Every day, chapter 9

Beans & Vegetarian Mains

These are main courses that happen to have no meat, not side dishes promoted to the middle of the table. Beans, lentils, tofu, paneer and halloumi bring the protein; the flavor comes from technique. Onions browned until deep and sweet, spices bloomed (briefly fried) in hot fat, tomato paste fried until brick-red, mushrooms seared hard in batches, a squeeze of acid at the end: these do the work that meat usually does. Many of these dishes are cheap, freeze well and taste better the next day. Canned beans are fine almost everywhere, and we say so; where dried really matters, as in falafel, we say that too. Most recipes are vegetarian as written and many are vegan, with swaps given where they honestly work.

18 recipesOpen the chapter in the app