Recipes By Samin Nosrat
93 recipes found
Creamy Lemon-Miso Dressing
If I were a singer-songwriter, I would write a power ballad about my love for Kismet Rotisserie in Los Angeles. The shoebox-size, mostly takeout restaurant serves the kind of food I’d eat every day if I lived in the neighborhood: golden roast chicken, fluffy pita and perfectly seasoned side dishes piled high with vegetables. But what I love most are its sauces and dressings. Especially its miso-poppy seed dressing, which I set out to re-create a couple of years ago. At some point, though, my journey took a detour, landing me here with this recipe from my book, “Good Things” (Random House, 2025), at what just might be my new favorite all-purpose dressing. Tangy, sweet, creamy and rounded out with umami, it manages to hit every note you could want in a dressing without being cloying. Add some poppy seeds for classic flavor or leave them out to make the dressing more versatile for drizzling over roasted vegetables, in potato salad or anywhere else you can imagine.
House Dressing
This perfect vinaigrette recipe comes from Via Carota, the charming West Village restaurant run by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi. Since I first wrote about this recipe, it’s become indispensable not only for me but also for my entire Culinary Brain Trust, who now simply call it House Dressing. This version comes from my book, “Good Things” (Random House, 2025). The warm water in this recipe might surprise you. “We add warm water to make it more palatable,” Ms. Williams said. “Pure vinegar is just too strong — it assaults the taste buds. We want a salad dressing so savory and delicious that you can eat spoonfuls of it. We want you to be able to drink it!” Drizzle this liberally over everything: boiled asparagus, farro salad, steak, fish or roast chicken. And if you don’t have both types of mustard on hand, just use twice as much of whichever you do have.
Creamy Sesame-Ginger Dressing
This is the recipe that inspired my book, “Good Things” (Random House, 2025), and my entire palate still puckers with pleasure every time I make it. After I’ve balanced and adjusted the flavors and dipped a bit of lettuce or cabbage into the dressing for a final taste, I always marvel at the way it manages to take every element — salt, acid, umami, fiery ginger, garlic and spice — right to the edge . . . without stepping over.
The Big Lasagna
Delicate sheets of handmade pasta are layered with rich béchamel, savory tomato sauce and creamy ricotta filling, and studded with spinach and herbs, in this deeply comforting lasagna. But if you don’t have the time to make each component or can’t find all of the ingredients, use fresh or dried store-bought noodles and avail yourself of the many suggested substitutions. For a vegan version, use cashew milk and vegan butter to make béchamel, vegan cheese and cashew ricotta for the filling, and make sure to buy dried pasta that does not contain eggs. No matter how you make this dish, you’ll find that it’s grand, comforting and perfect for sharing with whoever is around. (Watch Samin make #TheBigLasagna on YouTube.)
Chapli Burgers
This recipe is inspired by the thin, heavily spiced Pakistani patties known as chapli kebabs, which are typically drizzled with green chutney and served wrapped in warm naan. This version replaces naan with buns and welcomes the classic crunch of iceberg lettuce. But what really sets these burgers apart are the other flavorful toppings and condiments: thinly sliced onions, tomatoes and cucumbers, a creamy herbed yogurt, and tomato ketchup spiked with tamarind paste. Take a few extra minutes to put together the sauces — the mouthwatering tang, sweetness, creaminess and spice they'll add will make all the difference.
Gazpacho With Tomato-Basil Oil
All gazpacho is good, but starting with the sweetest, most flavorful tomatoes you can find will make this one great. As you blend and strain the soup, taste it constantly, adjusting the salt and vinegar incrementally. Inch by inch, push the flavors to the edge: the soup should taste seasoned but not salty, tangy but not sour. While it chills, make the croutons and basil oil, which will give the smooth soup delightful contrasts in both texture and color.
Torn Croutons
Store-bought croutons simply can’t compete with homemade ones. To begin with, your raw ingredients are almost certainly of a higher quality, and hence more delicious, than the stuff anyone else will use. What’s more, the rustic, uneven shape of torn croutons, like these croutons from "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" by Samin Nosrat, lends a variety of textures to your salads. Dressing clings to them better, they’re more lovely to look at, and they are less likely to scratch the roof of your mouth.
Basic Fresh Pasta Dough
Fresh pasta isn't something to master in one go. It takes time and practice, but it yields dividends. This particular recipe is vastly versatile. It can be made into whole grain pasta, by swapping in 1 cup sifted whole wheat, spelt or farro flour in place of 1 cup all-purpose or 00 flour. Add more egg yolks or water as needed and rest the dough for 1 hour. Or try a green pasta, as in this ravioli verdi: Steam or sauté 6 ounces baby spinach (about 6 cups) until just wilted. Spread it out on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and, when cool, squeeze water out thoroughly, a handful at a time, then chop roughly. Purée with 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk, then use this mixture in place of eggs in the recipe. Or, for something a little different, make an herbed pasta, like this pappardelle, by stirring in 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley, chives, chervil, tarragon, or basil in any combination to the eggs before adding to the flour in the main recipe.
Mast-o Khiar (Persian Cucumber and Herb Yogurt)
Yogurt, both plain and with cucumbers, is everywhere on Iranian tables — the thicker and sourer, the better. Mast-o khiar is an everyday side similar to Indian raita or Greek tzatziki, but raisins, walnuts and rose petals elevate this version of the dish, adding a host of different flavors and textures. Dice, rather than grate, the cucumbers to keep them from getting watery, and don’t skip the dried mint and dried dill, which add dimension to the fresh herbs.
How to Make Soup
The finest soups layer flavor every step of the way. Samin Nosrat shows you how to make any kind you'd like.
Sweet Potatoes With Tahini Butter
Carla Lalli Music, a food writer and editor, is vehemently opposed to roasting sweet potatoes. “I don’t understand why people are constantly roasting them,” she says. “Roasting just makes them more fibrous and leathery, and they never, ever really get crispy.” Instead, she posits that steaming performs a kind of alchemy on sweet potatoes that roasting never does — the moist heat fluffs them into absorbent clouds. And to make up for the inherent blandness of the cooking method, she slathers them with a rich tahini butter spiked with soy sauce, which immediately melts into a mouth-smacking sauce. Her simple recipe ends with a shower of golden sesame seeds and a torrent of lime juice. Try it — every bite will surprise you with crunch, salt, umami and acidity to counterbalance the sweetness of the pillowy potatoes.
Basic Pesto Sauce
The key to making creamy pesto is to add the ingredients to the food processor in the right order to ensure that the nuts break down to a fine paste before the greens have a chance to turn brown. Use basic basil pesto as a pasta sauce, or thin it out with a little olive oil to drizzle it over steak, chicken, fish, pizza or tomato salad. The mint-pistachio variation is inspired by the chef Travis Lett, of Gjelina in Venice, Calif.
Brussels Sprouts in Saor
This recipe is inspired by sarde in saor, a classic Venetian dish of fried sardines topped with sautéed onions, pine nuts, saffron and wine-soaked raisins balanced with a little sugar and vinegar. The saor, or sweet and sour topping, makes an ideal accompaniment to roasted brussels sprouts — served either hot or at room temperature — though it would work equally well on any vegetable side, be it green beans, cauliflower or broccoli. With lemon, vinegar and wine among its ingredients, this dish brings a welcome vividness to the Thanksgiving table — or any meal — where bright, acidic offerings are few and far between.
Salad-e Shirazi (Persian Cucumber, Tomato and Onion Salad)
Named for the city in southwestern Iran, salad-e Shirazi is found on practically every Iranian table at practically every meal. Think of it as an herbier, juicier, more acidic version of Greek salad, Israeli salad or Indian kachumber. It should be bright, crunchy and tart, a nice counterpoint to rich, buttery rice and unctuous stews. Toss the cucumbers, onion, herbs and tomatoes with the lime vinaigrette just before serving to preserve their crunch. In Iran, dining companions usually fight over the leftover juice at the end of a meal.
Simple Tomato Sauce
This simple, savory sauce is rich with tomato flavor. A few basil stems — or whatever herbs you’ve got on hand — add a welcome aromatic note, and a little zip with a blender or food mill leave it with a smooth, silky texture. Use in lasagna, pasta, pizza, or anywhere else you’d use a jar of store-bought marinara.
Ash Reshteh (Persian Greens, Bean and Noodle Soup)
Ash reshteh’s flavor is defined by two uniquely Persian ingredients: reshteh and kashk. The soup, served during the festivities leading up to Nowruz, the Persian New Year, wouldn’t be the same without the soup noodles called reshteh, which are saltier and starchier than Italian noodles — though you could substitute linguine in a pinch. Kashk, a form of drained yogurt or whey, is saltier and more sour than Greek yogurt or sour cream. More like feta than yogurt, liquid kashk gives ash its distinct, satisfying flavor. If you can’t find liquid kashk, buy it powdered and hydrate it with warm water to the consistency of sour cream. Look for both items at a Middle Eastern grocery.
Turkey Pho
A play on the Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, this clear broth, paired with rice noodles and flavored with charred onions and ginger, star anise, brown sugar and fish sauce, comes served with a platter of fresh garnishes. But this is more than your basic noodle soup: A spritz of lime at the end adds some tang, and mung beans and Thai basil a crunchy bite.
Mara’s Tofu With Mixed Grains
With only a few steps and five main ingredients, this simple dish barely requires a recipe, but the results are simultaneously nourishing and deeply satisfying. Steeped in aminos (soy sauce's unfermented cousin), the semisoft tofu melts away with each bite, leaving behind a steamy, satisfying contrail of salt and umami. The coconut oil lends a trace of its sweet, tropical aroma as it yields a crisp, lacy crust. Mixed with quinoa, the rice becomes nutty and complex, a chewy counterpoint to the tender tofu. Plus, it's healthful enough to justify a little self-righteousness.
Sabzi Polo (Herbed Rice With Tahdig)
Cooked in two stages, this herbed rice, or sabzi polo, is a constant at the Persian New Year table, where everyone fights over the crust of crisp rice called tahdig. You can use a food processor to chop the herbs if you like. It's key to do the herbs in batches (don't overfill the bowl of the processor), to pulse rather than run and to stop and scrape a few times for even chopping. Work until the pieces are nice and small, about an eighth of an inch or the size of a small sunflower seed, but not so far that they begin to break down and form a paste.
Butternut Squash and Green Curry Soup
This creamy, vibrant soup is a Thai-inspired version of the puréed squash soup you know and love. The green curry paste, which is relatively easy to find in the international aisle of the grocery store, along with coconut milk and fish sauce, perfectly complements the butternut squash's sweetness. But it's the topping — a spin on miang kham, a snack in Thailand and Laos full of peanuts, coconut and chiles — that's the real standout.
Via Carota’s Insalata Verde
At Via Carota, the charming West Village restaurant run by the partners Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, the menu description for insalata verde does little to give away any details about what makes it so unbelievably, mouth-smackingly perfect. A visual inspection of the dish reveals only leaves of endive, butter lettuce, frisée and watercress all piled as high as gravity will allow, topped by a drizzle of dressing studded generously with shallots and mustard seeds. In truth, all the secrets of this otherworldly salad lay in the graceful, unlikely application of a flavorless one: water. First, the five carefully chosen types of lettuce are all triple-washed to yield what Williams called “a super happy salad.” Next, the minced shallots are given a quick rinse under cold water — instead of a long maceration in vinegar — to keep them shalloty and savory and prevent them from becoming too acidic, which could overwhelm the delicate lettuces. And finally, and perhaps most surprising, Williams adds a spoonful of warm water to the vinaigrette. “We add warm water to make it more palatable,” she explained. “Pure vinegar is just too strong — it assaults the taste buds. We want a salad dressing so savory and delicious that you can eat spoonfuls of it. We want you to be able to drink it!” This might just become your go-to vinaigrette. Spoon it liberally over everything from boiled asparagus to farro salad to steak and fish and roast chicken. It’s so good that you might even be tempted to pour it into a glass and top it off with sparkling water.
Mango Pie
When Hrishikesh Hirway was a kid, his parents, who immigrated to the United States from Maharashtra, in western India, began hosting Thanksgiving. The meal soon evolved into a hybrid of a traditional Thanksgiving and an Indian potluck. “Out of that cultural mash-up, my mom started making this mango pie,” he said. She’d gotten the idea from other Indian aunties in the States, but their versions weren’t as good. “They weren’t making it with the best kind of mango,” Hirway explained. “The Alphonsos have a stronger, more intense flavor.” That Alphonso flavor shines as brilliantly as the pie’s bright filling, made tangy and rich with the addition of cream cheese and whipped cream. And the salty, crumbly graham cracker crust is the perfect foundation for the golden cloud of custard that sits atop it. It’s so satisfying that you'll catch yourself cutting sliver after mouthwatering sliver of pie.
Cajun Shrimp Boil
In New Orleans, a seafood boil, the Southern tradition of gathering around a newspaper-lined table to eat large amounts of boiled shellfish with your bare hands, is all about salt and spice. In the words of Jared Austin, a Mississippi riverboat pilot and seafood-boil master, ‘‘Nothing about any of this is subtle — people standing around the pot should sneeze and cough.’’ The key to a successful shrimp boil is layering ingredients into the pot so that everything is done cooking at once: First add the potatoes and sausage, then the shrimp, then the frozen corn to bring the temperature down and prevent overcooking. Let it all soak to absorb the salt and spice, then dump it out onto the table and eat with copious amounts of rémoulade. While this recipe can easily be halved, it’s a simple — and extraordinarily fun — way to feed a crowd. Just remember to heed Austin’s advice: ‘‘Don’t be afraid of cayenne. Don’t be afraid to let your nose run.’’
How to Make Pasta
Making pasta from scratch doesn't have to be daunting. Samin Nosrat teaches you how to perfect the process.