This story is part of On Repeat, a series in which we ask top chefs, cookbook authors, and other famous foodies about the dishes they just can’t quit.
I’m taking my turn in our new series On Repeat, in which we share the meatless and low-waste recipes that we keep coming back to. I’m not a longtime food pro, but I do categorize myself as a pretty prolific home cook. The dishes I come back to again and again tend towards warm and cozy things that come outta Dutch ovens, which makes them ideal this time of year—especially when half the country is staring down sub-zero temps and other assorted nasty winter weather. When I want to whip up something that feels a little more fancy than my go-to pasta e fagioli, I turn to Smitten Kitchen’s mushroom bourguignon, a meatless riff on a French classic.
Why I love it
I first made Deb Perelman’s hearty mushroom stew during a blizzard around ten years ago for a vegetarian friend who refused to let a foot of snow interfere with a dinner date. As a reward and a salve for frozen toes, I wanted to serve something rich, deep, and luxurious. More than that, I wanted it to do all that without it taking all afternoon.
Beef, braised low and slow in the oven, is why a classic bourguignon takes hours to come together. But if you ask me, this dish is way more about the sauce the beef bathes in than the beef itself, so trading it for meaty mushrooms is no great sacrifice. It also cuts the cook time to around 45 minutes, and most of that is spent building the precious sauce—a silky concoction of reduced red wine, butter, thyme, and stock.
I’ve been toggling back to this bookmark during snowstorms or whenever I want a veggie dinner that feels a little luxe ever since. It has all the depth of its counterpart, and if I’m honest I’m a pretty big sucker for anything you can spoon over egg noodles.
What I’ve changed
I’ve never felt compelled to mess with success here, but I do vary the type and proportions of veg to fit what’s in the fridge. The original recipe, for instance, calls for pearl onions, which I can’t always find at my local grocery store, so I’ve swapped them for chunks of yellow onion. The results aren’t quite as pretty as little umami orbs, but they get the job done. I’m also not religious about the ‘shrooms I use; the portobellos and/or creminis the OG calls for certainly have a meatier bite than, say, white buttons, but if that’s what I’ve got, then that’s what I’ll use.
I’ve also noodled with other versions of the recipe that have cropped up since. The New York Times’ riff from 2020, for instance, dials up the veggie content from a half-carrot to two full ones, brings leeks to the party, and finishes the dish with a final flourish of freshly browned chanterelles or oyster mushrooms. I sometimes debate swapping out the noodles for whipped taters or a bed of polenta, but my devotion to buttery eggy ribbons always wins.
What else I’m into right now
Frozen cookie dough. I’m not much of a baker, but last weekend we prepped and froze a batch of these brown-butter choco chip beauties. The idea: Cookies-on-demand will hopefully save trips to the store to satisfy sugar cravings.
Miso and beans. If you’re anything like me, you’re a serial saver-but-rare-maker of Instagram recipes. But the stars aligned for me on this miso, leek, and butter bean dinner, mainly because I had a pair of languishing leeks leftover from a vichyssoise kick over the holiday break.
Ginger everything. I’ve been on a lemon-ginger shot kick this cold-and-flu season, which has left me with a glut of spicy, earthy pulp in want of a second life. So far I’m eyeing using it for my afternoon tea or as a mix-in for some morning glory muffins.