This Quick Noodle Soup Is Vivid in Every Sense of the Word

Wishing you all a good Monday. Today is both Inauguration Day and the federal holiday for Martin Luther King’s Birthday. M.L.K. Day is also a national day of service, the only federal holiday that encourages people to volunteer to help improve their communities. For me, this usually includes baking cookies to drop off at a local food pantry (you can’t go wrong with chocolate chip). If you have the day off, cooking something delicious and sharing it with others might be just the way to spend a couple of hours.

To brighten your January table, Christian Reynoso comes through with a vibrantly multihued new recipe. Stained orange by turmeric and spiced with curry paste, his creamy butternut squash and coconut noodle soup is based on khao soi, a comforting northern Thai classic. Imbued with mashed butternut squash, the ruddy soup can be as brothy or thick as you like, depending on how much stock you add. A squeeze of lime and a handful of herbs tossed in at the end cut the coconut richness, lending a perfectly calibrated tang.

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Creamy Butternut Squash and Coconut Noodle Soup

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Just as vivid, but with a crunchy texture and green chile heat, Ali Slagle’s hoisin-peanut shrimp and slaw is inspired by Vietnamese fresh spring rolls (a.k.a. summer rolls) with peanut sauce. It’s an exuberant salad, filled with cabbage and cucumber and laced with fried shallots, that’s just as great whether the shrimp are warm or at room temperature.

There’s more brightness to be had in my herby skillet chicken with greens. Weeknight-friendly and vegetable-forward, the seared boneless, skinless chicken thighs are nestled into a mound of greens, herbs and browned whole garlic cloves and then roasted until golden. Just before serving, stir some butter, lemon zest, capers or olives into the meaty drippings to give the pan sauce a salty bite. Serve the dish over rice or mashed potatoes, or alongside a baguette to catch every buttery drop.

For another gorgeous mound of greens — this time soupy and meatless — we have Rick Martínez’s greens and beans with toasted breadcrumbs. Using a hearty French cassoulet as the starting point, Rick has substituted leafy Swiss chard and celery for the usual duck and pork parts, and he uses frozen lima beans or edamame instead of dried white beans. He notes that the broth is the real draw here, infused as it is with thyme, garlic and olive oil, so serve this with spoons for slurping.

Lastly, Genevieve Ko’s granola bites are a healthful, “winter trail jaunt” kind of treat, full of nuts, seeds and oats. They’re sweetened with maple syrup and made chewy by dates and dried cherries. If the kids are home from school, let them help with the rolling and coconut-coating. Then have some for breakfast and tuck them into lunchboxes all week long.

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That’s all for now. See you on Wednesday.