Recipes By Lidey Heuck
187 recipes found
Stuffed Zucchini
Dress up roasted zucchini with this playful, comforting recipe. The hearty sausage filling is made with zucchini, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil, for a burst of summery flavor no matter the time of year. Bread crumbs add crunch to the top of each zucchini and also help absorb any moisture released during roasting. Use whatever kind of sausage you like, just note that you may need to use additional olive oil if using chicken sausage. While this may not be a recipe for busy weeknights, none of the steps is difficult, and it feeds a crowd. The zucchini can also be fully assembled 8 hours in advance and baked before serving. For smaller gatherings, this recipe halves beautifully.
Greek Meatballs
These meatballs are inspired by keftedes, a traditional Greek meatball made with beef and sometimes pork or lamb and seasoned with a mix of herbs and spices. While variations of keftedes abound, many include fresh bread crumbs, grated onion and tomato, along with lots of fresh mint and parsley. The tomato lends the meatballs a hint of sweetness and acidity, and also helps make them incredibly moist and tender. While not traditional, this recipe opts for panko instead of fresh bread crumbs, for ease. Rather than being softened with milk to form a panade, the bread crumbs go into the meatball mix on their own and soak up the flavorful juices from the onion and tomato. Serve these meatballs with homemade tzatziki, a simple salad and pita on the side, or in tomato sauce for a hearty, comforting dinner.
Chicken Cutlets
In this simple recipe for Italian-American style chicken cutlets, chicken breasts are sliced thinly, pounded even thinner, then breaded with a mixture of panko, Parmesan, garlic and Italian herbs. The breaded cutlets are wonderful served simply with a few lemon wedges, topped with a vinegary, green salad, or even used to make chicken Parm. The trick to ensuring your cutlets come out perfectly crunchy is to wait until the oil is very hot before adding them to the pan. Doing so will prevent the chicken from sticking and the bread crumbs from becoming soggy. Take your time cooking the cutlets, moving them around in the hot oil with tongs and pressing them gently for evenly browned, perfectly golden results.
Easy Chicken Salad
This simple chicken salad makes great use of leftover chicken, though you can certainly use a rotisserie chicken or roast or boil chicken breasts for this recipe. The recipe calls for classic crunchy mix-ins such as grapes, celery and pecans, but feel free to make it your own: Use a diced tart apple in place of the grapes, or toss in a handful of dried cranberries. Chicken salad gets better as it sits, so make this at least a few hours in advance if you can, or make it on Monday to have on hand for lunches all week long.
Oven-Roasted Corn on the Cob
Next time you’re thinking of boiling water for corn on the cob, consider this flavorful oven method instead. Ears of corn are brushed with a garlicky herb butter, then wrapped in foil and roasted until tender and just starting to brown. The butter flavors the corn as it roasts, and a spoonful spread on each ear just before serving delivers a little extra richness. For corn on the cob with a kick, consider adding a pinch of chili powder or ground cayenne to the butter mixture.
Rotel Dip
Named for its core ingredient, Ro*Tel, a Texan brand of canned tomatoes and chiles, this dip is a variation of chile con queso that often includes ground beef. It’s a pantry-friendly appetizer made in one skillet, and cooks up in just 15 minutes. While the recipe title refers to the spicy tomatoes, the key ingredient is the processed cheese, typically Velveeta, which gives the dip a luxuriously creamy texture. If you prefer not to use processed cheese, a combination of cream cheese and mild Cheddar may be used instead (see Tip). The flavor and texture will be slightly different, but the tomatoes and chiles will still shine through. And there’s a mild heat, even with the addition of chili powder. For more of a kick, use a “hot” variation of canned tomatoes and chiles, up the chili powder to taste or add a pinch of cayenne to the dip as it cooks.
Orzo Salad
This colorful, Mediterranean-inspired orzo salad is a crowd-pleasing side dish for a picnic or potluck, and can be a satisfying, vegetable-packed lunch. The trick to a flavorful pasta salad is adding the dressing while the pasta is hot, so it can soak up plenty of flavor as it cools. This recipe takes that method a step further by tossing the hot orzo and dressing with the chickpeas, tomatoes and olives, giving the ingredients ample time to marinate. If olives aren’t your thing, try adding diced roasted red peppers or marinated artichokes for a burst of briny flavor in each bite. If preparing for a larger gathering, this recipe doubles easily, and leftovers keep well in the refrigerator, making it a good choice for meal prepping.
Tuna Puttanesca
Canned tuna is a complementary addition to the punchy, briny flavors of puttanesca. It’s also a logical way to add protein to the dish when you’re already reaching into the pantry for the majority of the other ingredients. Though shallots aren’t typically included in puttanesca, thinly sliced shallot deepens the flavor of the garlic and adds a note of sweetness to balance the acidic flavors of the sauce. You can use canned tuna or tuna jarred in olive oil here; canned tuna will break apart and become distributed throughout the sauce, whereas jarred tuna will remain in larger pieces. Serve the pasta with a generous sprinkle of parsley and crushed red pepper on top, and a glass of chilled red wine on the side.
Taverna Salad
This colorful, meal-of-a-salad from Lidey Heuck’s cookbook, “Cooking in Real Life” (S&S/Simon Element, 2024), is inspired by two dishes: classic Greek salad (also known as horiatiki) and fattoush, the Lebanese salad of vegetables and pieces of fried pita. The ingredient list may look long at first, but each ingredient contributes to the harmony of the salad: bell pepper and cucumbers for crunch; shallot, olives and capers for a bit of tang; chopped tomatoes for sweetness. Pan-fried halloumi adds richness and heft, but you can skip the searing process and instead opt for a 6-ounce block of feta, if desired. To save even more time, you can add a large handful of crumbled pita chips instead of making your own.
Shawarma-Spiced Grilled Chicken With Tahini-Yogurt Sauce
This beginner-friendly chicken recipe from Lidey Heuck’s cookbook, “Cooking in Real Life” (S&S/Simon Element, 2024), is inspired by spices often used in shawarma, and uses several easy tricks to ensure juicy meat with a nice char. The chicken breasts are pounded slightly, just until they are an even thickness throughout, so they cook quickly and uniformly. (You can skip this step if you’re using thighs.) The yogurt in the marinade does double duty: It tenderizes the chicken and adds a layer of protection between the chicken and the hot grill. The chicken is served with a sprinkle of fresh herbs, a squeeze of lemon juice and a quick, creamy tahini-yogurt sauce that pairs nicely with the warm spices. Should you have any leftover chicken, it would be delicious packed into a wrap with cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and extra tahini-yogurt sauce.
Littleneck Clams With Cherry Tomatoes and Pearl Couscous
In this one-pot dish from Lidey Heuck’s cookbook, “Cooking in Real Life” (S&S/Simon Element, 2024), fresh clams cook together with garlic, white wine, shallots and tomatoes to form a deliciously fragrant sauce that’s perfect for mopping up with a piece of bread. As the clams open, they release their briny liquor, which gives the broth a salty, savory complexity. While this dish is particularly well-suited to a summer evening, you can make it any time of year; the tomatoes will sweeten and burst as they cook. The fregola or couscous gives this recipe enough heft to be a main course, but it can easily be stretched to serve 6 as a part of a larger spread.
Irish Cream Coffee Cake
This playful twist on a classic crumb cake adds a generous pour of Irish cream liqueur to the batter. While it’s often served with coffee, Irish cream is not coffee-flavored, but made with whiskey and cream, along with hints of chocolate and vanilla. It lends a rich vanilla flavor to this simple cake, and its boozy edge cuts the sweetness. Use an Irish cream liqueur that tastes good on its own, because its flavors will shine through. A simple crumb mixture, flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg and chopped pecans, forms both the streusel topping and a spiced ribbon running through the cake. The cake isn’t complete without the Irish cream glaze. Cut this coffee cake into big squares and serve with coffee; extra Irish cream is optional.
Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie
This recipe is a playful twist on traditional shepherd’s pie, swapping in sweet potatoes for the mashed potatoes and a Moroccan-inspired filling for the usual carrots and peas. With warming spices such as cumin and smoked paprika, along with ground lamb, chickpeas, and dates, the filling is both savory and a little sweet, and the perfect partner for the mashed sweet potato topping. Because sweet potatoes contain more water than Yukon Gold or russet potatoes, the topping will be softer here than in a traditional shepherd’s pie. It will firm up as it cools, but make sure to cook any excess moisture from the potatoes before mashing to ensure the mash is thick. If you have access to them, white or Japanese sweet potatoes tend to be drier and starchier than conventional “yams” and work particularly well here.
Seafood Boil
You don’t need to be at the beach to make this classic seaside dinner — an assortment of fresh seafood and a really big stock pot will get you there in an hour. Feel free to make this seafood boil your own by swapping in mussels for the clams, or lobster in place of the crab legs. With sausage, corn on the cob and steamed potatoes, this is a true one-pot meal. The flavorful cooking liquid turns into a buttery, lemony sauce that coats the seafood and vegetables. Cover your table with kraft paper and dump the seafood boil out, letting everyone dig in, or, for easier cleanup, serve the boil in a large shallow bowl, with small bowls of garlic butter on the side for dipping.
Monte Cristo
This American diner classic — a battered and grilled ham, turkey and cheese sandwich dusted with confectioners’ sugar — may, in fact, be a descendant of the French croque-monsieur. The two are quite similar, the main difference being that the croque-monsieur has a layer of béchamel on top, while the Monte Cristo is dipped in beaten egg before it’s griddled. The Monte Cristo became popular when a restaurant at Disneyland began serving it in the 1960s, and now, it lives on as a fixture on menus around the country. It's a delicious way to use leftover baked ham, but regular deli meat works well, too. (Feel free to omit the turkey and use twice as much ham, if you prefer.) As with most grilled sandwiches, thinner slices of cheese will melt more easily.
Gelato
This Italian frozen dessert looks almost identical to ice cream, but has a few key differences: Compared to its cousin, gelato is made with more milk than cream, and uses fewer or no eggs, instead leaning on other stabilizers to keep it from becoming icy as it freezes. Here, cornstarch is the stabilizer for this easy at-home version, providing a smooth, creamy texture. Because gelato has a lower butterfat percentage than ice cream, it’s best served slightly warmer; for best results, let it soften on the counter for a couple minutes before serving. This recipe makes a basic vanilla gelato, but you can easily make different flavors by adding mix-ins such as chopped chocolate, dulce de leche, or chocolate ganache once the gelato is churned.
Crostini
Italian for ‘little crusts,” crostini are bite-sized slices of toast, often topped with vegetables, spreads or cheeses and served as an appetizer. A good crostini is crisp and lightly browned at the edges, but still slightly soft and chewy in the center. While crostini can be made with any bread, a French baguette’s long, narrow shape is ideal, and sliced at an angle, provides maximum surface area for topping. Crostini serve as a versatile base; try them in this recipe inspired by pasta alla norma, or this one with fresh peaches and ricotta. They’re also a nice addition to a cheese or charcuterie board, and a sturdy vehicle for warm cheeses and dips, such as baked brie, or spinach and artichoke dip.
Crumpets
Recognizable by its distinctive holes, a crumpet is a spongy bread that is cooked on a griddle or in a skillet, rather than baked in the oven. Crumpets differ from English muffins in that their texture is pleasantly spongy and chewy, a result of two leaveners (active dry yeast and baking powder). Typically eaten for breakfast or as a snack, crumpets are traditionally slathered with butter and sweet or savory condiments like jam or Marmite. They’re arguably as simple to make as pancakes, but you’ll need 3½-inch crumpet or English muffin rings to contain the runny batter when you add it to a hot skillet. The crumpets will cook until browned underneath and perforated with tiny holes all over the top; adjust the heat as necessary so the crumpets don’t brown too much on the bottom before they are cooked through.
Lasagna Soup
This simple, one-pot soup delivers all the comfort of a classic lasagna with very little of the work. A jar of marinara sauce is its secret to speedy flavor, along with a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage (though for ease, you can use one or the other), plus a pinch of ground nutmeg. Dried lasagna noodles are broken into small pieces and cooked directly in the soup, thickening the broth with their starches as they soften. Don’t skip the ricotta-Parmesan topping; it adds richness and the unmistakable essence of lasagna. This soup comes together quickly and is best served right away; the noodles will continue to absorb the broth as it sits.
Pan-Seared Salmon
Searing salmon in a hot skillet is not only a speedy way to prepare it, but it also makes for a super-crisp crust and a tender, flaky center. A nonstick pan makes cleanup easy, but a heavy, cast-iron or stainless steel skillet works, too — just be sure to use a large one to avoid crowding the fish, and make sure to preheat the pan to avoid sticking. Make the recipe as written, or finish the salmon with a steakhouse-inspired butter-and-garlic baste (see Tip). Add a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of fresh herbs, such as parsley, dill or tarragon, if you have some on hand.
Chicken Kiev
The secret of chicken Kiev lies within the walls of its crispy exterior — once sliced, out pours a pool of warm, herby butter. Accounts vary on when and where chicken Kiev first appeared, some attributing it to a hotel in Kyiv and others claiming it’s a riff on a Parisian veal dish. Regardless of the dish’s origin, it became a fine-dining staple in the United States in the 1950s. In this traditional preparation, chicken breasts are pounded thin, wrapped around a stick of chilled garlicky butter speckled with chives and parsley, then rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. While the rolling and chilling is fairly labor-intensive, the recipe’s saving grace is that most of the work can be done in advance.
Lobster Thermidor
In this classic, celebratory French dish, chunks of lobster meat are tossed in a creamy, brandy-laced sauce, then topped with Gruyère and baked in their shells. This elaborate presentation might seem intimidating, but the only part of the process that takes a little bit of patience is cutting the lobsters in half lengthwise; place a dish towel on your cutting board to catch any liquid, and use a large, sharp knife. The sauce comes together quickly and the lobsters can be assembled ahead of time and refrigerated for several hours before being broiled, making this recipe well-suited to festive occasions. (Just be sure to bring the lobsters to room temperature for 15 minutes before broiling.) Serve with a big green salad and a crisp white wine to balance the richness of the sauce.
Stromboli
Swirls of cured meats and cheeses, all wound up in pizza dough, this classic Italian-American party snack may appear more intimidating to make than it is in reality. Here, store-bought pizza dough makes this stromboli a beginner-friendly recipe: Simply roll it out thinly, add layers of deli meats and cheeses and roll it into a log. Customize the fillings however you’d like — swap the deli meats with prosciutto or salami, or even sautéed mushrooms for a vegetarian version (just make sure that both the dough and the fillings are thin so the stromboli bakes evenly). Serve warm, with marinara or pizza sauce on the side for dipping.
Pizza Sauce
This basic pizza sauce comes together quickly with easy-to-find pantry ingredients. Tomato paste gives the sauce body and a rich, extra-tomato-y flavor that makes it perfect for topping pizza dough, and for filling calzones and stromboli. For a little kick, add an additional 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or even more) to taste. Canned crushed tomatoes vary by brand; if you find yours are too coarsely crushed for your desired texture, pulse them in a food processor until smooth before beginning the sauce. Like most tomato-based sauces, pizza sauce freezes well; pack it into freezer-safe containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Before using, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, or in a covered saucepan set over low heat. (You may need to add a splash of water to loosen the sauce.)