I am a grown woman who enjoys eating her vegetables. I say this not as a terrifically awkward introduction, but as a reminder to myself. When it’s cold and dark and somehow only Wednesday, I tend to slide into dinners that resemble those an unsupervised toddler would assemble: chips and salsa, a fistful of cookies, a piece of cheese with five slices of bread.

Which is why I’ve begun seeking out — and cooking on repeat — recipes that welcome increasing their vegetable matter, particularly those good-for-you leafy greens. Am I essentially hiding vegetables from myself? Yes. Am I effortlessly upping the nutritional and virtuous content of my easy dinner? Also yes.

A note that several of the recipes that follow are on the spicy side — I love a bit of heat, especially when it’s cold out. But if that’s not you, or the lucky people you’re cooking for, just pull back the amounts of spicy things called for in the recipe.

1. Gochujang Potato Stew

Gochujang Potato Stew in New York, March 7, 2023. Packed with potatoes, kale, butter beans, and a healthy kick from gochujang, this vegetarian stew from Eric Kim hits all the right notes. Food stylist: Barrett Washburne (James Ransom/The New York Times)

Plush baby potatoes braised in an aromatic gochujang broth form the heart of this satisfying, vegetable-packed stew. The spice-timid can lower the amount of gochujang, the Korean red-pepper paste, and heat seekers should feel free to add more to taste at the end. Canned white beans and dark-green Tuscan kale (also called lacinato or dinosaur kale), stewed with soy sauce and honey, create a deeply savory flavor that is reminiscent of South Korean gochujang jjigae, a camping favorite starring pantry staples, and dakdori tang, a gochujang-based chicken and potato stew.

By Eric Kim

Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons unsalted butter or olive oil
1 large red onion, coarsely chopped
Salt and black pepper
5 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons gochujang, plus more to taste
3 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey or dark brown sugar
1 pound baby gold or fingerling potatoes, large ones halved
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini or butter beans, rinsed
1 large bunch Tuscan kale, stems and leaves chopped (6 packed cups)
Cooked white rice, for serving
Sour cream and chopped flat-leaf parsley (both optional), for serving

DIRECTIONS

Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high. Melt the butter and add the onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and gochujang, and stir until heated through and fragrant, just a few seconds.
Stir in the vegetable broth, soy sauce, honey, potatoes and beans. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high, then reduce the heat to medium-low to maintain a gentle boil. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, then add the kale. (It will seem like a lot at first but will wilt down considerably.) Tamping down the kale, continue gently boiling the covered stew, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender and the broth is thickened to your liking, 10 to 20 minutes. Taste the broth and add more salt, pepper and gochujang as desired.
Serve the stew alongside white rice and, for coolness against the heat, top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of parsley, if using.

2. Maple and Miso Sheet-Pan Salmon With Green Beans

Maple and miso sheet-pan salmon with green beans in New York, Oct. 23, 2019. This meal is salty, sweet and earthy. Food stylist: Ali Slagle (Julia Gartland/The New York Times)

For a weeknight salmon that’s impressive enough for entertaining, look no further. Salty miso paste and sweet maple syrup are the backbone of this simple, flavor-packed marinade, which is about as involved as this uncomplicated recipe gets. Here, the fish soaks up the sauce as the oven gets hot, and the snappy green beans roast in the same amount of time as the fillets. Start some rice when you walk in the door and you’ll have dinner on the table in under a half hour.

By Colu Henry

Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

4 (6-ounce) skin-on salmon fillets, about 1-inch thick
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 teaspoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon white or brown miso
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 garlic clove, grated
1 pound green beans, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of red-pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (optional)
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro, both leaves and tender stems
4 lime wedges, for serving
Flaky sea salt, for serving (optional)
Cooked white rice, for serving (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 400 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil. Season the salmon fillets well with salt and pepper, and place them on a plate or in a large shallow bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, miso, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. Pour the mixture on top of the salmon and gently massage the marinade all over the fish. Let marinate while the oven comes to temperature.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, toss together the green beans with the olive oil, red-pepper flakes and sesame oil (if using) and season generously with salt and pepper. Lay the salmon fillets on the sheet pan skin side down and spread the green beans out surrounding the fillets.
Arrange the salmon skin side down on the sheet pan and bake until the salmon is opaque and the green beans are cooked through, about 12 minutes. Right before serving, scatter with cilantro and a good squeeze of lime. Season with flaky sea salt and serve with rice, if desired.

3. Buttery Lemon Pasta With Almonds and Arugula

Buttery lemon pasta with almonds and arugula, in New York, Jan. 4, 2023. To increase the vegetables in this dish, you can just double the arugula and add a little more lemon juice. Food stylist: Simon Andrews (David Malosh/The New York Times)

Brown butter, crunchy almonds and tangy lemon make a rich but balanced sauce for this pantry-friendly pasta. The arugula lends freshness and rounds out the pasta, turning this into a quick one-pot meal. If you want to increase the vegetables, you can double the arugula. (Just add a little more lemon juice.) And if you don’t have baby (or wild) arugula on hand, spinach or baby kale are fine, though slightly milder, substitutes. Don’t stint on the red-pepper flakes; their spiciness helps bring together the flavors.

By Melissa Clark

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Total time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound linguine or spaghetti
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sliced almonds
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more to taste
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
4 to 5 ounces baby or wild arugula, coarsely chopped, or use baby kale or spinach (4 to 5 cups)
Grated Parmesan, for serving

DIRECTIONS

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until it is 1 minute shy of being al dente, usually a minute or 2 less than the package instructions. Scoop out about 1 1/2 cups pasta water, then drain pasta.
While the pasta cooks, in a large skillet or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, until the foam subsides, the milk solids turn golden-brown and the butter smells nutty and toasty, 3 to 4 minutes. (Watch carefully to see that it doesn’t burn.)
Stir in almonds, rosemary and red-pepper flakes, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the nuts are toasted and slightly darker in color, about 1 minute.
Add about 1 cup pasta water to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Add lemon juice, zest, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a large pinch of black pepper, then add drained pasta and toss well. Add arugula, tossing until it wilts. Simmer for another minute, if needed, to thicken the sauce until it’s thick and glossy. If the mixture seems dry, add more pasta water 1 tablespoon at a time.
Taste and add more salt, red-pepper flakes and lemon juice, if needed. Serve topped with grated Parmesan and more red-pepper flakes, if you like.

4. Skillet Hot Honey Chicken

Skillet hot honey chicken with hearty greens in New York, Nov. 5, 2018. Have plenty of hearty greens on hand, like escarole, kale and mustard greens, so as not to waste any hot-honey-anointed pan drippings. Food stylist: Simon Andrews (Cons Poulos/The New York Times)

Requiring just one pan, this recipe yields supremely crisp, juicy chicken thighs and hot honey schmaltz, which serves as a warm vinaigrette for sturdy greens and a sauce for your — let’s say it again — supremely crisp, juicy chicken thighs. Squint and the flavors are reminiscent of fried chicken with a side of braised collards: Crackly chicken cozied up next to spicy, tangy and a little-sweet greens fortified by animal fat. Make your honey-schmaltz as spicy as you wish: Green chiles will pack more heat than red.

By Ali Slagle

Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (4 to 6 thighs)
Kosher salt and pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small hot chile, thinly sliced (such as jalapeño, Fresno or serrano), or to taste
1 large bunch or head of hearty greens, such as escarole, mustard greens or kale (about 6 ounces)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel, then season both sides with salt and pepper. Drizzle the olive oil into a large skillet, then add the chicken thighs skin side down.
Set over medium heat and cook, without moving them, until the skin is crisp and deep golden brown, about 15 minutes. If you can’t stand leaving the chicken untouched for this long, use your tongs to press the chicken down into the pan, which promotes even browning.
Flip the thighs over and swirl the chile into the rendered chicken fat. Cook until the meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, stem and tear the hearty greens into big bite-size pieces. In a big bowl, toss them with salt and pepper.
Transfer the chicken to serving plates, leaving the fat in the pan. Off the heat, stir the honey and vinegar into the fat until the honey’s melted and everything’s combined. Dress the greens with enough of the sauce to lightly coat, seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. (Feel free to eat the chile peppers or leave them behind.) Serve the chicken with the salad, spooning more sauce over the chicken and salad as desired.

5. Chile Crisp Fettuccine Alfredo With Spinach

Swirling chile crisp, a popular Chinese condiment, and spinach into fettuccine Alfredo gives you an immensely satisfying meatless one-dish dinner. The firecracker crunch of chile crisp intensifies when sizzled in butter before cream tempers its heat. Parmesan heightens the sauce’s savory umami, and pregrated cheese works just fine here. This astoundingly simple meal — it doesn’t even require any chopping — comes together in under 30 minutes but tastes as complex as anything you’d get at a restaurant.

By Genevieve Ko

Yield: 6 servings

Total time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Salt
4 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 tablespoons chile crisp, plus more to taste (see tip)
1 cup heavy cream
1 pound dried fettuccine
1 (5-ounce) package baby spinach
3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan (2 1/4 ounces), plus more for serving

DIRECTIONS

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
While the water heats, melt the butter with the chile crisp in a very large skillet or Dutch oven over low heat. Whisk in the cream and keep warm over low. (It should steam, not bubble.)
Cook the fettuccine until al dente according to the package directions. Use tongs to transfer the noodles to the cream mixture, reserving the pasta water. Add the spinach and turn with tongs until the noodles are well coated.
Add the Parmesan and toss, still over low heat, until the noodles are slicked with a creamy sauce, adding a spoonful or two of pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce. Divide among serving dishes and top with Parmesan and more chile crisp, if you’d like. Serve immediately.

TIP: You can make chile crisp easily at home or buy it in supermarkets or online. It varies in spiciness, so adjust the amount to your taste. For this dish, try to add more of the solids than the oil to the sauce for the most flavorful dish.

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