1. Lentil and Sausage Soup With Kale
When it gets cold outside, I want exactly one thing: hearty, filling soup. With lots of protein, so I don't just feel hungry again two hours after eating. And with plenty of veggies, because if I'm making a big pot of soup, I'm not about to make so much as a side salad. Oh, and I don't want to spend more than an hour in front of the stove. This soup delivers on all counts.
I made one modification, right off the bat, because I'm just not a big chicken sausage fan: I substituted a pound of Italian sausage, half sweet, half spicy. I got that nice and brown in the pot first, then set aside on my cutting board. That made it easy to skip the bacon grease in favor of the sausage grease already in the pot; I just added a bit of olive oil to cook the aromatics. I followed the rest of the recipe as is, but that's really just dumping a few things into the pot. I added the sausage back to the soup about halfway through the 15-minute simmer, so its flavor could ~infuse~ the rest of the soup.
Just a single dirty pot and cutting board later, I dug in to my lentil-and-sausage-packed masterpiece, and had leftovers to spare for part of the week — plus a couple bowls worth to pop in the freezer for later. Not bad for 45 minutes of work. —Natalie Brown
Get the recipe here.
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2. Birthday Cake Scones With Vanilla Glaze
I saw these scones popping up on my Instagram feed and knew I wanted to make them. The recipe is way easier than it looks, and only took me about 20 minutes to make. The recipe's secret to achieving that nostalgic funfetti taste is to use clear vanilla extract. The flavor is slightly different than the brown stuff and adds that bright vanilla flavor straight outta your childhood. I glazed mine with a quick vanilla glaze (which is included in the recipe), but if you want them a tad less sweet, skip it and serve them straight out of the oven (for the perfect breakfast, IMO). —Jesse Szewczyk
Get the recipe here.
3. Scrambled Eggs
Eggs are a tricky thing. Everyone cooks them but few people cook them really well. In an effort to truly become a master at cooking eggs, I've recently been experimenting with different egg recipes. When it came to scrambled eggs, I decided to try Gordon Ramsay's much-loved method. It's the subject of a viral video on YouTube and has even been selected as the best scrambled eggs recipe by my coworker Jesse.
I wanted to see 1) if they were really that great and 2) if a laywoman like me could easily make them. The answer to both questions is a resounding YES. The method, which involves taking your eggs on and off the stovetop every 30 seconds while constantly stirring, sounds tedious, but it really isn't once you're in the thick of it. And the crème fraîche addition at the end is the perfect way to get the creamiest eggs of your life. (If you don't have/can't find crème fraîche, heavy cream will work just fine.) —Marie Telling
Get the recipe here.
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4. Grilled Eggplant Parmesan Stacks
I LOVE eggplant and I'm always looking for new ways to make it. And while eggplant parmesan is one of my favorite meals to order at a restaurant, it always feels a little bit too intensive to make at home.
So, since I've discovered these healthy baked eggplant stacks on a blog called Flavor the Moments, I've been hooked. I like to add roasted tomatoes and zucchini to the eggplant stacks to give them a little more substance. Once you assemble the eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella stacks, you can make them a bit more like eggplant parm by covering them in a layer of marinara sauce and a sprinkle of breadcrumbs, and then letting them bake for an extra few minutes. It's one of my favorite lightened-up comfort food recipes around. —Hannah Loewentheil
Get the recipe here.
5. Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
A few years ago, several people at BuzzFeed, including me, helped our coworker Lindsay Hunt develop the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. We did preliminary taste tests, we took her recipes home and baked them ourselves, and we got to taste the final results. And we still talk about her glorious Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.
So when it came time to make some treats for my family visiting for Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to make her cookies. They are truly spectacular — perfectly chocolaty with a bit of salt to cut through the sweetness, and don’t require any more work than your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. I strongly recommend having them with a mug of cold milk. —Rachel Wilkerson Miller
Get the recipe here.
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6. Rainbow Thai Chicken Salad
I found this Thai chicken salad with peanut sauce on one of my favorite cooking blogs, Gimme Some Oven. After Thanksgiving, I was craving a healthyish salad recipe that still feels sort of indulgent...and this definitely hit the spot.
The recipe is SO easy to make. It comes together in 15 minutes, and if you have precooked chicken or a rotisserie chicken, it doesn't require any cooking at all. The recipe calls for cabbage and a bunch of julienned veggies as the base, but you can really use whatever you have on hand like carrots, peppers, broccoli slaw, etc... And the sweet and savory peanut dressing tasted like what you'd order at a Thai restaurant. The final salad was SO good and had SO much flavor. It was creamy, crunchy, savory, and a tiny bit sweet. —Hannah Loewentheil
Get the recipe here.
7. Four and Twenty Blackbirds Salted Caramel Apple Pie
To be honest, I don't love apple pie. They're a ton of effort to make and usually taste underwhelming — but this salted caramel apple pie changed my attitude. It's salty, sweet, and has a delightfully chewy caramel texture.
The recipe is broken down into four steps: the crust (you could use store-bought), a salted caramel sauce, the filling, and a homemade seasoning blend to spice up the apples. After it's baked, the caramel oozes out of the lattice and creates a beautiful glossy shine with bits of crunchy burnt sugar. The one problem I did have was that I cut into it too quickly (causing the hot caramel sauce to ooze out). My advice is to bake it the night before and cut into it in the morning. This way, the caramel will have time to stiffen up and won't seep out. —Jesse Szewczyk
Get the recipe here.
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8. Vegetarian "Meatballs"
This recipe makes about 50 meatballs, so it's a great thing to make on a Sunday night to prep for your meals throughout the week (or put in the freezer for whenever). The main ingredients of the meatball are cauliflower, quinoa, and brown rice, so you get a good serving of both veggies and protein. I've made this recipe twice, and the second time, I actually forgot to cook the cauliflower first like the recipe said. I just put the raw cauliflower in the food processor with the cooked quinoa and brown rice, and the meatballs actually stayed together even better that way! I would also suggest adding more bread crumbs than the recipe says because it helps them stay together better in the pan.
The end result is a very flavorful, hearty meal that resembles falafel in taste and texture. I added these on top of whole-wheat pasta and zoodles, and I've also just eaten them by themselves. They also go really well with any sort of masala or curry sauce. They're a great base for so many meals, especially if you're a vegetarian looking for a new way to cook some comfort food! —Ciera Velarde
Get the recipe here.
9. Brûléed Bourbon-Maple Pumpkin Pie
This year, I was invited to spend Thanksgiving in my American husband's family (I'm French) and was asked to make a dessert. I decided to make a pumpkin pie, which I discovered in the US and really love. When I found this recipe, I was very excited for the opportunity to make a typical American fall pie with a French touch (the brûlée top) and celebrate our French-American family.
The dough for the crust seemed a little time-consuming, so I cheated and used a store-bought crust instead (I'm not a big fan of chocolate crusts anyway).
The rest of the recipe was quick and easy and the filling was really good. I loved that it called for maple syrup in the filling instead of sugar as there's already plenty of sugar in the brûlée top — the recipe calls for only two tablespoons of sugar but I used at least four to get a thicker caramelized surface. And although it took much longer than I thought to torch the top, I really enjoyed the whole process. —Gwenaelle LeCochennec
Get the recipe here.
10. Skillet Cinnamon Rolls
I recently bought a skillet and have been making everything in it — chicken, bread, pasta, you name it! One particularly cold weekend, I decided to use it to bake cinnamon rolls.
I covered the pan in a loose piece of parchment paper, proofed the dough directly in it, and served them straight out of it (which not only looks cool but kept them nice and hot). The skillet also got really hot which made the sides of the cinnamon rolls nice and crunchy. The dough can be made the night before and baked in the morning, making this recipe the perfect lazy Sunday baking project. Skillets aren't just for cooking, and this cinnamon roll recipe turned out perfect in it. —Jesse Szewczyk
Get the recipe here.
