Cooking
The mix of avocado, jalapeño, vinegar, lime, garlic, parsley and cilantro is simultaneously silky and sparkling.
Hello there! “Happy” Monday. Mia here, filling in for Melissa Clark, who will be back next week.
Not too long ago, my colleague Tanya Sichynsky wrote about building a sauce library. Danielle, a reader, emailed asking for “a collection of five or so sauces that pack a lot of flavor and store well that I can make ahead and then use to whip together a quick, tasty meal.” It got me thinking about the New York Times Cooking recipes I turn to again and again for their sauce components, doubling or tripling those sauces so that I have extra for lunches, dinners and snacks.
Becky Hughes’s vegan Caesar dressing immediately comes to mind — it’s now the only Caesar dressing I make. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s tofu cream is up there. And I never feel bad about buying too many leafy herbs — if that’s even a thing — because whatever doesn’t get used in this or that recipe goes into Melissa Clark’s slather-it-on-everything green sauce.
Then, of course, there’s Yewande Komolafe’s guasacaca, which anchors her garlic chicken with guasacaca sauce recipe. It’s truly hard not to eat it straight from the spoon — that melding of avocado, jalapeño, vinegar, lime, garlic, parsley and cilantro is simultaneously silky and sparkly. “This recipe is all about that sauce!!!,” a reader, writes. “Guasacaca sauce is so versatile. I used every last bit of it … smeared on a plate topped with an arugula salad, then slathered on hot roasted potatoes, then on a BLT. Delicious.”
Featured Recipe
Garlic Chicken With Guasacaca Sauce
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The lemony, savory pan sauce in these one-pot chicken meatballs with greens from Yasmin Fahr is formed by a clever cooking trick. Swiss chard ribbons and lemon slices are mounded over browned meatballs before the lid goes on, so the greens and lemons give up their liquid and deglaze the pan. I know I don’t need to tell you this, but: crusty bread, please!
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