Your May 2024 recipes are here 🌿💪🏼
Going green with peas, spinach, arugula and asparagus
This month in Weeknight Simple, we are transitioning into summer-like dishes while still keeping that hug-in-a-bowl mood.
New to Weeknight Simple? If you’re a paid subscriber, here’s what you get:
5 seasonal recipes per month - think of it as a recipe membership coupled with a meal plan. Portions are generous and typically serve 4, which makes it perfect for leftovers. Most of my subscribers tend to stretch it into 10 meals, between lunch and dinner. I’ll also give you creative ideas to reinvent leftovers.
Meal planning help - You get a shopping list, along with links to my favorite brands of any specialty ingredients. I take a 3-pronged approach to meal planning that delivers variety and keeps things interesting while also being efficient.
Meal Prep-Friendly components - Roasted vegetables, sauces/dressings/dips, proteins, breads, whole grains, giant salads
Make-Ahead meals - Soups, Curries, Legumes, Casseroles
Weeknight-friendly recipes - Quinoa pilafs, Pasta, Noodles
Nutrient-Dense recipes
20-30g protein per serving, as written
Fiber-rich, gut-healthy recipes - you get 30-50 plants/week when you make all 5!
Based on the 6 tastes in Ayurveda
If you’re looking to revitalize your weeknight (or weekend) game with extremely satisfying dishes, learn new techniques and work with new ingredients, eat seasonally and come away bursting with new ideas for incorporating protein and flavor into your meals - try Weeknight Simple free for one month! You can preview March and April recipes.
Caution: If you prefer a minimalistic approach to meal planning and want a template-based approach (such as 3 recipes featuring the same 3 ingredients), this is probably not for you.
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Green Peas Masala Bowl
The state of Karnataka, where I’m from, has its own insanely delicious chaat called Masala Puri, which is made with white peas. You can’t typically find it outside of the state (and no one in North India seems to have heard of it). Separately, Saravana Bhavan at least in NYC has this bomb curry called Green Peas Masala with a cashew-tomato-onion gravy (but it can be hit or miss depending on the chef at the time).
This recipe is neither of those dishes. It uses green peas, but a similar sauce as Masala Puri, fragrant with mint and cilantro. It resembles the Green Peas Masala in consistency. But I serve it in a layered bowl style, with a Greek yogurt base (or you can use my tofu ricotta for a vegan base) and a surprise ingredient for extra crunch. You are likely to see variations of this nourish bowl over the summer as it is a cooling dish that still feels like something cooked. Eat it on its own for a lower carb (but still sumptuous) meal, assemble it in a container for lunch, or pack it into a pita - maybe for leftovers?
Fiesta Salad w/ Chimichurri Dressing
This is the effortless salad you take to a picnic and have everyone asking for the recipe. Great for meal prep, and perfect for long weekend lunch. It’s made Mexican-style, with a few upgrades - French Puy lentils in place of black beans, tofu for extra protein and zingy Chimichurri dressing. Lightly sauté leftovers into your weekend scrambled eggs or add it to pasta.
Chickpea, Asparagus & Egg Fried Quinoa
Lately, I’m doing a lot of quinoa pilaf-style (usually Quinoa + Bean + Additional Protein + lots of veggies), like this recipe. This recipe is extremely weeknight-friendly and can be 1-pot if you cook the quinoa in advance. It keeps well too, and I’m eating it for lunch after 3 days as I type this. Crunchy asparagus adds a great texture to fried ‘rice’. Grating hard-boiled eggs into the dish works really well and adds volume and protein while minimizing the eggy flavor. Use tofu for a vegan option.
Smoky Paneer and Edamame Tacos
The spinach tacos are a seasonal colorful spin on the Chickpea Crepes from my cookbook. Smoked paprika delivers a punch to this paneer (or tofu)-bhurji filling, while edamame adds crunch and extra protein. I dare you to try not to eat the filling before you make the tacos! If you like, you can add Greek yogurt to the Chimichurri dressing to make the sauce more creamy.
Pasta w/ Asparagus, Pecorino, Mint and Lemon
I could eat this pasta every day. Light and nourishing, filled with crunchy asparagus, gently nudged with the flavor of mint and lemon and studded with pistachio - it is the spring pasta of my dreams. Very very weeknight-friendly, with just enough salty cheese to hit that umami-note.
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