Dinner Ideas for One

January 2024. A new year. The writing continues — five chapters now, the book taking shape, the shape becoming visible, the way a sculpture becomes visible when you remove enough stone. I am removing stone. I am finding the book inside the material of my life, chipping away the inessential, keeping the true. The true is: Sylvia's kitchen, Irving's silence, the Grand Concourse, the challah, the brisket, the matzo ball soup, the chain. The true is always the chain.

The support group had its first meeting of the year. Sandra brought donuts. I brought rugelach. The meeting was a new-year reflection — what we hope for, what we fear, what we know. Doris, whose husband is in the same facility as Marvin, said, "I hope for one more good day." Sandra said, "I hope for the strength to get through the bad ones." I said, "I hope the book gets written." Everyone looked at me. I realized: I have not told the group about the book. I told them. They were thrilled. Sandra said, "Ruth Feldman writing a book about Jewish grandmothers and brisket is the most inevitable thing I have ever heard." This may be the finest compliment I have received about the book, because Sandra has a way of identifying the essential truth of a thing and stating it without embellishment, which is what I am trying to do in the book, which makes Sandra, in a way, my editor.

I made a beef barley soup — thick, dark, January soup, the soup of endurance. The barley swells and the beef softens and the broth deepens and the soup becomes, over three hours, the thing it was meant to be: warm, filling, sufficient. I ate it for dinner. I brought some to Marvin the next day. He ate a full bowl. The barley is the endurance. The soup is the year. The year is just beginning.

That bowl of beef barley soup — three hours on the stove, eaten alone at my kitchen table, then carried to Marvin the next afternoon — reminded me that cooking for one is not a diminishment. It is its own complete act. If you find yourself in a January like mine, here is a collection of dinner ideas for one: meals that do not ask you to halve a recipe apologetically, but invite you to cook with intention for exactly the person who needs feeding tonight, which is you.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 1

Ingredients

1/2 lb beef stew meat or chuck, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup pearl barley, rinsed
2 cups beef broth (low sodium)
1/2 cup water
1 small carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1/4 small yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and black pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Brown the beef. Heat olive oil in a small saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season beef pieces with salt and pepper, then add to the pan. Brown on all sides, about 4 minutes total. Remove and set aside.
Soften the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, carrot, and celery to the same pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4–5 minutes. Add garlic and thyme; cook 1 minute more.
Build the broth. Return the beef to the pan. Pour in the beef broth and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer.
Add the barley. Stir in the rinsed pearl barley. Cover partially and simmer over low heat for 20–25 minutes, until the barley is tender and has swelled into the broth and the beef is fork-tender.
Taste and finish. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Ladle into a deep bowl, garnish with parsley if using, and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Dinner Ideas for One — The Soup That Carries You Through