This Quick and Spicy Kimchi Tofu Stew Will Save Your Tuesdays

Watch dinner materialize from items you probably already have on hand.
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Gentl & Hyers

April showers haven't quite brought May flowers in New York yet. The days are warm-ish and the nights are cold-ish. Misty gloom hangs over everything, and nobody knows how to dress or eat. Jacket or no jacket? Tights or no tights? Meaty stew or crunchy salad? Fried rice or *cauliflower* fried rice?

The only thing that seems to hold steady is my devotion to this spicy kimchi tofu stew. It's not exactly a vocal favorite at the office. It hasn't earned the undying love of staffers the way, say, linguine with green olives, or this rhubarb-almond cake has.

But it's a total sleeper hit.

If you're a condiment collector, you probably already have soy sauce, sesame oil, gochujang, and sesame seeds on hand. The only other ingredients you really need are kimchi (finally, a use for that jar hiding in the back of your fridge), silken tofu, eggs, and scallions. With those, a few clutch techniques (wring the kimchi out like a wet towel! add the egg yolk at the end so it tempers the heat without becoming stringy!), and 30 minutes, it all comes together. You get a simultaneously light and hearty stew with dimension and depth you think can only come from a restaurant or 12 hours of straight cooking.

Associate web editor Christina Chaey is also a believer. She whips up this recipe when her kimchi is close to the frighteningly fizzy kimchi danger zone. As in, if you bought a jar of kimchi a month ago, and only used it once and forgot about it, this stew will save you (and that neglected jar).

It's not the kind of dish you serve to show your friends how great you are at living. It's the one you come home to when you're spending a chilly night in and catching up on your favorite TV shows. It's the one BA recipe I come back to again and again.

Get the Recipe: Spicy Kimchi Tofu Stew