21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (2024)

From hearty kale soup and easy chicken broth to crispy Brussels sprouts and herby beans, these 21 recipes will start your year on a simple, refreshing note.

This January, we’re focused on crunchygreen salads, seasonal winter produce, craveablevegetable-heavy dishes, and undemanding butdelicious soups. As much as we love hefty plates of prime rib, we’re admittedly excited to leave extravagant holiday dinners behind and move onto simple meals that keep us warm and well-fed during this month’s chilly, crisp nights.

  • Salads
  • Easy Soups
  • Healthy-ish Dinners
  • The Best of Seasonal Produce

Salads

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (1)

1 of 5Thomas J. Story

Fennel, Almond, and Pecorino Salad

For abright, crunchy salad, use fennel, chopped almonds, parsely, and grated pecorino cheese with a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and Dijon mustard. Make it even heartier by adding grilled shrimp or artichoke hearts.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (2)

2 of 5Annabelle Breakey

Salmon Sesame Salad

Thislemongrass chile dressingis a recipe you’ll use over and over again, but we especially love it on thissalmon, cabbage, snow pea, avocado, orange, and cilantro salad.

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21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (3)

3 of 5Iain Bagwell

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Honey Dressing

A touch of honey in thiswarm saladbrings out the natural sweetness in roasted onions, sweet potatoes, fennel, and bell peppers. (Of course, you can change up the vegetables to whatever you want.) For an extra layer of flavor, serve with shaved parmesan or asiago cheese.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (4)

4 of 5Iain Bagwell

Shrimp and White Bean Salad with Lemon Dressing

Combining mild, subtly bitterchicory greens with sweet shrimpis an easy win. A lemon juice- and zest-based dressing adds an extra zing that we just love.

5 of 5Dylan + Jeni

Hearty Winter Salad

Salads aren’t just for lunch. ThisHearty Winter Saladis filling enough to make for dinner thanks to a mix of radicchio, slightly smashed potatoes, chickpeas, and a sherry vinegar dressing.

Easy Soups

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (6)

1 of 5Thomas J. Story

Butternut Squash and Corn Soup

Make this silkysquash soupon a particularly chilly January night. Corn adds a sweet note, while chicken broth makes it extra flavorful.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (7)

2 of 5Annabelle Breakey

Creamy Pumpkin Seed and Green Chile Posole

We remade the usual pork-based posole as avegetarian versionwith toasted pumpkin seeds, green chile, zucchini, and vegetable broth. For a vegan version, just skip the final sprinkle of cotija cheese.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (8)

3 of 5Iain Bagwell

Red Russian Kale and Chorizo Soup (Caldo Verde)

A little bit of heat sets thiskale and chorizo soupapart from being another run-of-the-mill broth. When you’re at the farmers’ market, look for Red Russian kale, a mild-flavored heirloom variety with a purple and gray-green color.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (9)

4 of 5Annabelle Breakey

Shiitake Mushroom and Tofu Soup

Aclear broth souppacked with soft cabbage, mushrooms, tofu, and rice noodles is perfect for a night spent at home. Bonus: the entire soup only takes 30 minutes to make.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (10)

5 of 5Annabelle Breakey

Toasted Bread, Bean, and Vegetable Soup

Ourlighter version of ribollita(a sturdy Tuscan bread and vegetable soup) has a ton of onions, carrots, celery, cannellini beans, tomatoes, Swiss chard, and just a bit of olive oil-toasted bread on top.

Healthy-ish Dinners

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (11)

1 of 6Iain Bagwell

Sweet and Spicy Red Kuri Squash Bowl

Beautiful orange slices ofroasted red kuri squash and scoops of coconut riceare topped with a sticky sweet and spicy sauce. You can use any Asian chile paste or sauce in your refrigerator to add a touch of heat, but we especially like Huy Fong Foods’ sambal oelek.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (12)

2 of 6Thomas J. Story

Miso-Marinated Black Cod

Created by chef Nobu Matsuhisa in New York more than 20 years ago, thisdelicate, buttery dishis the simple, healthy dinner we crave after all those extravagant holiday parties. Our version features green onions and ginger.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (13)

3 of 6Stephanie Spencer

Flageolet Beans with Rosemary and Thyme

It takes just a few minutes to prep the ingredients for thisherby pot of beans, then they simmer to tenderness in a slow-cooker. There’s no need to soak the beans beforehand; they cook to a tender finish straight from the package.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (14)

4 of 6James Carrier

Garbanzo-Tomato Curry

You probably have most of the ingredients to this comfortingGarbanzo Tomato Curryin your pantry already. The base of this dish is canned beans and diced tomatoes plus a mix of spices, so there’s not much pre-planning necessary.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (15)

5 of 6Yunhee Kim

Bengali Five-Spice Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Chicken legs and thighs, bell peppers, potatoes, and carrotsare tossed inpanch phoron — a five-spice blend of black mustard seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, and cumin seeds — and roasted in a very hot oven to toast the spices. This dish brings almost as much comfort as your favorite oversized sweater.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (16)

6 of 6Thomas J. Story

Turmeric Cauliflower Rice

Riced caulifloweris sauteed with onion, garlic, and brightly colored, earthy-flavored turmeric for a vegan side dish that can be used in grain bowls, soups, and salads. Make it on a Monday and eat it throughout the week.

The Best of Seasonal Produce

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (17)

1 of 5Annabelle Breakey

Baked Eggs with Leeks and Mushrooms

Take advantage of leek season with this super easyone-pan supper. Roast mushrooms and leeks for 10 minutes, then add eggs and goat cheese and bake for another 10 minutes. We like it with crusty bread and runny yolks.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (18)

2 of 5ErinKunkel

Brussels Sprout Salad with Pecorino and Tangerines

January is prime season for Brussels sprouts, so if you’ve never had raw Brussels before, now’s the time. Thisraw sprouts saladis very straightforward, which lets the sweet tangerines and sharp pecorino shine.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (19)

3 of 5Paul Brissman

Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Prosciutto Chips

In Antoni Porowski’s new cookbookAntoni in the Kitchen, the Queer Eye food and wine expert writes, “Brussels sprouts are one of my favorite vegetables, and I’ve had them every which way. At home, I always come back to keeping them simple: charred on the outside, with a nice firm-tender bite in the center. Prosciutto chips add a deliciously smoky, meaty umami bite.”

Tip: Cutting a little V into the base of each spout makes for even cooking while keeping the leaves intact.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Prosciutto Chips is excerpted from ANTONI IN THE KITCHEN © 2019 by Antoni Porowski with Mindy Fox. Photography © 2019 by Paul Brissman. Reproduced by permission of Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (20)

4 of 5Ngoc Minh Ngo

Meyer Lemon Salsa Verde

Meyer lemons are still in full swing, which is enough of an excuse for us to make thisMeyer Lemon Salsa Verdeon repeat. Eat it on scrambled eggs, grilled bread, steaks, or roasted vegetables. There’s really no wrong answer.

21 Recipes You Should Be Cooking This January (21)

5 of 5Dan Goldberg

Meyer-lemon Cake

And of course, meyer lemons aren’t designated to savory dishes only. ThisMeyer Lemon Cakeis aSunsetclassic. Just be sure to cook the lemons before adding them to the cake to mellow their flavor.

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