Cooking
“This is the best soup I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
In the New York area, fall has been interrupting itself with summer weather, but that doesn’t mean winter won’t come in the end. I wish there were a way to store all this warmth in my bones for when the freeze finally arrives. But I know I can always put it on my table via zingy, sun-zapped herbs, fruits and vegetables that recall the blue skies they grew under.
I’ll certainly be reaching for Yasmin Fahr’s lemony chicken-feta meatball soup with spinach all winter long. The combination of lemon and feta always gets me dreaming of Aegean beaches, while the spinach makes this dish both vivid and healthful. Instead of typical breadcrumbs, Yasmin uses rolled oats in her meatballs to help lighten them, creating a wonderfully tender, pleasing texture. Oats also thicken the broth, making this lovely meal even more sustaining. Be sure to keep plenty of lemon wedges on hand for squeezing in at the end — that extra zesty bump is pure sunshine.
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Another thing I love about Yasmin’s recipe is the cheese because, well, cheese. I love adding it to otherwise cheeseless dishes, like my shakshuka with feta. Yewande Komolafe seems to agree, because tucking nuggets of halloumi into her skillet chicken with couscous and lemon was truly inspired. The bits of salty cheese, tossed with chopped lemon and walnuts, make the dish positively vibrate with flavor and texture, an absolute delight in any weather.
Just as snappy and a little spicy, too, is Ali Slagle’s slow-roasted salmon with cucumbers and feta (yay, more cheese!). To make an aromatic oil in which to gently cook the salmon, Ali uses a mix of red pepper flakes and smoked paprika for a ruddy color and some heat, rounding it out with fennel and coriander seeds. The cucumber and feta are tossed on top of the salmon as a cool, saline counterpart to the silky, rich fish.
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