“When I look around the table and see a collection of double-dipping, hand-eating, pants-unbuttoning guests, I know it’s been a successful night,” chef and Top Chef Canada host Eden Grinshpan writes in her first cookbook, Eating Out Loud, which debuted earlier this month.
Grinshpan, who is half Israeli and grew up in Toronto, learned to embrace this unshy, unfussy approach to food while living in Israel. She and her family travelled there for countless summers and, eventually, Grinshpan moved there after graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in London.
“I had the opportunity to backpack and explore the world and work in kitchens, which was a really big turning point for me,” she told me over the phone a couple weeks ago.
Indeed, the dishes that Grinshpan cooked and ate during those years are what turned the pages of Eating Out Loud shakshuka-crimson, hummus-beige, herby-emerald. Its chapters, from “Eggs All Day” to “Handheld Meals,” hinge on Middle Eastern flavors, like sticky pomegranate molasses, puckery sumac, and nutty tahini. (“I’m a firm believer in the motto, ‘If you fuck it up, put tahini on it,” Grinshpan writes.)
“The book is super veg-heavy,” she told me. “That’s how I make food at home.” Her fridge is reliably stuffed with what she calls “essentials,” such as garlicky tahini, labneh, and baba ghanoush. Just add in any vegetable slash meat slash starch and you have a pants-unbuttoning worthy meal.
Case in point: this amped-up broccoli with herbed yogurt and dukkah. Greek yogurt is treated to parsley, chives, and tarragon, plus a zing of just-squeezed lemon. And Grinshpan’s version of dukkah—an Egyptian condiment comprising toasted nuts, seeds, and spices—is chock-full of hazelnuts, cumin, coriander, and sesame. Prep the accessories in advance and tuck in the fridge. Then take care of the broccoli whenever dinner time rolls around.
Grinshpan’s whole-roasted technique is inspired by Israeli chef Eyal Shani’s cauliflower (what The New York Times calls his “signature dish”). You blanch the head, ensuring a buttery interior, and let it air-dry, then douse in olive oil and blast in a blistering oven. It’s the sort of why didn’t I think of that? technique that you—and by you, I mean I—will turn to again and again and again.
“Actually,” Grinshpan said, “I’ve made that dish three times in the last two weeks. My parents are like, ‘We need the broccoli!’” And honestly, who could blame them?
| ROASTED BROCCOLI | |
| 2 | broccoli heads |
| 2 | tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| HERBED YOGURT | |
| 1 | cup whole-milk Greek yogurt |
| 1/2 | cup chopped fresh parsley |
| 1/2 | cup chopped fresh chives |
| 1 | tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon |
| 1/2 | lemon, juice of |
| 1 1/2 | teaspoons kosher salt |
| 1 | garlic clove |
| SERVING | |
| Extra-virgin olive oil | |
| Dukkah (recipe below) | |
| 1 | serrano pepper, very thinly sliced |
| 1 | lemon |
| Flaky sea salt |
| ROASTED BROCCOLI | |
| 2 | broccoli heads |
| 2 | tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| HERBED YOGURT | |
| 1 | cup whole-milk Greek yogurt |
| 1/2 | cup chopped fresh parsley |
| 1/2 | cup chopped fresh chives |
| 1 | tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon |
| 1/2 | lemon, juice of |
| 1 1/2 | teaspoons kosher salt |
| 1 | garlic clove |
| SERVING | |
| Extra-virgin olive oil | |
| Dukkah (recipe below) | |
| 1 | serrano pepper, very thinly sliced |
| 1 | lemon |
| Flaky sea salt |
| 1 | cup raw hazelnuts or pistachios |
| 1 | teaspoon cumin seeds |
| 1 | teaspoon coriander seeds |
| 3 | tablespoons sesame seeds |
| 1/2 | teaspoon ground cardamom |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
| 1 | cup raw hazelnuts or pistachios |
| 1 | teaspoon cumin seeds |
| 1 | teaspoon coriander seeds |
| 3 | tablespoons sesame seeds |
| 1/2 | teaspoon ground cardamom |
| 1 | teaspoon kosher salt |
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