Ask any chef: There’s nothing more important than one’s mise en place. (That would be your setup.) A little prep work is the difference between your college cafeteria, where the most exciting salad-bar ingredient was Craisins, and the Sweetgreen/Tender Greens/Venture-Capital-Backed-Grain-Bowl-Dispensary-Near-You, where it’d be weird if your roasted curry cauliflower weren’t casually drizzled with tahini yogurt. This is the kind of healthy, satisfying food that we all wish would simply materialize at home for dinner. And it can, if you start acting like a prep cook.
Here’s how it works. Set aside some time on a Sunday, and make a few of these Building Blocks: Roast a squash, massage some cabbage with salt, blitz together a pesto, whichever. Seal them all up—they’ll keep in the fridge for five days. Now fast-forward to Tuesday night. Combine a few Building Blocks. Add something simple, like a steak or noodles. (Keep scrolling—we have combo ideas.) An impressive dinner comes together in minutes. How? Because that #@%! is mise-en-placed. —Julia Kramer
Try it: tossed into stir-fries, as a burrito filling, or folded into sautéed greens.
Try it: as a dip, on crackers with smoked fish, or over hard-boiled eggs.
Try it: anywhere you'd use pickled onion, such as in grain bowls, on roasted carrots, or on a cheese sandwich.
Try it: smeared on pork, folded into scrambled eggs, or tossed with rice.
Try it: sprinkled on peanut butter toast or stirred into plain yogurt that's been seasoned with fresh lemon juice and salt.
Try it: tossed in slaw, stirred into soup, or fried with roasted veg to make fritters.
Try it: schmeared on toast, tossed with pasta, or dolloped on a baked potato.
Try it: with white beans on toast, in salads, or puréed and spread on pita.
Try it: alongside a chicken cutlet, on a turkey sandwich, or thrown into a stir-fry.
Try it: drizzled over roasted potatoes or as a sub for mayo in chicken salad.
Try it: tossed with cooked soba noodles or drizzled over seared salmon.
Try it: in a frittata, folded into a grain salad, or in a hash with bacon.
Now, Mix and Match:
Ramen noodles + chopped peanuts + Spicy Tofu Crumbles + Pickled Scallions + torn escarole + Roasted Garlic Chili Sauce + thinly sliced radish
Cooked black rice + fried egg + Roasted Veg with Nutritional Yeast + Toasted Nori Mayonnaise + cilantro leaves and stems + sliced avocado + Miso-Turmeric Dressing
Romaine hearts + Cashew Caesar Dressing + Salted Red Cabbage + thinly sliced red onion + store-bought hot-smoked salmon + Puffed Rice and Coconut Crunchies
Sprouted Red Lentils + Horseradish-Pumpkin Seed Pesto + sliced seared steak + Roasted Veg with Nutritional Yeast + coarsely chopped almonds + Marinated Feta with Roasted Lemon
