If you’re a fan of the New York Times’ NYT Cooking, you’re in for a treat. The NYT Cooking team, led by editor-in-chief Emily Weinstein, has released their unique recipe collection, “Easy Weeknight Dinners,” which compiles a hundred of their favorite, flavorful, and speedy recipes from the past ten years.
This ground-breaking cookbook invites all readers, regardless of their culinary experiences and kitchen equipment, to explore a variety of easy-to-follow recipes that can be whipped up on any given weeknight. The recipes in this cookbook take various meals and occasions into account, with categories such as “Minimum Effort for Maximum Magic” or “Picky Kids Might Actually Eat This.”
Weinstein discussed her new book ahead of a recent event in Richmond, where she astounded the audience with her plain-spoken wisdom and cooking insights. There, she shed light on the ever-challenging question that most households encounter every day: what’s for dinner?
According to Weinstein, the timing of the release of this cookbook is purely coincidental but she also sees it as a “happy accident.” The idea for creating this cookbook has been in the discussion stage for quite some time. It began as a response to the success of their cooking newsletter, “Five Weeknight Dishes,” which reflects the reality of busy individuals who balance work, childcare, and other responsibilities but still want to prepare hearty meals despite their hectic schedule.
NYT Cooking owes its success to its commitment to high standards and trust-building. Cooking a recipe involves investments of time, energy, and ingredients. Therefore, if a recipe is to build trust with its reader, it must be straightforward to prepare and result in a delicious meal.
The cookbook is structured around the idea of easy recipes. In keeping with this cookbook’s promise of simplicity and speed, Weinstein discusses crafting recipes that have “as few ingredients as possible,” and require minimal steps and a limited number of pots and pans. Minimalism extends beyond the cooking process to cleaning up afterward. The recipes in the book aim to ensure you don’t spend an hour cleaning up after a 30-minute cooking spree.
Weinstein also revealed the thinking behind the book’s unique sections such as “Minimum Effort for Maximum Magic” and “Truly Fifteen-Minute Recipes (We Promise).” According to her, these titles were designed not only to categorise the recipes but to inject a sense of humour and fun into the art of cooking.
Despite the ubiquity of digital platforms for sharing recipes, Weinstein still contends that there’s nothing quite like having a tangible cookbook. According to her, books provide curation in a way not matched by scrolling through recipes on a smartphone. It’s simpler to digest all the information when flipping through pages.
With Weinstein and her team’s relentlessly inventive approach to recipe-building, topped with the book’s promise of quality and convenience, “Easy Weeknight Dinners” appears to be an indispensable tool for home cooks everywhere. So give it a try, and discover the joy of minimal-effort, maximum-flavour weeknight dining. It caters to everyone, from experienced chefs to cooking novices, bringing a new level of ease and enjoyment to the world of home food preparation.
