I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I prefer, come January, New Year’s adjustments. (At the very least, they’re easier to stick to. ) This year I’m only making one: a slight tweak to the way I think about meal planning. Instead of deciding on a protein and then planning the sides to go with it, this year I’ll be picking a vegetable side first, and then finding the right protein to complement it.

Because, truth be told, I am happy with simple protein preparations. I’ll often sous vide some chicken thighs at 185℉ for a couple of hours (usually while I’m at the gym), then sear the skin in a pan right before eating. They come out super juicy, with the skin taking on a potato chip-like crispness. (Sous-vide cooking is great for two things: rendering fat and turning collagen into gelatin.)

With that sorted, I’m able to bring a starring-attraction mentality to the sides. In my opinion, our Balsamic-Roasted Beets with Hazelnuts and Chives is a perfect candidate for this role. We start by roasting the beets with a little vinegar and honey, to give them a tempered, tangy sweetness. Whole beets take a good, long while to become tender, giving the vinegar—we use balsamic—a chance to lose some of its sharpness as it evaporates. The remaining liquid in the pan gets whisked with some olive oil, toasted hazelnuts, and chives. And there’s your dressing.

I’m also quite drawn to these Butter-Roasted Cabbage Wedges. We rub the wedges with butter and sprinkle them with a fragrant combination of hazelnuts, citrus zest, garlic, and coriander. We then then roast until the exterior leaves become deeply browned and crispy, while the interior remains silky, sweet and tender. A dressing of grapefruit juice, whole-grain mustard, and honey finishes it off.

But the right move, on my part, would be to start with a carrot dish, because I happen to have a large bag of them languishing in my produce drawer. Our Yogurt-Roasted Carrots should do the trick here. They’re coated with a spice-infused yogurt that gets its flavor inspiration from tandoori chicken. The milk solids in the yogurt caramelize as the carrots roast—perfectly complementing the blend of warm spices.

And though I’ve had my fill of white potatoes for a bit, I have not reached my saturation point with sweet potatoes. I think these Baked Sweet Potatoes with Maple Crème Fraîche would get along nicely with my simple chicken thighs. The combination of creamy kefir and crème fraîche, caramelized butter, umami-rich fish sauce, crunchy peanuts, and scallions is pretty irresistible, and a welcome change-up from December’s more holiday-ish flavor profiles.

And for something that’s a bit fresher—but not entirely raw—I’ll be making a big bowl of our Broccolini Miso Caesar. This spin on the much-loved salad uses mayo as the base of the dressing—because what is mayo but already-emulsified egg and oil? It’s rich in umami because of the Parmesan and/or anchovies, and a couple tablespoons of white miso adds deep, complex flavors and a subtle sweetness. A splash of olive oil and garlic, its bite tempered by a quick steep in tangy lemon juice, complete the dressing. We use this on blanched broccolini, but you could substitute almost any vegetable, even the classic romaine.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.