‘Smitten Kitchen’ Chef Deb Perelman Shares Her Sweet and Simple Secrets for a Delicious Thanksgiving (EXCLUSIVE)
See how the cookbook author and 'Woman's World' cover star's philosophy of 'triumphant home cooking' can help you thrive in the kitchen
When Deb Perelman started her cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen, from a tiny 80-square-foot kitchen back in 2006, she had no idea what a sensation it would become, but 1,500 recipes, three bestselling cookbooks and nearly 2 million followers later, the self-taught chef established herself as a culinary icon who has inspired countless home cooks.
“Smitten Kitchen is 19 years old, which is crazy, because I’m too young to have a 19-year-old, obviously,” Deb quips. “It started as an outlet for me to share what I was learning to cook, and I never, ever expected to turn it into a career, but it’s the best job I’ve ever had,” she says. With Thanksgiving preparations in full swing, the mom of two is now in one of her busiest—and most enjoyable—seasons.
“Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday,” Deb says. “It’s separate from religion, so everyone gets to enjoy it. I love that it’s just a big feast, and I love how traditional the meals are. I think it’s really fun to eat the food that you associate with the holiday and then put it away for the rest of the year,” she says, noting that while she doesn’t usually host, she does “a ton of cooking—I’ll have the entire car loaded with stuffing, salads and desserts.”
Read on to see how Deb, who appears on the cover of this week’s Woman’s World (get your copy here!), plans a cost-effective Thanksgiving and learn all about her idea of “triumphant home cooking”—a philosophy that’s sure to come in handy leading up to the holidays.
Woman’s World: What are some of your favorite ways to save money when cooking for Thanksgiving?
Deb Perelman: A lot of my Thanksgiving menu is based around inexpensive ingredients. If you have access to a farmers’ market or you’re growing vegetables, that’s great, but if you can make just-okay ingredients taste good, you’re doing something right.
I love doing dishes with frozen spinach, and I feel like it doesn’t get enough love in modern cooking. It’s much easier to use than cooking down bags and bags of fresh spinach just to make a side dish. You don’t have to use the fanciest or most niche ingredients to make a really good meal.
WW: How do you like to prepare your Thanksgiving turkey?
DP: I prepare it very simply: I roast it on a bed of onions with some maple syrup butter. The drippings cook the onions, and I used to think that I should be putting other vegetables in, but people would always fight over the onions, so now I leave the vegetables separate. People just want the onions!
WW: Do you have any fun Thanksgiving traditions from your family?
DP: When my mom was dating my dad, his aunt made noodle kugel, a traditional Jewish casserole, and my mom thought it was the best thing she’d ever eaten. She asked for the recipe, and his aunt said, “Only if you marry him,” so my mom has always joked that that was why she married my dad. It started out as a dish for the Jewish holidays, but it became common for us to have it on the Thanksgiving table.
I also have a theory that the second most common thing on American Thanksgiving tables after turkey is lasagna. Most families have an unexpected Thanksgiving dish that’s passed down over the years, and I think the specificity of that is so cute.
WW: The holiday season is meant to be a joyful time, but it often ends up feeling stressful due to difficult family dynamics or body image issues. How do you deal with challenging feelings at this time of year?
DP: As much as you can, you should surround yourself with the people that you like and who make you happy. There are going to be times when you’re in a room of people and you don’t like everyone, but you don’t have to engage.
I like it when somebody calls me down to earth. I have no interest in being better or cooler than anyone else. If you realize that we all feel a little weird sometimes, that makes things easier. I think people would rather see somebody relatable than a beacon of perfection that makes you feel like you’ll never achieve what they have. It’s far more normal to be a little awkward than not.
WW: Do you have any hacks for Thanksgiving prep?
DP: I love Thanksgiving dishes that are in 9×13” pans, or some sort of casserole dish. I like it to have high sides, and I will make it like a game of Jenga in my oven while I’m reheating them. I’ll have three casserole dishes crisscrossed, because there’s always the question of how to reheat all of the food that you have at the same time with limited oven space. I feel like people should be fearless and shove it all in there. I tend to avoid sheet pan vegetables and things that are going to lose their crisp and need to be perfect right out of the oven. I prefer things that are more baked and are more forgiving of not being burning hot when they come out.
WW: How has cooking in a small kitchen inspired you as a chef?
DP: I live in Manhattan, and I’ve always had a small kitchen. It’s not that small for New York City, but it’s small for America, where so many homes have giant kitchens. In some ways, it’s been an asset, even if it’s not ideal for recipe development. If I’m annoyed by the amount of space something takes up or the number of pots I’m using, it’s going to annoy somebody else, and having that low bar has actually been helpful in the long run.
WW: Your tagline for ‘Smitten Kitchen’ is ‘triumphant home cooking.’ What does triumph in the kitchen mean to you?
DP: There’s this idea that cooking and entertaining is all about being a domestic goddess and making beautiful things, but that’s only a small percent of what goes into it. I love to talk about cooking in terms of how it makes you feel when you pull things off. Like, after years of being too scared to do it, I finally taught myself how to make opera cake, a French layered cake which is one of my favorites. That felt triumphant.
Cooking isn’t exclusively about making other people happy. If we could take care of ourselves and protect our own energy in the kitchen, then we could cook forever. Wherever I can, I consider the triumphant elements of cooking and the pride of perfecting a recipe. It’s not selfish. It doesn’t have to be about draining yourself. It can be about cooking things that excite you.
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