Recipes By Melissa Clark
1468 recipes found
Herby Skillet Chicken With Greens
In this easy skillet meal, seared boneless chicken thighs are nestled on a bed of herbs, browned whole garlic cloves and greens before the pan is popped into the oven to roast until golden. Just before serving, butter, lemon zest and (optional) olives or capers are tossed into the pan drippings, adding creaminess and a tangy, salty spark to the sauce. Serve this over rice or with roasted or mashed potatoes, or with bread for soaking up the drippings.
Adas Polo ba Khorma (Persian Lentil Rice With Dates)
Lentils and rice scented with warm spices and strewn with fried onions is a classic Persian dish with infinite variations. This minimalist take, from Nasim Alikhani, the owner of Sofreh restaurant in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, keeps things quick and simple, and uses just a few pantry-friendly ingredients. The lentils and rice are cooked together in the same pot, then layered with a mixture of caramelized onions and plump, sweet dates, as well as chopped fresh herbs for brightness. A dollop of yogurt on top adds a tart and creamy touch. Feel free to riff on this basic recipe, adding nuts for crunch, stirring in other spices like cardamom, ginger and saffron, and substituting the likes of raisins, dried apricots or dried cranberries for the dates. At Sofreh, the dish is finished with a dash of rosewater and melted butter for extra richness and perfume.
Bacon, Egg and Brussels Sprouts Salad
Brussels sprouts star in this hearty riff on a wilted salad, giving it more structure and crunch than one with the usual floppy lettuce or spinach, and an egg on top adds heft, turning a side dish into a light main course. There’s tangy whole-grain mustard in the vinaigrette, too, which contrasts with the richness of the bacon. Serve this with crusty bread for scooping up the savory bacon fat and egg yolk inevitably left on the bottom of the plate.
Red Lentil Barley Stew
Warm spices, fennel and leeks give this rib-sticking stew a deep, complex character. Feel free to adjust the liquid to taste. Adding a little more makes it brothier and more souplike, suitable for eating with a spoon. Or let it rest a bit. As it sits, the barley will absorb all of the liquid, making it easily forkable. Be sure to serve this with lemon wedges on the side, since the lentils and barley benefit greatly from a bright jolt right at the end.
Spicy Tomato White Bean Stew
Made in about half an hour from pantry ingredients, this simple, flexible stew has a velvety texture from canned white beans rounded out by plenty of garlic, olive oil and canned plum tomatoes. The optional bacon adds a brawny heft here, but the stew will be just as hardy without it. Or lighten things up by stirring a few handfuls of quick-cooking greens directly into the pot, which also eliminates any need for a salad on the side.
Sweet Potato-Tofu Stew
In this dish, based on the flavors of Japanese nimono, umami from soy sauce and shiitake mushrooms rounds out the gentle sweet potatoes, which fall apart and thicken the stew as they simmer. The tofu is added in two ways here. Some of it is marinated in the soy sauce and then stirred into the stew for a soft, pillowy texture. Then, the rest is fried until golden and spooned on top as a crisp garnish. You can also leave the tofu out altogether for a speedier but just as satisfying meal.
Roasted Cauliflower and Arugula Salad
In this hearty, colorful salad, cauliflower florets, slivers of red onion and briny capers are coated with spices and roasted until the florets turn soft and sweet, and the onions and capers get browned and crisp. Everything is tossed with tangy-sweet raisins (or your favorite dried fruit), more red onion that’s been quick-pickled in lime juice, a green mound of arugula and parsley leaves. It’s a bright, satisfying salad that works as a substantial side dish or a light main course, either rounded out with crusty bread or served on top of a bed of rice, farro or other grains.
Pistachio Cheesecake
This elegant cheesecake gets its complexity from store-bought sweetened pistachio paste, which gives it an especially perfumed flavor and an ultra-smooth texture, while chopped pistachios in the crust add crunch. Unlike many cheesecake recipes, this doesn’t require a water bath. A low oven temperature and long baking time will yield a silky, creamy texture without the anxiety of maneuvering a springform pan in and out of boiling water. You can make the cheesecake up to 5 days in advance and keep it in the fridge until ready to top with raspberries and serve.
Easy No-Bake Pistachio Cheesecake
Both cloudlike and rich, this no-bake cheesecake relies on cream cheese for structure and whipped cream for lightness. To keep the recipe as streamlined as possible, the pistachio flavor comes from melted ice cream, plus some chopped pistachios in the crust for a crunchy, nutty pop. The brand of ice cream you use makes a huge difference: The more like real pistachios it tastes, the better the cheesecake. (Some brands of pistachio use extracts and flavorings instead of actual pistachio nuts; check the ingredients before buying.) You can make the cheesecake up to 5 days in advance and keep it in the fridge until ready to top with raspberries and serve.
Bacon-Cheddar Dip
Bacon and Cheddar, that time-honored pairing, meet up once more in this easy, spicy skillet dip. Grated Cheddar, the sharper the better, and crisp bacon slivers are folded into a mix of cream cheese and sour cream that’s been zipped up with hot sauce. You can prepare the dip a few hours in advance, then broil it just before serving so that the Cheddar emerges melted, singed and bubbly on top. Marinated cherry tomatoes (or you can substitute prepared salsa), scallions and more bacon make for a colorful, juicy garnish. Serve it with anything you love to dip: Chips, veggies or crackers are all welcome.
Coconut Black Bean Soup
Earthy black bean soup gets a plush makeover with the addition of canned coconut milk, which lends richness and a sweet, mellow flavor. Whole cumin seeds and tomato paste add depth, while jalapeño contributes both brightness and heat to the pot. You can purée the soup until it’s velvety smooth, or leave it a little chunky. Either way, it makes for a satisfying and hearty weeknight meal.
Sheet-Pan Coconut Shrimp and Sweet Potatoes
Cubes of sweet potatoes and plump pink shrimp — both coated in spicy ginger-spiked coconut milk — share a sheet pan in this easy, deeply flavored one-pan meal. The sweet potato is added to the pan first, and roasted until just tender. Then, shrimp is scattered on top, and the whole pan is run under the broiler. The brief, intense heat allows the shrimp to cook through but stay succulent and the coconut milk-bathed sweet potatoes to caramelize at their edges. Scallions, cilantro and lime juice add a jolt of brightness right at the end.
Coconut Cornbread
This rich, tender cornbread has coconut milk mixed into the batter, giving it a gentle, nutty fragrance. Using all of the brown sugar called for makes this almost cakelike, but you can add less for a milder, savory-sweet loaf. The coconut flake topping gets crisp and golden in the oven, adding a pleasing, nubby contrast to the soft crumb. This is best served still warm, slathered with butter if you like. Store any leftovers in the fridge (it will keep for a few days), then toast it just before serving.
Sheet-Pan Turmeric Chicken and Crispy Rice
A layer of crunchy, golden rice at the bottom of a pan is revered across many cultures, be it a Persian tahdig, Korean nurungji or Spanish socarrat, and you can get a similar result by baking oiled rice at high heat on a sheet pan. Here, bone-in chicken legs are coated in a mix of turmeric, ginger and garlic and nestled into a pan of scallion-flecked short-grain rice. As it all roasts, the spiced chicken fat seasons the rice, which turns especially crisp where it meets the edges and bottom of the pan while staying soft and chewy on top. Dabbed with more turmeric-ginger mixture at the end, it’s a richly flavored and textured chicken and rice dish all made in one pan.
Maple Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies
These soft, lightly spiced oatmeal cookies have a sweet surprise in the middle: a pocket of syrupy blueberry-maple jam.The jam helps keep the cookies soft and tender for days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature, so you can bake a batch over the weekend and snack on them all week long. If you can find frozen wild blueberries to make the compote, these will have an even more intense berry flavor, but any blueberries will work in these homey treats.
Sweet Chile Grain Bowl With Tofu
You can use any kind of cooked grain as the base of this colorful, deeply flavored tofu and cabbage bowl. The grains, vegetables and tofu add texture, heft and protein, but the real star is the pungent sauce, a mix of chile crisp, garlic and soy sauce sweetened with ketchup. Brushed onto the tofu and cabbage before roasting, the sauce caramelizes and mellows. Drizzled on top of the bowl right at the end, it stays bright and snappy. Fresh cherry tomatoes tossed with more chile crisp make a juicy, spicy garnish, but you can leave them out if you don’t have any on hand.
Salt-Baked Fish
Roasting a whole fish in a salt crust is an age-old technique. The salt coating seals in the moisture and steams the fish in its own juices, resulting in especially tender, richly flavored flesh. Keeping the skin on the fish prevents it from absorbing too much salt, so don’t try this method with fillets or you risk oversalting. You can serve this simply, as is, or with a sauce (hollandaise, salsa verde, pesto, brown butter and lemon, sesame-soy). And feel free to swap out the aromatics inside the cavity, using other herbs, sliced garlic, onion, ginger, chiles or lemongrass.
Crispy Potato and Sour Cream Tart
This elegant tart riffs on the classic party combo of sour cream, caviar and potatoes. Here, sliced cooked potatoes are tossed with sour cream, Parmesan and chives, then spread onto a puff pastry crust. After baking, the top of the tart is strewn with crumbled potato chips for crunch and an optional layer of some kind of caviar for a salty pop (tobiko, salmon or trout roe work nicely). Cut into small pieces to serve as an hors d’oeuvre or larger pieces for the centerpiece of a festive brunch.
Spinach and Gruyère Breakfast Casserole
Filled with sautéed spinach and nutty Gruyère mixed into a nutmeg and lemon-scented custard, this breakfast casserole is a rich, meatless option for a special occasion breakfast or brunch. Like most of its kind, you can assemble the casserole the day before you want to bake it, then pop it in the oven an hour or so before serving. It will emerge puffed and golden on top, ready for its star-turn on any festive table.
Spiced Vegetable Phyllo Pie
In this spectacular meatless meal, crisp sheets of buttery, golden phyllo surround vegetables and chickpeas stewed with sweet spices, preserved lemon and earthy turmeric. You can prepare the vegetable stew the day before; just reheat it so it's warm when it meets the phyllo pastry. Once it’s baked, you can serve this hot or at room temperature, making it perfect for a party. Since it’s baked on a sheet pan, it makes enough to feed a crowd.
Gingerbread Blondies
With the chewy texture of the best fudgy brownie and all the festive flavors of your favorite gingerbread cookies, these spicy bars make a bold statement for the holidays. Browning the butter gives them a deep, caramelized flavor, which rounds out the warming brown sugar and fragrant spices. The white chocolate drizzle on top is purely for looks, so feel free to leave it out if you’re short on time. These bars taste just as good without it.
Braised Chicken Thighs With Sweet Potatoes and Dates
This colorful meal is based on tsimmes, the classic Ashkenazi dish of sweet potatoes, carrots and dried fruit (and sometimes meat) typically served on Rosh Hashanah and other Jewish holidays. This version includes boneless, skinless chicken thighs and spices, and lets everything simmer together in a Dutch oven until fragrant and silky. It’s a festive one-pot meal that’s sweet, savory and a little tangy from some orange juice used for braising.
Lemony Pasta With Braised White Beans
Braising canned white beans with garlic, chile flakes and olive oil is a classic recipe — a speedy, meatless, very satisfying weeknight meal. This version turns the mix into a sauce for pasta, brightened by lemon juice and zest, and rounded out with fresh parsley or arugula and cherry tomatoes, a juicy contrast to the velvety beans. The pasta water also plays an important role here, keeping the beans from becoming pasty. Use the best olive oil you can, especially for drizzling at the end. That’s where you’ll really taste it, and a robust, herbal oil will add a lot of character to this simple dish.
Turkey, Farro and Chickpea Soup
Filled with spices and nubby with grains and beans, this easy soup is a satisfying way to use up as much of your leftover Thanksgiving turkey as you’re willing to spare from future sandwiches. Pearled or semi-pearled farro will soften in about half an hour, but you can use other grains here as long as you adjust the cooking time. White rice will be ready in 15 to 20 minutes, while brown rice and barley need about 45 minutes to an hour. (You might need to add a little water if the liquid level in the pot reduces too much.) And if you want to make this aromatic soup when you don’t have leftover turkey on hand, cooked chicken is a perfect substitute.