Appetizer
3523 recipes found
Sheet-Pan Zucchini, Tomatoes and Feta
The star of this speedy supper is the golden-topped, lightly scorched feta that remains irresistibly spreadable and melty when sliced. Thanks to the direct heat of the broiler, charred and burst tomatoes add juiciness to the sheet pan, along with tender zucchini spears. You could also scatter some arugula or baby spinach over the ingredients, gently tossing to wilt, and eat this dish right out of the pan with some bread for a warm, late-summer salad. During other times of year, you could swap the zucchini for asparagus or broccolini.
Pizza Salad
For pizza in salad form, this recipe tosses a crisp and briny mix of romaine lettuce, pepperoncini, black olives and red onion in a fresh, grated tomato vinaigrette. Spicy pepperoni strips are sizzled until crisp; their zesty fat gets sopped up by toasty bread crumbs that are spiked with the classic New York slice flavors (oregano, garlic and red-pepper flakes). (You can make a big batch of these crumbs, store them in the fridge and use them to top pasta, eggs, roasted veggies and anything else you want to take to pizza town.) This salad is showered with the salty pepperoni crumbs, offset by mozzarella morsels running throughout.
Chicken Karaage
At 750 Myrtle Diner in Brooklyn, Kaoru Ayabe single-fries his chicken karaage low and slow at a steady 320 degrees. In this variation of Japanese fried chicken, inspired by Mr. Ayabe’s wonderfully light and crunchy karaage, boneless thighs are gently seasoned with ginger, soy and sake — plus a hint of sugar for balance — so the flavor of the meat can be appreciated. What’s special about this karaage recipe, beyond the low and slow single fry, is that the marinated chicken pieces get dipped in beaten egg before gaining their craggy armor of starch (corn or potato). Fried in a rippling pool of neutral canola oil, this humble but stellar appetizer is best enjoyed with a carafe of sake or an ice-cold beer. (Watch Eric make this on YouTube.)
Grilled Harissa Shrimp
Harissa paste is a spicy North African condiment that is typically made from some combination of red chiles or peppers, garlic and a slew of fragrant spices, often including coriander and cumin. Here the paste is used alongside a bit of honey and lemon as a quick marinade for grilled shrimp. Prepared harissa varies quite a bit from brand to brand in its heat level, but this dish is meant to be punchy and spicy. Serve the grilled shrimp with rice or flatbread, or on top of a crunchy salad, and you’ll have an easy dinner sorted. Make sure that your grilling area is very well ventilated, as the paste will get quite smoky once it hits the hot grates.
Zaalouk (Eggplant and Tomato Salad)
Zaalouk is a Moroccan cooked salad, similar to baba ghanouj and moutabal, that highlights eggplant in all its glory. Just a few ingredients come together to create a lightly aromatic, herby and melt-in-your mouth dip. There are many ways to prepare zaalouk; what varies is the way in which the eggplant is cooked. It can be steamed, boiled, chargrilled, baked or, as in this recipe, simply cooked on the stovetop with the rest of the ingredients. Zaalouk is commonly served as a starter, however, feel free to enjoy it as a side or as a spread in a tasty sandwich with grilled meat or vegetables.
Salmon and Corn Cakes With Jalapeño Mayonnaise
Made with fresh corn, cilantro and lime juice, these summery salmon cakes are a great way to use leftover salmon. Canned pickled jalapeños are the magic ingredient here by adding heat and vinegary tang to both the cakes and the accompanying mayonnaise. (Any leftover sauce would be delicious as a dip for shrimp or with any simply cooked fish.) Canned salmon works well here, too, just be sure to buy the boneless, skinless variety. Finally, when you’re cooking the cakes, keep an eye on the heat level, hovering between medium and medium-low once the oil heats up. If the oil gets scorching hot, kernels of corn may start to pop and splatter. A quick dip in seasoned flour also helps prevent this, providing a barrier between the cakes and the oil and ensuring the cakes come out nice and crispy.
Furikake Snack Mix
This sweet and spicy snack mix is inspired by furikake snack mix, a Japanese Hawaiian dish that uses a soy-butter blend to coat a cereal mixture and then seasons it with furikake, a traditional Japanese seasoning mix that traditionally combines dried fish, seaweed and sesame seeds, creating deep umami. Taking the original as inspiration, this recipe introduces the use of a pack of store-bought ramen. The ramen seasoning is used to flavor the cereal mix, while its crunchy noodles add texture and flair. The foundation of this snack mix calls for a wide variety of crunchy ingredients, but feel free to streamline your shopping list by skipping one of the snack items listed and doubling up on another.
Roasted Pepper Antipasto
A simple, pretty appetizer, this antipasto can be served in individual portions or as part of a buffet table. Roast your own in-season peppers for the best flavor, and spring for top-quality anchovies.
Galbi and Tteok Skewers
Salty, tangy and supremely textural, this dish from David Shim, the executive chef at Cote in New York City, harnesses the flavors of galbi, partnering marinated short ribs with crisp-tender tteok, spearing them on skewers and grilling them until smoky. It was served at the New York Times Food Festival in 2022, but Mr. Shim’s recipe delivers great results on any grill. “The strongest galbi flavors come from the sweetness of the marinade, which is especially a result of the Asian pears,” Mr. Shim said. The pear-and-soy marinade tenderizes the meat as it flavors it. Cut into small batons that readily soak up the seasoning, the boneless short ribs are well suited to grilling due to their high fat content. They even send a signal when they’re done: Once they’re grill-marked, they’ll be perfectly tender, juicy and medium-rare, as if by magic.
Grilled Broccoli and Halloumi Salad
This recipe steers the broccoli, cheese and raisins from Southern broccoli salad to the grill, with a few updates. Cooked over fire, slender spears of broccoli get sweet and smoky, and the cheese (a sturdy, grillable one like halloumi) gets crispy and chewy. Raisins are replaced with fresh grapes, which skip the grill and get tossed with lime zest to become extra-sour bursts. Shower this dish with lime juice, olive oil and mint for a classic combination made anew. For a heartier meal, serve over quinoa, salad greens or grilled bread.
Green Salad With Warm Goat Cheese (Salade de Chèvre Chaud)
Some dishes are showstoppers, while others are ordinary, unfussy and exactly what you want on a slow evening when nothing need be achieved or sought after. This is a simple salad, with the smallest exalting touch: rounds of goat cheese coated in beaten egg and the sheerest veil of bread crumbs, then gently pressed in a hot pan until dark gold. They come served over a careless toss of greens — you can add fresh herbs like dill or parsley for featheriness and a bright lift — in a dressing that requires no more than oil, vinegar, mustard and a single shallot. Eat immediately, when the greens are fresh and cool, and the cheese is still warm, faintly crackly on the outside and oozy within.
Rosé Shrimp
This zippy, pink shrimp dish captures the crisp and flowery flavors of rosé wine in just 20 minutes. A dusting of herbes de Provence, bloomed in hot, shrimpy olive oil, amplifies the savoriness that crustaceans cooked in butter and wine tend to provide, like that of shrimp scampi. Piment d’Espelette — the fruity, moderately spiced pepper named after a commune in France and prevalent in Basque cooking — turbocharges the color and flavor of the shrimp. This chile can be swapped in a pinch (see Tip), but don’t skip the orange zest; it brings out the wine’s inherent fruitiness. Serve this dish as an appetizer with crusty bread, or as an entrée with pasta or white rice, whatever can sop up the rosy pan juices.
Pigs in a Blanket
Mini hotdogs tucked into flaky and tender store-bought crescent rolls are equal parts retro, nostalgia and comfort wrapped into one bite-size bundle. Homemade pigs in a blanket are an evergreen party staple and a cinch to make. If you can’t find cocktail-size wieners, you can simply cut half a dozen regular hotdogs into 1 1/2 inch-long pieces and use those. Serve with your favorite condiments, like honey mustard or ketchup. This is a snack that never falls out of favor.
Kosua ne Meko (Eggs With Pepper Relish)
A hard-boiled egg split slightly down the middle and stuffed with a chunky tomato relish, kosua ne meko is a quick Ghanaian snack sold by street vendors. Classic versions include hard-boiled eggs that have been cured by dredging them shell-on through dampened salt a day before. The relish, referred to as “raw pepper,” can taste different depending on the vendor, but it always has crushed tomatoes, red onions and chiles. For home cooks, this can be a simple dish made quickly (or ahead) to share broadly — at the beach, a picnic, an afternoon cocktail party or a potluck brunch. An asanka, a small mortar and pestle with a rough interior, is used to prepare the raw pepper, but a food processor can also step in. Simply salting the egg before adding the relish, or after, can at least hint at the salt-dredging technique.
Smashed Cucumber, Avocado and Shrimp Salad
Smashed, salted cucumbers form the base of cooling summer salads in many parts of Asia, whether dressed with rice vinegar and soy sauce or spicy Sichuan peppercorns, chiles and peanuts. This version pairs smashed cucumbers with avocados for creaminess, along with briny shrimp steamed with sesame oil. Served with rice or flatbread, it makes a light summer meal, but you can serve it on its own as an appetizer, to open for grilled or roasted meat or fish.
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Cheese-Filled Toasted Ravioli
To make this St. Louis specialty, fill thin pasta dough with a mixture of ricotta and mozzarella, then bread and fry your ravioli until lightly crisp—and don’t forget the marinara sauce for dunking.
Chilled Zucchini Soup With Lemon and Basil
During the warmest days, there is no more welcome promise than a no-cook meal. A blender or food processor makes quick work of this peak summer zucchini soup, which requires no cooking and is best served chilled. Cashews thicken the soup while adding a creamy silkiness and a gentle sweetness. Since taste buds don't register the flavors of cold foods as well as warm ones, chilled soups require generous seasonings. Here, the mellow raw zucchini is bolstered by the hefty use of garlic, miso, lemon juice and basil. The soup can be prepared ahead and chilled in the fridge for up to 24 hours or it can be served right away, chilled with ice cubes.
Chilled Avocado Soup
This chilled soup couldn’t be easier to make, packing a lot of flavor into a quick dish of just a few ingredients. Fresh, green and somewhat tart, it’s quite refreshing on a warm day.
Baked Feta Dip With Spicy Tomatoes and Honey
Baked feta, of TikTok pasta fame, also makes a tangy, creamy dip when mixed with grape tomatoes that have been roasted in the same pan. Here the tomatoes are spiked with dried chiles, onions and thinly sliced garlic cloves, which get sweet and soft after baking. Serve this warm from the oven with sliced baguette, pita bread or crackers for dipping. To make this even spicier, add a tablespoon or two of thinly sliced fresh red or green chile to the tomatoes.
Medieval Hummus
The roots of this recipe, an ancestor of modern hummus, date back at least as far as the 13th century, as the Iraqi food historian Nawal Nasrallah writes on her blog, My Iraqi Kitchen. As adapted by Lucien Zayan, a Frenchman of Egyptian and Syrian descent who runs the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, you boil chickpeas until their skins loosen and they reveal themselves, tender little hulks with souls of butter. Then you mash them in a swirl of tahini, olive oil, vinegar, spices and herbs, and fold in a crush of nuts, seeds and preserved lemon, sour-bright and tasting of aged sun. Notably absent from the recipe is garlic. Here, instead, the nuts — Mr. Zayan uses hazelnuts, for more butteriness, and pistachios, with their hint of camphor — fortify the chickpeas in their earthy heft, so close to the richness of meat.
Melon Salad With Pistachio Dukkah and Basil
Forget the beach, summer melons are the biggest reason to look forward to hotter temperatures. Run by husband and wife team Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh, Norwich Meadows Farms in upstate New York grows some of the best local produce using traditional techniques from Egypt. Their melons burst with sweet, floral nectar that plays off the basil perfectly, and the dukkah is a nod to the Egyptian farmers that work on their farm. But don’t worry if you can’t get a Norwich melon, this dukkah can exalt any supermarket fruit. A crunchy, nutty spice blend typically made with a widely varying variety of pounded nuts, seeds and spices, dukkah can be found throughout Egypt, sold in tightly wrapped newspaper cones as a quick snack. Be sure to hold onto any leftover dukkah; it’s great with crudités or mixed with olive oil to make a quick dip for warm bread.
Crispy Potato Tacos
Potato tacos, or tacos de papa, as they are known in Mexico, make the perfect meal for those times when you find yourself with an excess of potatoes and a package of tortillas on hand. Tortillas are an endlessly versatile pantry item. In this recipe, adapted from “Tenderheart” by Hetty Lui McKinnon (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023), they are stuffed with potato and cheese for a deeply satisfying meal or light snack. Cooking the potatoes whole, skin intact, prevents them from absorbing too much water, and the skin also adds a nice texture to the filling. Shortcuts are always available: If you’ve got leftover mashed potatoes, you can use them and skip the first step.
Bloody Mary Tomato Salad
A Bloody Mary is more than a hangover cure or acceptable brunch tipple; it is also an excellent example of precise and intentional ingredient pairings. There’s tart tomato, balanced with crisp celery, pepped up with piquant hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and black pepper, then rounded out with lemon. These elements are the inspiration for a simple summer tomato salad, sans the vodka, of course. A brief pickle in lemon juice softens the celery and takes the bite out of the onions. This salad is vegan so rather than Worcestershire, which contains anchovies, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar are used to deliver that same umami and tang. (Vegetarians and vegans, remember this combination for other recipes that ask for Worcestershire!). Serve on its own, with bread to mop up the tasty juices, or toss it through pasta and serve as a salad. This salad will keep and will taste just as good (or even better) the next day.
Melon and Cho Cho Salad
This melon salad, from Denai Moore’s “Plentiful: Vegan Jamaican Recipes to Repeat” (Hardie Grant, 2023) is a delight on a summer day, and a quick, surprising start to the rest of your meal. Consisting largely of sliced cantaloupe and chayote (also known as cho cho), the dish requires minimal effort: chopping, tossing and serving. The amount of acidity and herbs can be adjusted and calibrated to your preference, or the crowd that you’re cooking for. As Ms. Moore writes, “This is a salad to be eaten seasonally, as it uses so few ingredients, so it’s important that each one has the best opportunity to shine.” Nodding toward a vibrancy of flavor, confluence of textures and an eye to pleasure, it’s a salad to look forward to.