Hello, Halloumi

Credit…Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.

I found halloumi later in life, and we connected instantly. It’s salty, tangy and squeaky, an underrated quality in cheese. So I’m making up for lost halloumi time with pesto pasta with halloumi, seared halloumi salads and this new five-ingredient baked tomato pasta with harissa and halloumi from the vegetarian cooking queen Hetty Lui McKinnon.

The five ingredients, as you might guess, are short pasta, harissa paste, halloumi, dill and your preferred jarred marinara. If you can’t find halloumi, feta is a great substitute, and you can swap in sriracha, sambal oelek or chile flakes if you’re fresh out of harissa. In other words: This is a pantry- and fridge-friendly pasta.

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Baked Tomato Pasta With Harissa and Halloumi

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Something about baby bok choy makes me think spring — maybe it’s because they’re shaped like tulips. Combined with the perky flavors of mustard, ginger and lemon, this sheet-pan scallion chicken with bok choy from Kay Chun is very springy, very easy and, judging by the five stars and nearly 4,000 reviews, very popular with our readers.

Yewande Komolafe’s shrimp tacos are surprisingly easy to pull together on a weeknight, especially if you have shrimp in your freezer and a good chunk of cabbage in your fridge. Add your favorite corn tortillas and hefty spoonfuls of sour cream — or don’t. I would eat these spiced, seared shrimp on a pile of shredded cabbage with pico de gallo and happily call that dinner.

Bunches of asparagus have appeared at my grocery store, and while I can no longer resist them, they’re also not quite asparagus-y enough to shine in preparations like steaming or slivered raw into salads. Into a 400-degree oven they go, slicked with oil and generously seasoned with salt and pepper, to become sweet and tender and just the slightest bit crunchy.

But I’m not quite done with winter vegetables just yet. A mix of broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts is what you’ll need for Ali Slagle’s roasted broccoli grain bowl with nooch dressing, the sort of recipe that begs to be doubled or tripled and packed into impressive desk lunches. The “nooch,” by the way, is nutritional yeast, which is mixed with lemon, mustard and garlic powder for a balanced, umami-rich dressing. More excellent (and vegan) applications for nutritional yeast: “cheesy” popcorn, fettuccine Alfredo, twice-baked potatoes and this staff-favorite Caesar salad.

Last: Sunday is St. Patrick’s Day, which means I must make Nigella Lawson’s chocolate Guinness cake. It’s a deep, dark cocoa cake topped with a smooth cream cheese frosting — and, as you’ll note in the recipe, it calls for a cup (eight ounces) of Guinness, which is usually sold in 15-ounce cans. What to do with the rest, I wonder.