Recipes By Melissa Clark
1468 recipes found
Rhubarb-Almond Crumble
This tangy, fruity dessert is gluten-free, vegan and suitable for Passover (those who choose to avoid cornstarch at Passover can use tapioca starch in the filling). The topping is a bit sandier and more caky than a classic crumble, with a subtle, nutty sweetness from a combination of almond flour, almond butter and shredded coconut. Paired with the jammy fruit, the almond butter gives this crumble distinct PB&J energy. Note that almond butter brands vary widely; some are loose and runny, others thick and pasty. If yours is on the thicker side, you may need to add a bit more to get the crumbs to hold together. Leftovers make a terrific breakfast, topped with yogurt if you like.
Lazy Daisy Cake
Also called Danish dream cake (drømmekage), this vintage recipe has a tender cake topped with a “lazy” frosting of butter, brown sugar and coconut. Then the whole cake, still in its pan, is run under the broiler until the brown sugar melts, turning fudgy, and the coconut toasts and singes in spots. It makes for a lovely treat that keeps well, too. The topping, brittle and crunchy on the day it’s baked, gets softer and creamier after sitting at room temperature overnight, where it will last for three days.
Turkey Meatloaf With Parmesan and Red Wine
Adapted from Renee Erickson, the Seattle chef and restaurateur, this meatloaf has more verve than most. The ground meat (in this case turkey, but you can substitute beef or pork) is seasoned with grated orange zest, garlic and Parmesan for maximum oomph. But the real secret lies in the tomato sauce that stripes the center and top of the loaf, which is spiked with red wine. The tangy sauce adds color and complexity to the loaf and helps keep it extra juicy as it bakes. Serve this with mashed potatoes and peas for a classic, comforting meal, then tuck leftover slices into buttered toast the next day for the best meatloaf sandwiches imaginable.
Baked Lemon Pudding With Blueberry Jam
With a puffy, soufflé-like top covering a jiggly layer of pudding, this comforting dessert is balanced by the sharp tang of lemon juice and zest, while dollops of blueberry jam add sweetness and color. If you can time this to serve warm from the oven, you’ll be rewarded with the most ethereal texture, but it’s also excellent at room temperature, or even chilled, in which case it becomes denser and more curdlike.
One-Bowl Jam Doughnut Cake
Filled with fruity jam and dusted with cinnamon sugar, this easy Bundt cake resembles a giant jelly doughnut. Easily mixed in one bowl, it has a tender, cakey crumb that’s scented with nutmeg and vanilla, and its jammy core helps it stay moist for several days. Serve slices plain, with coffee or tea, or dolloped with whipped cream for a festive, simple-to-make dessert.
Sheet-Pan Gnocchi With Sausages and Peppers
Roasting gnocchi on a sheet pan gives the potato dumplings an irresistible, chewy-crisp texture with lovely browned edges. Here, the gnocchi are cooked with sausage and peppers, the classic sandwich combination, to make a rich and very savory one-pan meal. A handful of cherry tomatoes melt in the pan alongside everything else, adding a juicy element that’s almost like a sauce. Hearty and satisfying, this dish needs no accompaniment, though spooning it on top of a bed of arugula or baby spinach would add even more vegetables to the mix.
Vegan Latkes
You don’t need to use an egg substitute like flax seeds or aquafaba to make excellent vegan latkes. The key is to use flour to bind the potato strands together, then leave the latkes alone in the pan as they cook thoroughly on the first side before flipping them. (Too much flipping can cause them to fall apart.) Once the latkes form a golden-brown crust on the first side, carefully turn them over to finish cooking. For the crispiest result, you can add the potato starch lost in squeezing back into the batter (see the Tip for details). It does add an extra step and 15 minutes to the process, but it’s easy and worth it for latkes lovers who live for the crunch.
White Bean Dip With Cumin-Chile Oil
This silky white bean dip has a crowd-pleasing, hummus-like appeal, but it’s seasoned with toasted cumin, lemon zest and chile flakes instead of tahini. Drizzling warm cumin oil over the top brings out the earthy flavor of the beans and adds a richness that makes the dip even more velvety. You can make the dip up to five days ahead (store it in the fridge), but don’t add the cumin oil until right before serving for the most pronounced contrast of flavors and textures.
Halloumi-Stuffed Sweet Peppers
Mini peppers make adorable, colorful wrappers for cheese in this sweet and savory recipe that’s extremely easy to make. Just stuff the diminutive peppers with chunks of cheese (halloumi, or paneer also works), some garlic and herbs, then roast until they collapse into soft, caramelized heaps filled with salty, not-quite melted cheese. You can serve these on crostini or lettuce to make festive finger food, or plop them on salads, rice dishes, eggs or beans.
Loaded Focaccia
Beautiful to behold, fun to eat and a snap to make, these loaded focaccias are like charcuterie boards, but with an edible base. You can use any kind of flatbread to make them, but thick pieces of focaccia work particularly well, holding their own against whatever is on top. The key here is to choose a few toppings that work well together, like figs or persimmons, blue cheese and walnuts, or Parmesan, arugula, salami and pepperoncini. Or, use one combination of ingredients for one side of the focaccia and another for the other side. Just bear in mind that keeping things simple will look and taste the most harmonious.
Iced Peppermint Cookies
Flavored with peppermint extract, these zingy shortbread rounds — a visual riff on black and white cookies — have an especially bright, buttery flavor that’s echoed in the icing. The red and white glaze recalls candy canes and Starlight mints, but feel free to play with different colors when decorating these. Or skip the glaze entirely for an easy-to-make minty cookie with a more classic appearance.
Easy Baked Mac and Cheese
You don’t have to boil the pasta ahead to make this easy baked macaroni and cheese. The noodles will absorb enough moisture from the milk to cook through while the pan is in the oven. Enriched with cream cheese (or cottage cheese, ricotta or sour cream, depending on what you have), and topped with plenty of Cheddar and a crunchy, Parmesan-spiked bread-crumb topping, it’s a simple, adaptable and crowd-pleasing recipe that you can probably even make from what’s already in your pantry.
Maple-Roasted Squash With Charred Lemon
This colorful roasted squash dish is both bracing and sweet. Charred bits of lemon balance the maple syrup, which almost candies the squash as it roasts, while cardamom and coriander add a perfumed, sophisticated touch. Using a mix of winter squashes will give you the most interesting flavors and textures since they’re all a little different. Any combination of delicata, butternut, honey nut and kabocha works very well. The only variety to avoid is acorn, which has a starchier texture that doesn’t absorb the syrup as well as the others.
Green Beans With Lime and Red Onions
Snappy and bright, these green beans are ready in minutes and full of tangy lime, garlic and coriander. The streamlined technique makes these very easy to do in one pan. Just add the beans and a little water to the skillet to steam them. Then, after the water cooks off, add the oil and aromatics and sauté until the garlic turns golden at the edges and the beans absorb all of the flavors. These beans are great both warm and at room temperature, so feel free to make them a few hours ahead, and garnish with herbs and onions just before serving.
Red Cabbage With Walnuts and Feta
Roasting wedges of red cabbage intensifies their sweetness and caramelizes their edges. Here, they’re topped with bits of creamy feta, toasted walnuts for crunch and lemon zest and pomegranate seeds for a juicy tang. Serve these warm or at room temperature for a substantial side dish or light main course. This recipe will also work for a small head of green cabbage, though it may cook a bit faster.
Giant Roasted Vegetable Platter
A giant platter of colorful roasted vegetables is a perfect party side that you can make in advance. The vegetables can be cut up the day before and stored in the fridge. You can roast them a few hours before serving, and reheat them for 7 to 15 minutes at 350 to 400 degrees (they are very forgiving) or serve them at room temperature. Then garnish to your heart’s content – a mix of jewel-like pomegranate seeds, cumin or sesame seeds, herbs, swirls of garlicky yogurt and dashes of hot honey will make everything pop. To make a vegan version of this dish, you can substitute tahini sauce for the yogurt sauce and skip the hot honey.
Giant Jam Bun
A cross between a tender scone, an almond-flavored jam cake, and a swirly cinnamon bun, this plush confection makes a sweet breakfast or teatime treat. You can use any flavor of jam here, just be sure it’s thick and rich with pieces of fruit, and don’t use jelly, which will liquify and leak out from the pastry layers while in the oven. Though this is best eaten the day it’s baked, it’s nearly as good a day or two later; store it in a sealed container at room temperature. This recipe was adapted from Erin Gardner’s giant cinnamon roll scone.
Pasta With Spinach, Feta and Yogurt
In this speedy, verdant dish, pasta is coated with a tangy feta-yogurt sauce that’s garlicky, creamy and bracing from a dash of red-pepper flakes and some grated lemon zest. Frozen spinach adds just enough in the way of vegetables to make this qualify as a one-pot meal, and it truly needs nothing more to make for a satisfying and very easy dinner.
One-Pot Spiced Turkey and Rice
Inspired by the flavors of keema — the Indian dish of spiced, ground meat — this pantry-friendly meal includes rice cooked in the same pot for a one-pan dinner of the most fragrant variety. Feel free to substitute other ground meats for the turkey: Chicken, lamb, beef or pork will all work well, adding their brawny character to the mix.
Cheesy Chile Crisp White Beans
Cheesy bean bakes, a molten staple of pantry cooking, get a fiery glow-up in this easy weeknight recipe. Because different brands of chile crisp and chile paste vary drastically in their heat levels, add your condiments slowly, tasting as you go. When your tongue just starts to tingle but isn’t yet on fire, it might be time to stop. Serve this with tortillas or tortilla chips for scooping, or over rice to catch the gooey mix of beans and melted cheese.
Skillet-Braised Chicken With Greens and Olives
Braising chicken and greens together in a skillet does wonderful things to both bird and vegetables. As the chicken cooks, the skin browns, crisps and renders savory fat, which suffuses the greens with flavor. The greens, in turn, make a soft, moist bed on which to cook the chicken, keeping the meat supremely tender. In the end, the silky greens make a rich, mineral contrast to the juicy meat, while lemon juice and olives add brightness and acidity to the mix, giving it a needed jolt. Serve this with crusty bread or mashed potatoes to catch all the juices.
Herby Farro Salad With Stone Fruit and Burrata
Grain salads always hold up well, so they’re perfect for picnics, potlucks and making ahead for lunch the next day. This one stars chewy farro, enhanced with red onion, arugula and slices of ripe stone fruit, whatever kind you have (red plums are especially pretty added to the mix). The tangy grains are then spooned around a ball of burrata, which adds a mild, creamy contrast. Serve this as a meatless main course or a hearty, colorful side dish.
Sheet-Pan Tofu With Corn and Chiles
This colorful dish is as much about the lively mix of textures as it is the tangy, spicy flavors. On the textural side, cubes of tofu are coated in cornstarch so they become crispy at the edges as they roast, staying soft and pillowy on the inside. Corn kernels lend sweetness and a juicy snap while green chiles, onions and herbs lend freshness and heat. Fresh corn kernels are ideal when in season, but frozen corn works well too, making this a year-round dish with an inherently summery feel.
Easy Buttermilk Peach Cobbler
This easy peach cobbler is made by layering ripe, juicy fruit over batter rather than nestling it under biscuits or pie dough, giving it a tender, cakelike texture. Browning the butter before merging it with the batter adds nutty, caramelized notes, while buttermilk gives it a lovely tang. Fresh summer peaches (or other stone fruit like nectarines, apricots and plums) are ideal here, but frozen fruit also works well. Serve this warm or at room temperature, preferably on the same day as baking.