And while the spoons are out, let’s make soup! Yasmin Kahn’s roasted cauliflower soup is spiced with turmeric and cumin, and cleverly topped with crispy cauliflower leaves roasted with the florets, along with a handful of almonds. It would be a fine meatless meal on a cool, wintry evening. A bit heartier is Ali Slagle’s soupy take on spaghetti and meatballs made with ground chicken and plenty of Parmesan. Or try a classic chicken soup: Julia Moskin’s golden, brothy recipe can be filled with chunks of carrot and noodles, rice or matzo balls. It is sure to cure whatever ails you.
Some people like to eat chili with a spoon, and that includes chili-based tamale pies with their tender cornbread topping. My latest column has a meatless take on this classic, zipped up with charred poblanos and jalapeños. And a combination of spoon-plus-chopsticks will be your best option for gathering every last morsel of a bowl of heady, herb-topped bún kèn, Diep Tran’s recipe for Vietnamese coconut fish with noodles.
Then, for dessert, you can use the back of your spoon to crack the caramelized, candy-like top of a vanilla crème brûlée, then scoop out the custard. And for the ultimate in vegan spoonable sweets, try Jocelyn Ramirez’s almond-milk-based arroz con leche, which is perfumed with star anise and cinnamon and dappled with plump, sweet raisins.
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The spoon is arguably the most protean eating implement on the planet, and it has been reinvented for every predilection, whether you’re scooping marrow, dosing sugar or, somewhat controversially, cooking eggs over an open fire. As Bee Wilson recounts in her wonderful history, “Consider the Fork,” spoons’ “construction and their use has often reflected deep passions and fiercely held prejudices,” like when the spartan Cromwellian spoon was pushed aside by the regal Restoration trifid. The spoon even has a history of being hybridized, like the legendary runcible spoon, although such experiments can make setting the table even trickier. A spoon is a spoon, and perhaps that is enough.