipresent in every grocery store but incapable of rousing any real desire. Faced with a big bag of them, I searched for inspiration among my rows of cookbooks. None of the first eight books I flipped through highlighted carrots in a lead role, reinforcing my belief that these orange cones are silly. I gave up, googled “carrot soup,” and found myself at this Cook’s Illustrated recipe. I had to read the recipe twice to make sure I wasn’t imagining the lack of aromatics. No shallots, no ginger, not a whisper of garlic. Just carrots cooked down with butter, sugar, thyme, and broth. How bold. I proceeded to make it and, when we sat down to eat, my husband said, and I quote, “Mmm, girl, this is good.” And I admit, it was. A clever technique, simple and good enough that I knew I’d make it again should a rogue band of carrots turn up in the fridge anytime soon. —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor

The salad that keeps on giving

This warm salad—a member of our freshly dropped 2025 installment of the Bon Appétit 56—is a gift that gives, and gives, and gives. The day after making it, I found myself almost mechanically returning to the fridge on the hour to sneak a spoonful. Chopped broccoli enthusiastically sops up an incredibly aromatic dressing, bright with vinegar and lemon juice, sweet by honey, and fragrant from ras-el-hanout, a Moroccan spice blend. Meanwhile, chewy dates and crunchy pistachios deliver big on the texture front. I subbed in curry powder for ras-el-hanout and toasted pecans for pistachios—and proceeded to deplete the leftovers within the day. —Li Goldstein, associate newsletter editor

Broccoli Spoon Salad With Warm Vinaigrette

January 10

Party-ready dip

Some friends had a New Year’s gathering last weekend, and because I can’t show up to even the most casual hang empty-handed, I made a few little snacks to bring along with me. Not to brag, but I do have a deep bench of bitsy, party-ready recipes to my name and often end up looking to my own back catalog in these instances. This time I blitzed together my favorite dip, a creamy, four-ingredient number featuring spicy giardiniera. Chicago-style, oil-based giardiniera is the key here, for a rich, totally delicious dip—but if you can only find the vinegar-based kind, drain it well and add a drizzle of olive oil to compensate. —Kendra Vaculin, test kitchen editor

Creamy Giardiniera Dip

Make-ahead egg bhurji strata

After traveling for a month, I was eager to get back into the kitchen and eat some homemade food—so I turned to cookbook author Hetal Vasavada’s Egg Bhurji Strata. The tray bake is inspired by eggs I grew up eating, seasoned with aromatic garam masala, cilantro, and onions. It’s a great thing to pop in the oven to have breakfast ready for the rest of the week. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

Egg Bhurji Strata

Couch potato dinner

Lots of folks think of winter as soup season, but when the temperatures start to drop, I reach for potatoes. Specifically, I like rich, comforting potato recipes that leave me feeling full, cozy, and ready for a night on the couch. Monday night I put these Papas con Rajas on a few quesadillas Mexicanas—on corn tortillas, fried in butter—after a long day at the office. The brightness of the peppers creates a lovely contrast with the weight of the crema, and the smaller quesadillas make dipping in salsa or guac easier than a crumbly flour tortilla cut into wedges. —Alma Avalle, editorial operations associate

Papas con Rajas

Game-changing homemade pizza

I am pretty sure the latest Bake Club recipe for Incredibly Good Homemade Pizza ranks up there as being one of my most beloved BA recipes. Trust me when I say this is the one-stop pizza dough recipe to have in your arsenal. No longer do I need to Frankenstein a few different recipes to create an easy pliable dough that will be ready for me tonight (or later this weekend). Senior test kitchen editors Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic achieve a wood-fire-style crust by first crisping the dough on the stovetop, then finishing it under the broiler. This ingenious move imparts the smoky char flavor that we pay the big bucks for at fancy restaurants. That this recipe also happens to produce a chewy, lofty crust is an added bonus. I have made this pizza no fewer than five times already, and it doesn't look like I’ll be stopping anytime soon. —Hana Asbrink, deputy food editor

Incredibly Good Homemade Pizza

January 3

Quick chili with slow-cooked flavor

When the weather gets below a certain temperature, soup becomes my entire personality. Gingery chicken noodle, creamy wild rice soup, and hearty chilis all feel like a warm hug on cold days. Test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin’s White Chicken Chili falls into that last category, and I’ve made it at least six times since the recipe was published last year. This time I double-batched it and added an extra can of beans to bulk it up. I love how this recipe uses pantry ingredients like canned green chiles to build bold flavor. It tastes like it’s been simmering for hours, when in reality it only takes 40 minutes. A scatter of corn chips (Fritos, please) are nonnegotiable. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

Cozy and Quick White Chicken Chili

Frozen blueberry scones

Americans have a complicated relationship with scones, but living in Scotland for a few months taught me to love them. In Edinburgh they were oversized, craggy, and never ever dry—which is what I chase after whenever I try a new recipe. That said, after making Rebecca Firkser’s Blueberry Scones, I may never try another formula again. They were crisp-edged, with a layered and buttery crumb and just sweet enough. Rebecca calls for fresh blueberries; I swapped in frozen blueberries and raspberries because that’s what I had. No need to thaw—the chilled fruit keeps the grated butter (a genius trick) nice and cold. With a strong cup of coffee, this was a glorious breakfast. And lucky for me, there were extras for an afternoon snack with tea. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking

A vegetarian showstopper

The assignment: Make a kitschy dish for a holiday celebration with friends. The result: this showstopping Carrot Wellington. I roasted ripely sweet carrots until fork-tender and blitzed half of them with jammy shallots, walnuts, and cheese. The other half were kept whole and doused in honey and curry powder. I slathered the filling onto a rectangle of puff pastry and placed the whole carrots in a zigzag pattern on top. Carefully maneuvering the dough, I rolled it up over the carrots, then placed the log in the oven. Once it was golden, I transferred the Wellington onto a bed of curly kale and served it alongside parsley yogurt dip. Naturally, oohs and ahhs commenced. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor of cooking

Carrot Wellington

Satisfying sesame noodles

Most nights I cobble together a meal using elements from a few of my favorite recipes. Recently, I paired Jessie YuChen’s warm creamy sesame noodles with roasted broccoli and red cabbage slicked in a sesame and olive oil combo. Jessie’s noodles are extremely versatile—I easily swapped soy milk for the oat milk I always keep on hand and skipped the yuba, instead stirring in cubes of silken tofu just before serving. When I found I was ¼ cup short on rice wine, I made up the difference with a bit of dry vermouth. To serve, I piled the charred togarashi-seasoned vegetables over the saucy tahini noodles for a dinner that was both wholesome and satisfying. —Joe Sevier, senior SEO editor, cooking

Creamy Sesame Noodles With Yuba

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit

More Cooking Stories From Bon Appétit

• Get the latest from Bon Appétit in your inbox with our daily newsletter.

• The new Bon Appétit 56 is here: the 56 recipes you must make this year.

• In January’s Feel-Good Food Plan, Kendra Vaculin shares nourishing recipes for winter colds.

• For the latest Fourth Trimester, author Anna Noyes shares the best gift she received after giving birth.