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April 17, 2025 
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| Jocelyn Ramirez's walnut picadillo. Chris Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Frances Boswell. |
Recipe Matchmaker, Part 1
You have hyperspecific needs, I have personalized answers. Recipe Matchmaker, at your service. If I didn't answer your question today, fear not: We'll be back with more matchmaking next week, and a few of your requests have been filed away for newsletters in the not-so-distant future. Don't forget to read to the end for my rapid-fire responses.
Use it or lose it
"I'm moving soon and would like to use up some of my pantry staples. Key players are a giant bag of walnuts, many cans of beans, white rice and several half-finished bags of frozen veggies." — Siobhan |
Let's divide and conquer. That giant bag of walnuts is going into Jocelyn Ramirez's rich walnut picadillo, which also calls for some pantry staples like canned tomato sauce, tomato paste and diced tomatoes. What kind of beans do you have? You'll never catch me eating picadillo without some black beans and white rice.
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And speaking of the white rice: Use it and your frozen vegetables in Priya Krishna's vegetable pulao, which is adaptable to whatever you have on hand. "In a pinch, a frozen bag of carrots, peas and corn will work just fine," Priya writes. Bingo, baby.
"Red bell peppers were quite inexpensive this week and I bought a lot of them. I'm very fond of mushrooms and a dish that used both would be great, but I'd be grateful just for something that lets the red bell peppers shine." — Kathy |
Shine on with Carolina Gelen's lecsó, a paprika-packed pepper stew. While Hungarian yellow peppers are traditional, four medium red bell peppers would find themselves quite comfortable in this recipe. And if it's warm enough to grill where you are, you can break out some oyster mushrooms for Jocelyn's grilled mushroom skewers in red chile paste. They call for two orange or yellow bell peppers, but I won't tell if you use red ones.
Holiday corner
I need a vegetarian main I can make during Passover. Because of Passover rules and regular kosher rules, the dish must be gluten-free and dairy-free. Here's the kicker: no rice, beans, oats, lentils, farro, barley or other grains, also because of Passover rules (take it up with the rabbis). Quinoa is OK. — Rebecca |
Good news: There's nary a grain nor bean nor cheese nor gluten structure in Susan Spungen's whole roasted cauliflower with pistachio pesto, which she developed a few years ago explicitly for a vegetarian or vegan Seder main course. This reader comment made me laugh: "It's kind of remarkable how easily the spoon goes into the cauliflower. To the point that it's kind of unsettling. Really good recipe."
Looking for an Easter easy-peasy main dish that's vegetarian with no mushrooms, olives or eggs. Serves 6 people. Or, if for fewer people, recipe can be easily doubled. — Pam |
I'm a huge fan of the store-bought puff pastry tart for Easter. Topped with colorful vegetables, it's a simple and satisfying nod to spring. Sue Li's carrot tart with ricotta and feta is a great egg-free candidate to serve a crowd. Maybe with Melissa Clark's sugar snap pea salad with radishes, mint and ricotta salata on the side? But instead of buying a third kind of cheese, buy a large container of feta and use the leftovers from the tart in the salad. Resourceful!
More soup, more sauce
"I would like more vegetarian soup recipes, both creamy and not! Specifically recipes that aren't the same old few — i.e., hearty vegetable, corn chowder, broccoli-Cheddar, tomato, etc. While traveling in other countries, I've found so many delightful veg-based options but I see a lot of the same recipes here in the States." — Sarah |
Around the world in 80 soups? There's an idea. A few to get you started: Kay Chun's gombaleves, a Hungarian creamy mushroom soup (use soy sauce or tamari in place of the Worcestershire sauce); Ifrah F. Ahmed's maraq misir, a warming Somali red lentil soup that can be served creamy or chunky; and Joe Yonan's lablabi, a Tunisian crunchy and creamy chickpea soup.
"I want three extremely simple sauces I can make, and ideally store for a bit in the fridge, to make veggie bowl dinners delicious. I am now keeping cooked quinoa and roasted veggies in the freezer, and have thus far resorted to prepared salad dressing, but I know we can do better." — Carrie |
A green sauce is nonnegotiable. Ali Slagle's vegan green goddess dressing, creamy with tahini and robust with tarragon, comes together breezily in a blender and will hold up in the fridge for four days. Keep the blender out for Martha Rose Shulman's miso-ginger dressing, which will keep for a week. To round things out, add Ali's punchy peanut sauce to the rotation, where it'll last for four days.
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| Kerri Brewer for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. |
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| David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. |
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| Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. |
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One More Thing!
Recipe Matchmaker rapid fire
Q: "Leeks and mushrooms." — Susan |
Q: "Recipes for tofu that are not soy-sauce based but still strong tasting." — Debbie |
Q: "I would like to incorporate more tofu in my breakfast beyond tofu scramble. Any other recipes would be greatly appreciated." — Antony |
Q: Vegetarian stir-fry with nuts (no tofu). — Regina |
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Email us at theveggie@nytimes.com. Newsletters will be archived here. Reach out to my colleagues at cookingcare@nytimes.com if you have questions about your account.
