For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been averaging a dinner time of around 9:58 p.m. It’s not that I prefer to eat late. I’d love nothing more than to sit down to a meal at 6 p.m. on the dot, to not immediately go to bed with a stuffed stomach. But after a day in an office, a stint at the gym, a shower and a 45-minute commute, I’m lucky if I even make it home in time for “Love Island USA.”
At this rate, I’ll rarely consider something that takes more than 30 minutes to get from the kitchen to the couch. But on the next day I squeak home before, say, 8:30, I’m making Kristina Felix’s crispy potato quesadillas, coming in at, OK, 35 minutes. A hearty filling of shredded cheese and smashed potato and peas, along with a zippy slaw topping of seasoned cabbage, carrots, red onion and jalapeño, mean I won’t need to eat two quesadillas to feel something.
Crispy Potato Quesadillas
They’re baked rather than heated in a skillet, so I can at least start the latest “Love Island” episode and not worry about supervising my tortillas. “They may puff up, which is great,” Kristina writes. Who doesn’t love a puffy quesadilla?
A very quick pasta is also on the table (or rather, in my lap). Nargisse Benkabbou’s newish creamy tomato spaghetti with preserved lemon is already racking up five-star reviews, and for good reason: It requires fewer than 10 ingredients, consists almost entirely of pantry staples and takes a cool 25 minutes to make.
Readers are already clamoring for it. “Definitely a keeper.” “This pasta sauce is out of this world delicious.” “Stop being curious and just make it!!” I’d turn my head for that.
Hetty McKinnon’s broccoli soba salad is another quick noodle moment, but of the chilled variety. And it is equally accessible: fewer than 10 ingredients, made up of staples and inexpensive produce and clocking in at 25 minutes. It will chill in the fridge for about 15 of those minutes, but if we have the foresight to plan ahead, it will make a great lunch, too.
Hetty must know I’m tight on time these days, because she’s got two more breezy bangers on my radar. The first is her 20-minute asparagus and tofu, a fast and deeply savory stir-fry. Hetty encourages to you make your own salty and funky black bean sauce to control the spice level to your liking, though you can, of course, use a store-bought Chinese black bean sauce by following her instructions in the recipe Tip.
And then there’s her 10-minute roasted pepper, white bean and mozzarella salad, a substantial dish requiring virtually no work from us. There’s no need to even break out a knife and cutting board. Simply tear fire-roasted red peppers, the cheese and a couple handfuls of basil. I can do that!
But the next time I walk through the door after 9 p.m., dinner will be breakfast. Specifically Naz Deravian’s gheysava, or eggs with dates and cinnamon, three ingredients I always have on hand. The dates are softened and caramelized in butter alongside crunchy walnuts, and the eggs are cracked right into the pan for a dish that tastes “like a French toast,” according to one reader.
“Gheysava warms you from within and fills you with vitality and strength to take on the day,” Naz writes. And, hopefully for me, to recover from it.
Creamy Tomato Spaghetti With Preserved Lemon
Roasted Pepper, White Bean and Mozzarella Salad
Broccoli Soba Salad
Gheysava (Eggs With Dates and Cinnamon)
One More Thing!
Speaking of breakfast: What is it about that meal on “Love Island USA”? As a fervent viewer of the dating show on Peacock, I’ve clocked a shift this season. The breakfasts are bigger and better, both as a meal and a metaphor. So I wrote about it!
And this breakfast ritual, performed almost exclusively by the male contestants, increasingly has a primal sheen to it. Whose C-shaped pancake are you eating, Nic’s or Elan’s?
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
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Tanya Sichynsky is an editor for the Food and Cooking sections of The Times and the author of The Veggie, a weekly vegetarian newsletter.
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