Cooking for health — and yourself — in the new year

With the many “in & out” lists that went viral over the past couple weeks, there’s a general sentiment among everyone I know to eschew things that haven’t been working out over the last year since life returned somewhat to normal. Be it jobs, relationships or an overall approach toward how they live their life, making resolutions seems to be out, but actually internalizing and living them is in.

I am no exception, especially when it comes to how I think about the food I make. For the first time in a long time, I was eager for the holidays to be over and to look over the last year, and my whole life really, and reevaluate how I eat and what eating “well” means to me. That’s why, for our Food team’s relaunch this last week, I wrote about recipes that I make that I actually eat, not what I think I should be eating.

Cultivating a way of eating can seem scary when it’s the opposite of the status quo. It took me two separate months-long stints trying 100% plant-based eating to realize that it’s not a diet my body can stick with. I actively try to reduce my consumption of meat, but I’ll never give it up completely and that’s OK. I’ve written before about how I’m not someone who loves pasta — a professional handicap of sorts, I know. But how others think about pasta, I think about freshly cooked rice: Without a scoop with each meal, I wouldn’t be happy.

To ensure I have room for that scoop of rice, each meal I cook comprises a protein and some kind of vegetable that I can then spoon over rice. My Steak and Asparagus ‘Sauté-Fry’ With Dijon-Sesame Dressing takes thin slices of steak and tangles them with slightly charred asparagus coated in a punchy mustard-and-sesame sauce. Similarly in my Seared Tuna With Marinated Vinegar Cucumbers and Sesame, I love serving thin slices of medium-rare tuna steak with crisp chunks of cucumbers marinated in chili crisp and black vinegar.

And my Roast Turkey Meatballs and Onions With Lemony Sautéed Zucchini use a lemon to add brightness and flavor to simple ground-turkey meatballs and blistered zucchini. All their juices mingling in the bowl soak into that scoop of rice and make for the most comforting, healthy and restorative meal I can think of.

The recipes I make for myself at the end of a long day of work may not look anything like what you like to make for yourself, but I hope they inspire you to try out a new way of eating, over and over again, until you land on what fits your new outlook on eating for your happiness — and what doesn’t.

Steak and Asparagus ‘Sauté-Fry’ With Dijon-Sesame Dressing

Steak becomes a casual weeknight dinner in this relaxed “sauté-fry” in which slices of meat are mixed with lightly charred asparagus and drizzled with a mustard sauce spiked with Chinese black vinegar and sesame oil. If you’re eating for one, save the leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch. And feel free to swap the steak for sliced pork or grilled chicken, or the asparagus for broccolini florets and stems.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 35 minutes.

(Shelby Moore)

Seared Tuna With Marinated Vinegar Cucumbers and Sesame

Beautifully medium-rare tuna provides the ideal partner to crisp, cool cucumbers marinated in vinegar and chili crisp. The tuna — hot outside and cool inside — soaks up the cucumber marinade just as well and is ideally eaten atop a scoop of fresh-cooked rice.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 25 minutes.

(Shelby Moore)

Roast Turkey Meatballs and Onions With Lemony Sautéed Zucchini

Lemon zest adds bright flavor to ground turkey for meatballs that roast quickly in the oven with red onions. Zucchini is lightly blistered until tender and cooked with garlic and lemon juice, which soaks into the tender squash. Ground chicken or pork works just as well instead of the turkey, if you like.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes.

(Shelby Moore)