1
It’s the query that by no means quits: “What’s for dinner?” Whether you’re juggling a busy workweek, college pickups, or simply making an attempt to make it via the witching hour, dinner nonetheless must land on the desk. That’s the place Farmhouse Weeknights: Quick and Wholesome Recipes for Dinner is available in.
This brand-new cookbook from Oregon-based meals blogger and writer Melissa Bahen (aka Lulu the Baker) is filled with over 80 cozy, comforting recipes designed to assist busy dwelling cooks get dinner accomplished in an hour or much less.
With a give attention to contemporary substances and time-saving shortcuts, Melissa’s recipes are approachable and family-friendly with out sacrificing flavour or nourishment. From soups and skillets to salads, sandwiches, and after-dinner treats, Farmhouse Weeknights is the final word information to fast, satisfying meals for actual life. Each recipe consists of suggestions for getting forward, serving ideas to spherical out your meal, and intelligent methods to simplify prep.
We’re thrilled to share three of Melissa’s favourites from the e book under—together with a creamy roasted cauliflower soup, a vibrant shortcut kale salad, and a panini that brings the deli counter dwelling.
Keep scrolling for the recipes—and don’t miss the giveaway on the finish of the put up in your probability to win a replica of Farmhouse Weeknights!
Roasted Cauliflower & White Cheddar Soup
I began making this cozy soup a number of years in the past, and it grew to become an on the spot favourite. We have it typically, particularly when the times are brief and chilly. Roasting the cauliflower earlier than including it to the soup provides it a wealthy, deep taste, which works fantastically with the nutty cheddar and contemporary, herby thyme.
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 40 minutes | Total: 50 minutes | Serves: 6 to eight
Ingredients:
2 kilos cauliflower, chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil or your favourite impartial cooking oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus extra as wanted
Freshly floor black pepper
1 massive onion, diced
4 teaspoons minced garlic, or 4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon contemporary thyme, plus extra for garnishing, non-compulsory
6 cups vegetable broth or rooster broth
3 cups shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the cauliflower in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle generously with olive oil (about 3 tablespoons), season with kosher salt and pepper, and roast for 20 minutes, till the cauliflower is golden brown.
When the cauliflower has been within the oven for about 10 minutes, put the onion in a big, heavy-bottom Dutch oven or saucepan. Drizzle with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sauté over medium warmth for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and sauté for 1 to 2 extra minutes.
When the cauliflower is completed roasting, add it and the broth to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, cowl, cut back the warmth, and simmer for quarter-hour.
Remove from the warmth and mix both with an immersion blender or in a countertop blender till easy. If you’re utilizing a countertop blender, depart the lid barely askew and canopy it with a kitchen towel whereas mixing. This will permit steam to flee but additionally defend each your hand and the kitchen from splatters and steam. After mixing, pour the soup again into the saucepan.
Return the soup to medium warmth, add the cheese and half-and-half, and cook dinner till heated via. Add salt and pepper to style, then serve with some thyme if utilizing.
SHORTCUTS & NOTES
Pre-prepped cauliflower florets
Pre-chopped onion
Pre-minced garlic (frozen cubes, or a jar or squeeze tube)
This is a case the place shredding the cheese your self will end in a smoother soup, however I’ve positively used pre-shredded white cheddar earlier than and lived to inform the story.
The crispy cheese garnish pictured within the picture is simply an non-compulsory crunchy chew that appears fairly.
Annie & Brooke’s Kale Salad
I first had this fancy-but-easy salad at my good friend Brooke’s annual Christmas bingo occasion a number of years in the past, however she received the recipe from our good friend Annie, so I’m attributing it to each, with love. It’s a really fairly salad with pretty contrasts in flavors and textures, and better of all, it’s tremendous straightforward to make due to a complete bunch of shortcuts. The scrumptious dressing is made up of two store-bought dressings, many of the veggies are pre-chopped and are available in a bag of broccoli slaw, and you’ll definitely sweet your personal pecans, however I at all times use a bag of already candy ones from the produce part of the grocery retailer. The solely actual work required to make it’s to cut the kale and provides it a bit of therapeutic massage to make it tender.
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 0 minutes | Total: 10 minutes | Serves: 6 to eight
Ingredients:
1 bunch lacinato kale, ribs eliminated, chopped
4 tablespoons Briannas blush wine French dressing, or model of alternative
4 tablespoons Briannas poppyseed dressing, or model of alternative
1 (12-ounce) package deal broccoli slaw
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup candied or honey-roasted pecans
Instructions:
Put the kale in a big serving bowl, pour the blush wine French dressing over, and gently therapeutic massage the kale for 1 to 2 minutes. This helps make it tender.
Add the poppyseed dressing, broccoli slaw, Gorgonzola, dried cranberries, and pecans and toss to mix.
SHORTCUTS & NOTES
Lacinato kale can also be known as Tuscan kale and dinosaur kale. Sometimes I can solely discover it within the natural produce part at my grocery retailer. I see it typically at farmers markets and summer time produce stands, and it’s straightforward to develop in a yard backyard. It is available in bunches of lengthy, skinny leaves with a darkish inexperienced, virtually blueish shade and a very cool, pebbly texture. If you may’t discover lacinato kale, I’d use packaged child kale and skip the therapeutic massage step. Don’t use curly kale; it may be fairly bitter.
Chicken Pesto Paninis
I received the thought for this tasty sandwich from a beloved native grocery retailer. They have a giant pizza oven within the deli part and bake up contemporary pizzas and a few completely different sorts of sizzling sandwiches. This one with tender rooster and flavorful pesto is my favourite. I deal with myself to at least one if I’m on the retailer round lunchtime, however they’re tremendous easy to make at dwelling, too. All of the completely different sandwich substances lend one thing particular to the completed product: sharpness from the pink onion, sweetness from the tomato, that scrumptious peppery taste from the arugula. Focaccia is the best choice for bread, so use it if you could find it.
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 3 to five minutes | Total: quarter-hour | Makes: 1 sandwich
Ingredients:
2 items thick-sliced sourdough, or 1 piece of focaccia, halved like a hamburger bun
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon pesto
1 ounce sliced mozzarella or provolone cheese
2 1/2 ounces shredded rotisserie rooster
Baby arugula
Thinly sliced pink onion
Thinly sliced tomato
Instructions:
Preheat your panini maker.
Lay each items of bread out on a plate or slicing board. Spread the mayonnaise on each halves, then drizzle with the pesto. On 1 of the items of bread, layer the cheese, rooster, child arugula, onion, and tomato. Top the sandwich with the remaining piece of bread.
Cook within the panini press for 3 to five minutes, till the bread is golden and crusty.
SHORTCUTS & NOTES
Store-bought pesto (We just like the one from Costco.)
Pre-sliced cheese
If you don’t have a panini press, you may nonetheless take pleasure in this sandwich—simply give it the grilled cheese remedy! Lightly butter the surface of each items of bread and cook dinner it in a skillet or on a griddle over medium warmth till both sides is golden and the cheese is melty.
Recipes excerpted from Farmhouse Weeknights: Quick and Wholesome Recipes For Dinner by Melissa Bahen. Photographs by Melissa Bahen. Reprinted by permission of Gibbs Smith Books.
Enter to Win Your Own Copy of Farmhouse Weeknights
One entry per particular person, please. Multiple entries (by IP or e mail handle) shall be excluded.
All type fields have to be crammed in appropriately to enter.
Please double-check your e mail handle, as it will likely be used to contact the winner.
The giveaway closes on August 31, 2025. Winners shall be randomly chosen on or earlier than September 03, 2025, and have 5 days to reply to the prize e mail to just accept the prize.