Stuff I've Been Cooking - February 2025

I’m shocked to see that I haven’t done a cooking roundup since October of last year. A whole Holiday Season has come and gone with nary a recipe documented on this here Substack. It’s a crime against… something. Maybe not humanity, but maybe cumin? Or cauliflower?

Whatever the victim is, it’s criminal. I told myself I hadn’t been cooking; so why bother with a roundup? But I have been cooking. I have! This is not the time or place for false narratives; so let’s right the ship and talk about recipes!

Sausages and charred citrus traybake

Ottolenghi Test Kitchen alum Ixta Belfrage enjoys pairing unexpected ingredients, as evidenced by this quirky traybake from her book Mezcla. Carrots, maple syrup, cumin, and fatty sausages collide with lemon, lime, and tangerine, and if that’s not enough to make your head spin, the whole thing is topped with a cucumber lime salsa.

This dish should not work, but the surprise twist is that it not only succeeds but triumphs. Bright citrus balances out the heaviness of sausages (I used Italian sausages) while the cucumber adds a fresh note to the roasted carrots. It sounds like there’s a lot going on here — because there is — but it comes together easily. The result is a complex but uncomplicated dish that doesn’t feel like an assault on the gut, despite the call for “fatty sausage.” I’ve enjoyed my share of sausage sheet pan dinners, but this may be my favorite - even better than Ina Garten’s Hasselback kielbasa.

Hoisin-glazed cauliflower with mixed grains and peanuts

I am an unabashed hoisin fan - I will order the saddest looking Peking duck if it means I have a vessel to transport that sweet, sweet hoisin into my mouth. So, when I saw that Hetty Lui McKinnon had a recipe for homemade vegan hoisin in her book Tenderheart, I naturally had to try it out.

McKinnon’s hoisin combines soy sauce, tahini, garlic, brown sugar, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, salt and pepper for a sauce that was nice… but didn’t really scratch that hoisin itch for me. The rest of the recipe is pretty straightforward - toss the cauliflower in some of the hoisin, roast it, serve it over grains with nuts and cilantro. It was all perfectly fine, but I wouldn’t call this the highpoint of Tenderheart. The vegan hoisin was a fun diversion, but I’m going to stick with the real stuff going forward.

Sweet and Sour Caramelized Squash with Pistachio Za’atar

Ever since Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem hit the shelves in 2012, roasted squash has been in my repertoire. Ottolenghi surely wasn’t the first to do it, but he was my first, and you always remember your first, they say. Since then, it seems like the whole roasted-squash topped with x, y, z has become a staple in cookbooks, to the point where one recipe merges into another. And by the way, no complaints. I acknowledge my squash recipe privilege, and I’m proud to declare that I have yet to find a dud in the group. That being said, it takes a lot to avoid being an ARST (Another Roasted Squash Thing), but Andy Baraghani may have risen to the challenge.

Hailing from his book The Cook You Want To Be, Baraghani’s roasted squash recipe is excellent. The method isn’t anything revolutionary - we’re just roasting squash and topping with nuts and a sauce - but the components are what make it sing.

The sweet-sour agrodulce sauce, speckled with plumped raisins, is the perfect friend to the squash, especially if your gourd is older and lacking in the flavor department. Add some pistachios and you’ve got yourself a party. In a crowded ARST field, this one truly stands out.

Crispy Orecchiette With Spicy Sausage and Collard Ragù

For reasons I won’t get into, a few of us gathered on Christmas Eve 2024 for what was basically a Molly Baz potluck. It was not an event any of us could wholly embrace - her slang is an ongoing test to patience - but after having watched some of her videos, we concluded that her food must be cooked.

At the centerpiece of the table was a giant bowl of this pasta, found in Baz’s visually challenging book More is More. Here Baz does a play on that classic sausage-and-orecchiette-and-bitter-greens combo, recruiting collards for the greens (as opposed to the more common broccoli rabe or spinach). It’s an unmitigated success.

There’s a lot of stuff that happens in this recipe - but the most unique element is Baz’s insistence that we toast the cooked pasta. It’s unconventional, sure, but also effective. The result is a multi-textured dish that truly blew us all away. We couldn’t stop eating this pasta, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been thinking of it since.

Miso Butter Greens Pasta

Let’s stick with the orecchiette theme. When I was in London recently, I nabbed a copy of Dinner by Meera Sodha, a vegetable-forward book that’s due for stateside release in April. I’ve leafed through the cookbook many times, and there has been no single dish in this book that I have wanted to cook more than the miso butter greens pasta.

Bloom fennel seeds and chili flakes and garlic in butter (vegan or regular - I chose vegan), then add kale, broccoli, and some water and sauté until the veggies are tender and joyous. Everything goes into a blender, along with miso paste and olive oil, and with the press of a button, it all transforms into a luscious, impossibly green madness.

Toss some freshly cooked pasta with the sauce — add some of the cooking water too — and dinner is ready. Kale and broccoli are robust flavors, and I wasn’t quite sure how they’d fare as the backbone of a pasta dish, but the miso and olive oil go a long way to balance out things.

This is a good recipe. Without modifications, I would have been very happy with the outcome. But I do subscribe to the school of Salt Fat Acid Heat, and the lack of acid felt sinful here. I added a splash of vinegar to great effect, and I encourage everyone else to do the same. That small layer of acid took a pasta from very good to great, and when I next make this dish, there will definitely be some vinegar or lemon juice at the ready.

Tahini Date Shake “Smoo”

On the heels of Molly Baz’s fabulous orecchiette, I did eventually purchase More Is More (as detailed in last week’s column). The first recipe I tore into was not anything fancy or elaborate. Instead, I attempted her Tahini Date Shake Smoo. This was not something I undertook lightly. Was I really going to indulge a recipe that used the terms “Smoo” and “ingreedz”?

And for those wondering (aka my Dad, who’s reading this), Smoo is short for Smoothie.

Smoo be damned, I just really wanted to make this. So I did. Again. And again. And again.

By my count, I’ve made the SMOO eight times in six days (I got my boyfriend hooked too). It’s incredible. And I think decently healthy? It’s just one frozen banana, half a cup of ice, 3/4 a cup of oat milk, 2 tbs of tahini, some dates, some vanilla extract, some cinnamon, and some salt. The outcome is a drink as thick and creamy as any milkshake with a subtle but complex array of flavors. Not too sweet, not too bland - it’s the perfect smoothie. It works as a breakfast replacement, afternoon pick-me-up, or a late night snack. It’s ALL SMOO, ALL THE TIME for me.

Consider me a smoo convert, both the recipe and the slang. It’s my favorite thing of 2025 so far, and the only reason I saved it for last is because I know as soon as I’m done writing this paragraph, I’m halting all Substack activities to make ANOTHER SMOO. Damn that Molly Baz and her addictive recipes (and slang).

What have you been making lately?