It’s no secret that BA 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. (And for reader favorites, check out our most popular recipes of 2023.)
December 8
Comforting khichdi
To drive away a seasonal bug (and soothe a little homesickness), khichdi is my comfort food of choice. I riffed on this Priya Krishna recipe with what I had in my pantry—toor dal instead of split mung beans, plenty of garlic in place of asafetida—and I threw the whole thing in my pressure cooker to cut the cook time in half. I ate it with a dollop of plain yogurt, and it was a warming, hearty panacea for an especially chilly week. —Antara Sinha, associate cooking editor
Orecchiette with spicy sausage
It’s not even 2024 and I’ve already committed to one of my New Year’s resolutions: Cook more from my cookbooks. I’m starting with Julia Turshen’s Small Victories, a special book that aptly calls out lessons and techniques in the headnotes as “small victories.” On my first attempt with this Orecchiette With Spicy Sausage and Parmesan in 2016, I took the pasta out of the boiling water too soon and failed to finish it in the sauce. Older and wiser, I decided to give the recipe another go and was victorious. This pasta is the food equivalent of a warm hug. The spicy sausage and onions pair nicely with the creamy, lemony Parmesan sauce. Turshen says this is her favorite thing to eat on a cold night on the couch in front of a movie, and that’s exactly what this recipe is to me now. —Esra Erol, senior social media manager
Showstopping banoffee pie
I lured my parents over for dinner with the promise of this for dessert: food editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s Simply Brilliant Banoffee Pie. A salty graham cracker crust, nut-studded toffee, and shingled bananas, all blanketed with a comforter of whipped cream. Be still, my heart! Be still! I will admit that a full pie for four people is a little silly. But by no means did the leftovers go to waste. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor
Spicy, herby roasted squash
When we first crossed paths in the test kitchen, this roasted squash with salsa verde called to me like a siren song. And I answered. It’s just the sort of autumnal-meets-wintery dish that I like to plop next to a loaf of bread and call dinner. Roasted until the skin is crisp and the flesh juicy, orange squash has so much confidence, it is verging on arrogance. I used kabocha; red kuri works too; and if butternut is all you can find, why not? Any variety would taste special with this Calabrian-chile-spiked, garlicky green sauce. While the recipe calls for boquerones to drape on top, I left them out to streamline. And the dish was still the talk of the night. —E.L.
Any-meal eggs and toast
If I have Greek yogurt and eggs in my fridge, I can make a whole meal. And on an evening that was too many days post-grocery run, that once again proved true with these Turkish-style eggs from Mehreen Karim. I’ll admit to frying the eggs instead of poaching, and I unfortunately had no greens to garnish, but regardless, it was everything I needed: garlicky, spicy, and riffable for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. —A.S.
December 1
Grown-up Shirley Temple
As a kid, I had an aversion to bubbles so I was never a Shirley Temple drinker. But when I was browsing through nonalcoholic drink recipes in the Epicurious App recently, this grown-up version caught my eye. Cooking down pomegranate juice with warming spices reduces it into a bittersweet syrup that, when mixed with tonic or sparkling water, makes a fun and festive—and not too sweet!—booze-free drink. I candied cranberries to serve but dried citrus slices or a twist of peel would work nicely. —Sonia Chopra, executive editor
Sheet-pan mac and cheese
With a surplus of cheddar, the solution was obvious: Rebecca Firkser’s Sheet-Pan Mac and Cheese, which I’ve been eyeing for months. Sure, it takes a little longer than the boxed stuff, but not that much longer. By the time the oven was hot, the rest of the recipe was ready. (For the sauce, I skipped the Parmesan and swapped in even more cheddar.) The result was supremely cheesy, thrillingly crispy, and wholly impressive for how little effort it took. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor
Dinner party ricotta dip
Sometimes you forget you’re having people over for dinner in two hours and you need something that makes it look like you have your act together. Enter this citrusy ricotta dip. It comes together in five minutes with ingredients you likely already have during holiday season. I tasked a friend with bringing the oranges from home, prepped the ricotta, and chopped the dates before everyone arrived. It was the hit of the night. —S.C.
Classic gingerbread cookies
The day after Thanksgiving is the official start of Christmas cookie season. I use gingerbread cookies to decorate my tree every year, and this recipe from the Gourmet archives strikes all the right notes. The centers are soft and chewy right after they’ve been baked—which is how I like my gingerbread for eating—but they firm up nicely when air-dried for a day or so and will last the whole holiday season on my tree. I double the spices to give these cookies an extra kick: Combined with the natural scent of my go-to tree (blue spruce), they make my house smell amazing. The other thing I love: Most of the dough is actually made in a pot on the stove, so there’s no need to break out the stand mixer. —Carina Finn, commerce editor
Tiny Hasselback potatoes
Stop what you’re doing and make these Sour Cream and Onion Hasselback Potatoes. Seriously: Stop what you’re doing and make these Sour Cream and Onion Hasselback Potatoes. They start with itty-bitty Yukons, which, as food editor Jesse Szewczyk explains, means “a higher ratio of crunchy scored edges to tender centers.” You can mix up the sauce a day ahead, so come dinner, all that’s left is cutting and roasting. Yes—even with the chopsticks trick, which works wonders—the cutting takes some patience. But aren’t we all trying to become more patient? —E.L.
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