Black Bean Smash Burgers and More Recipes We Made This Week
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.
June 19
I bake a lot for work and, if I’m being honest, I don’t do much of it recreationally anymore. But I still get a hankering for a sweet treat every now and then. That’s where fellow Test Kitchen editor Rebecca Firkser’s Peaches Foster saves the day: It’s sweet, boozy, and doesn’t require any actual baking at all. I recently made it for a group of friends who stopped by, whipping it up in no time. And as an added bonus, you can tip the side of your pan into the flame so it catches fire, igniting into an impressive inferno that is a bit extra, but undeniably fun. —Jesse Szewczyk, senior Test Kitchen editor
My boyfriend is a Halloumi Fanatic. I love the stuff too, but he takes this title to new heights. Every grocery trip, he mounts a compelling case for why we should spend a little extra on the salty, squeaky block of cheese. Case won, we headed home with our prize, along with a painter’s palette of bell peppers and red onion to throw onto a fiercely blazing grill. We served the grilled bounty with pillowy quinoa made in our rice cooker, curled arugula, and the fastest red wine vinaigrette (three minutes, tops). I added a scoop of whole-grain mustard for a crackly-seedy texture and some nutritional yeast to double down on the cheesy flavor. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking
I am constantly learning from my colleagues in the Test Kitchen (Shilpa’s baking soda trick for ground chicken, Hana’s dip level-up, the list goes on), but Jesse Szewzyk’s latest genius move might just transcend kitchen wisdom. You see, he keeps smashing vegetables. First he came for asparagus. And now, summer’s most abundant crop gets the big squish in his zucchini salad. The method creates plenty of nooks and crannies for dressing to settle into. It also makes fibrous veggies tender without any heat. But you know what else it’s great for? Some kitchen catharsis. After a long week of subway commutes and pressing deadlines, nothing else soothes the soul quite like taking a rolling pin to a zip-top baggie. And the resulting salad, dripping with a spicy, nutty tahini-ginger dressing, is pretty good payoff too. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior cooking editor
Despite all the I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-meat products out there, I’m convinced that there’s no better dopplegänger of a crusty-edged, umami-packed smash burger than these black bean patties from BA alum Zaynab Issa. It’s not that the legumes are trying to be meat. They’re treading their own path and ending up at the same destination: a wholly satisfying summer meal. I’ve made this recipe many times and it’s always forgiving to tweaks. This week, I did: a single burger per sandwich instead of a double stack; sriracha instead of chipotles; and I bought sliced pepper Jack cheese instead of a block (just finely chop in lieu of grating). Perfect with coleslaw, potato chips, and a cold beer. —Emma Laperruque, cooking director
June 12
I was filming a social video about my favorite air fryer and needed a side to serve with crispy chicken thighs. This fattoush salad was an obvious choice—colorful enough to look great on camera and easy enough to throw together while the chicken cooked. I used a mandoline for the vegetables and whisked together the dressing, a sweet-tart mix of pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, and sumac. We recommend making your own pita chips, but I bought a bag of Stacy’s and had the whole thing done by the time the chicken came out of the air fryer. —Olivia Tarantino, senior shopping editor
I don’t often feel meditative when I’m cooking. I wish I did, but something in my core is too neurotic to feel calm as I’m chopping or dicing or watching for proper browning. At least, that’s what I’ve always thought. But this week, I discovered the zen of pitting cherries by hand, as I prepared to bake a skillet cherry cake. Sitting at my kitchen table, I found myself blissfully blank-brained and in a rhythm: slice, rotate, pit, toss. For what might be the first time in my life I wasn’t thinking of…anything. I plopped the cherries on top of the buttery batter and everything was ready to go in the oven—wait…why isn’t this batter sweet? Ah, I forgot to add sugar. Cherries back in the bowl, mix sugar into batter, re-plop cherries. In the end, this mercifully forgiving recipe still turned out great. —Sam Stone, staff writer
The erratic heat waves of spring have made me want summer rolls for dinner on a weekly basis. Velvety lettuce and crunchy vegetables, sweet-spicy dipping sauce, and hardly any cooking are compelling reasons to heed the call of my hyperfixation. I only turn on the stove for a little bit of steak that appears, finely chopped up, inside the rolls. My colleague and station-mate Jesse Szewczyk’s soda-marinated skirt steak is excellent for this, caramelizing quickly in a hot cast-iron pan, after its overnight slumber in miso and soy. —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior Test Kitchen editor.
When I’m hosting friends for dinner, I have a rule for myself: Whatever I’m serving has to be 80% done before my guests arrive. I’ll happily slip away to do small tasks before the meal, but I don’t want to spend any time actively cooking dinner. To abide by this self-imposed standard, one of my go-to meals has become Alison Roman’s Harissa-Rubbed Pork Shoulder With White Beans and Chard from her cookbook, Nothing Fancy. (Roman made a video with Bon Appétit featuring a very similar dish, though this version omits the chard and preserved lemon.) After putting it in the oven, it’s basically done. And with creamy beans and wilted chard (I sometimes use kale), this is a one-pot dinner that feels fancy, at least to me. —Carly Westerfield, associate manager, audience strategy
I just returned from days of backcountry camping in Maine. The trip had a musk of intensity: We forded rivers, hiked 10 miles every day, saw a moose—quite the adventure. With a 30 pound backpack, food was purely fuel and had to weigh close to nothing. That means meat sticks galore. But by the time we returned to civilization, I couldn’t bear the sight of beef anything. Vegetarian it was (for now). Scouring the Epicurious app for dinner inspiration that could make food feel exciting again, I landed on this Peruvian-Style Tofu With Creamy Cilantro Sauce from senior Test Kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic. Charred planks of custardy tofu plunge into a tangy green sauce with a whisper of heat. I ate them alongside a crisp peach kombucha, because health. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking
June 5
A celebratory weekend away called for making birthday cake and pancakes. With no fancy kitchen equipment in sight, this two-tier no-mixer vanilla cake was the move. For the filling, I turned to this smooth and buttery lemon curd (a request from the birthday girl) and topped the whole cake with the lightest whipped-cream-turned-frosting that came together with just a whisk and a bowl. Morning meant one thing: fluffy pancakes that I could whip up quickly and throw on a griddle, while still being able to reminisce with friends around the breakfast table. —Marisa Alia Malanga, research fellow
True to form, New York City has experienced nearly all four seasons in the span of a single spring week (yes, the meme is real). The first time we hit an 85-degree day, cold watermelon and even colder soba were on the menu at my place. My Zaru Soba (Cold Buckwheat Noodles) are a delightful throw-together meal. The refreshing savory dipping sauce is made with just three ingredients: mirin, soy sauce, and instant dashi powder, but I sometimes pick up a bottle of store-bought tsuyu dipping sauce on the way home from work to make things even quicker. I always throw in an extra bundle of soba; any leftover noodles work surprisingly well the following day for a not-sad desk lunch. —Hana Asbrink, deputy food editor
A chocolate craving struck. But after an absurdly long week, I had no interest in baking cookies or a cake or the like. (Too many dishes.) Instead, I turned to a recipe from my friend Ella Quittner’s Obsessed With the Best, one of our favorite cookbooks from this winter. From the chapter entitled “Whipped Cream Should Be the Whole Dessert,” the dish is called Depression Pudding. I stirred together a few spoonfuls each of cocoa powder and maple syrup, plus a pinch of salt. Poured in a lot of heavy cream. Whisked by hand—Ella’s rec and my personal pref (it’s fun)—until billowy as mousse. And, most important, devoured on the couch with a Yankees game. —Emma Laperruque, cooking director
Around this time every year, I issue one very clear directive to my boyfriend: Anytime you see Champagne mangoes at the store, cradle home as many of the chubby crescent moons as you can carry. They’re a coveted treasure, tasting like they’ve been lacquered in honey. Once ripe, I stash them in the fridge (cold fruit simply tastes better), then I slice off the two cheeks, score a grid pattern, and eat them straight from the skin. But on the rare occasion I save some for a recipe, they go into my Crispy Rice Salad With Spicy Tahini Dressing. Loaded with nearly every color in the rainbow and golden pucks of pan-fried rice, it’s as fun to look at as it is to eat. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking
