I took one of my kids to the grocery store last week with the specific goal of divining what she might happily eat at home for dinner and in her lunchbox at school, as opposed to what she vehemently claims she won’t eat under any circumstances.
This kid, who is still really young, is a good eater. She likes an array of different foods. She tries new things. She accepts what’s on her plate, even if it takes a little coaxing, and she finishes it all. She seems to get that choosing what you eat is a privilege, and one that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Still, it’s unpleasant to cook while a children’s chorus of two howls lines like, “I hate bow-tie pasta!” (This is a lie. They love bow-tie pasta.) I can tell them to stop or divert them from the kitchen. But ideally we’ve already agreed on dinner and can skip this whole drama.
Cut to the store, where I’m in front of the refrigerated cheese tortellini — an amazing all-ages convenience food. You can easily find versions stuffed with spinach, or ravioli stuffed with squash. But I’m starting simple with plain cheese. I want to boil a big package of this at night, feed it to everyone for dinner and then put the leftovers in lunchboxes. I show it to my kid and talk it up. She wants to put it in the cart.
I’m hoping this is the gateway tortellini moment that leads us to dinners like one-pot tortellini with prosciutto and peas. I also got the ingredients to make smashed chicken burgers, in the hopes they will join the rotation, alongside the sweetest corn on the cob. Those two recipes are below, along with three others for the weeks ahead.
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1. One-Pot Tortellini with Prosciutto and Peas
You could use bacon instead of prosciutto in this quick recipe from Ali Slagle, or skip the pork altogether for a creamy pasta dinner that seems far fancier than it really is.
2. Smashed Chicken Burgers With Cheddar and Parsley
Burger patties made with beef need only salt and pepper to be great. Burger patties made with chicken or turkey need a little more help to be delicious. Yasmin Fahr adds shredded Cheddar and a bit of Dijon mustard into the ground chicken, and tops the burgers with avocado and lime Dijonnaise. Kids could absolutely douse them with ketchup instead. (If you want to try a more traditional turkey burger, take a look at this recipe.)
3. Oven-Seared Salmon With Corn and Tomatoes
Just when I thought I was out of summer cooking, the corn at the farmers’ market pulls me back in. This ideal end-of-summer recipe from Ali Slagle is finely tuned to cook the ingredients as minimally as possible to preserve their flavor.
4. Ginger-Scallion Tofu and Greens
Every kitchen should have a jar of ginger-scallion oil, a simple and very versatile sauce that you often find served with poached chicken. It’s sublime here on silken tofu, in yet another great vegan recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon.
5. Vegetarian Mushroom Shawarma Pitas
The smoky flavors of shawarma are applied here to portobello mushrooms. This clever dish from Alexa Weibel is supremely satisfying, especially with a dollop of yogurt sauce.
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