The Recipe with Kenji and Deb

If the only hummus you’ve ever had came from a cold tub procured at a supermarket, yeah...you haven’t really had hummus. Homemade hummus, served warm, is an experience unto itself, and 1000% a better snack than a dusty protein bar. Deb and Kenji also tell us how they really feel about flavored hummus. 

Recipes Mentioned:

• Ethereally Smooth Hummus (Smitten Kitchen)
• The Food Lab’s Science of Great Hummus (Serious Eats)
• Hummus Heaped with Tomatoes and Cucumbers (Smitten Kitchen)

You’re really only technically eating a vegetable with broccoli cheddar soup — it is insistently not health food, but a giant middle finger to whoever invented the four food groups. It is a “you sure about that?” to the likes of President George HW Bush, who famously and controversially banned broccoli from Air Force One. Plus, we get to the bottom of broccoli vs broccoli rabe vs broccolini, and a broccoli dish to impress.

Recipes Mentioned:

• Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Serious Eats)
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Smitten Kitchen)

Crispy chicken cutlets are endlessly adaptable to taste, so it’s no wonder they are a universal crowd pleaser. From Austrian schnitzel to Japanese katsu to Deb’s mother-in-law’s recipe that leaves out a classic ingredient, there are endless permutations of chicken, flour, egg, breadcrumbs + ??? to satisfy the pickiest eater (and most discerning home cook).

Recipes Mentioned:

• Tonkatsu or Chicken Katsu (Serious Eats)
• Crispiest Chicken Cutlets (Smitten Kitchen)
• 5-Ingredient Fried Chicken Sandwiches (Serious Eats)

Brownies are a diabolical(ly) good cross between cake and cookie. They taste sinfully rich and decadent, but they’re an angel in the kitchen (one bowl recipe alertl!) and they make your house smell like heaven. Plus, we hear Deb and Kenji’s recommendations for the best snacks for gossiping or watching reality TV.

Recipes:

• Glossy Fudge Brownies Recipe (Serious Eats)
• Olive Oil Brownies (Smitten Kitchen)
• My Favorite Brownies (Smitten Kitchen)
• Best Cocoa Brownies (Smitten Kitchen)
• Blackout Brownie Waffle Sundae (Smitten Kitchen Every Day)
• Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches (Smitten Kitchen)

Nachos were invented in a Mexican border town for a group of American ladies who lunch, and now they are considered food for the beer-drinking, football-cheering everyman. They can come piled high with twenty ingredients; a plate of nothing more than chips with melted Velveeta are also considered nachos. Whatever floats your tortilla, Kenji and Deb discuss ways to optimize every bite. Also, our Executive Producer Audrey Mardavich gets advice on how to slay the Super Bowl potluck.

Recipes mentioned:

• The Ultimate Fully Loaded Vegan Nachos (Serious Eats)
• Corn and Black Bean Weeknight Nachos (Smitten Kitchen)

If humanity’s gotten you down lately, just keep in mind that our species can’t be that bad… we did invent the meatball after all. This ingenious invention stretches an expensive ingredient by mixing it with pantry staples into a dish that can feed many more people than on its own, while being truly delicious in its own right. Think about it: when meatballs are what’s for dinner, or you see meatballs on the menu at a restaurant, don’t you automatically think, ooh meatballs? It’s practically a reflex by this point of human evolution, someone really ought to study this. 

Quiet luxury has been all the rage the past few years, but our girl Onion Soup has been out here epitomizing that s**t for literally hundreds of years. A bag of onions, some butter to sauté it in, beef broth are really all you need; throw in some stale bread and grated cheese, and you’ve got a million-dollar taste for ten dollars and change. (AND it doesn’t take as long as you think. Ask Kenji and Deb.)

We are taking a break this week. Please enjoy this classic interview from our friends at Milk Street Radio.

For more information, visit Milk Street Radio's homepage, and follow Milk Street Radio on Apple Podcasts.

There comes a point in every New Yorker’s life when they venture outside city limits and learn, to their horror, 24-hour access to breakfast sandwiches via bodegas spaced two blocks apart is not the norm in the rest of the world. When Deb and Kenji start breaking down each component, you will realize that it takes a lot of skill and discernment to a) choose the right ingredients b) prepare them all to perfection at the exact same time. You will never take the humble BEC for granted again.

Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support The Recipe. Thank you! 

Chicken soup is the universal comfort food, but there are as many versions of chicken soup as there are planets in the universe. Depending on where and how you grew up, versions as varied as “Jewish penicillin”, phở gà, stracciatella, Campbell’s condensed all mean home to someone.

Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to help us reach our goal of 2,024 donors. Thank you!

Congratulations are in order for Deb, who released the audiobook of Smitten Kitchen Keepers earlier this month. We are proud to share with you a little excerpt.

Back in 2006, when she was just starting her food journey, she encountered a lot of dud recipes on the internet. (Haven’t we all?) This book is a collection of the ones you’ll want to return to over and over again, aka the keepers.

You can purchase a hardcover version at our page on bookshop.org, and a portion of the sale will go towards supporting our network.

The Radiotopia fundraiser is happening now! Donate today.

Things we learn in this episode: Kenji has a not-so-secret secret ingredient for can’t-miss pie crust, Deb is not allowed at Thanksgiving without her pie, the birthplace of Kenji’s love of junk food, the ideal baking apple, why American apple pie reigns supreme.

Radiotopia's fall fundraiser is happening now! Visit radiotopia.fm/donate.

Deb and Kenji are taking a break this week. Please enjoy this classic episode from Home Cooking, our fellow Radiotopia show about food.

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According to our callers, a big part of Thanksgiving seems to be making food for your loved ones that you only kind of like yourself. But can we make these dishes a little better for the people cooking them?! We’re gonna try. Plus, Demi Adejuyigbe (@electrolemon), tells about his quarantine baking adventures.

For recipes, transcripts, and more, visit homecooking.show/12.

Kenji and Deb are major, MAJOR fans of popcorn — “God’s gift to snacking” (two guesses who said that). One might actually call them a miracle of science. How does a hard af, yellow pebble turn into a fluffy white edible cloud? How does movie popcorn butter smell so heavenly without any butter? This is Popcornology 101, class is now in session.

Kids say the darndest things, and so do Deb and Kenji. “Nobody likes penne.” “Chiffonade is pretentious.” “I have honestly no idea what my recipe contains.” And they’re not the only ones. There are people out there who call baked ziti — get this — lasagna. 

While baked ziti may be universally loved as a workhorse of catered buffets, potlucks, and meal trains, Deb and Kenji’s takes on the dish are worlds apart.

In this episode, Deb and Kenji stop being polite and start getting real. Turns out, they weren’t born with encyclopedic knowledge of food; before each recording session, they consult…Wikipedia. (Stars, they’re just like us.)

You may think of Caesar salad as the most ubiquitous of American salads. In fact, Caesar salad was invented in Mexico. However, it was invented by an American for Americans coming across the border to drink during Prohibition. Come to think of it, that may just be the most American thing ever. Also in this episode: the secret behind Worcestershire sauce and a hack for a quick Caesar dressing. Fax, no printer.

Deb: “This is the perfect sandwich.” Kenji: “This is my favorite sandwich of all time.” In fact, Kenji has gone way beyond just admiring and ingesting the Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato; as Isaac Newton captured the physical world with his laws of motion, Kenji has bestowed us with the 11 rules of the BLT. Deb has made her own significant contributions to the field of sandwich science, with the theory of seasonal variation of the summer BLT and "off-season" BLT.

Kenji and Deb will be back September 9 with all new episodes. Watch this space!

Kenji has many pans going on the fire at all times, one of which was directing this year’s Community Curated Series for Seattle Arts & Lectures. In January 2024, he invited his future podcast bestie Deb onstage with him to chop it up about recipe development (and theft!), family, and greasy bags of Dick’s. 

Thanks to Alison Stagner and Woogee Bae of Seattle Arts & Lectures for their help.

Thanks to our friends at Special Sauce for allowing us to share this episode. Deb, Kenji, and host Ed Levine talk about ye olde days of early food blogging and the backstory of The Recipe.