Appetizer
3523 recipes found
Jerk Chicken Meatballs With BBQ-Pineapple Glaze
This recipe takes the deep flavor of jerk chicken and turns it into easy meatballs. The jerk seasoning paste does double duty here, adding both spices and moisture, so don’t reach for dry jerk seasoning. Whether served alone as an appetizer, over rice, or even tucked in a sandwich, these meatballs are perfectly salty, sweet and spicy.
Mushroom-Barley Soup
Soup made without meat or meat broth can be insipid. That's why most people think pea soup needs ham and mushroom-barley soup needs beef. But it's possible to make a satisfying, even hearty, vegetarian soup if you choose your ingredients carefully and extract every bit of flavor from them. Enter this mushroom-barley soup, a vegetarian dish with real body, texture and depth of flavor. The key ingredient here is dried porcini, which can be reconstituted in hot water in less than 10 minutes, giving you the best-tasting mushrooms you can find outside the woods and an intensely flavored broth that rivals beef stock. Don’t forget to toast the barley while really browning the mushrooms and carrots — it lends a deep warmth.
Albóndigas de la Familia Ronstadt (Ronstadt Family Meatballs)
Fragrant with mint and cilantro and a hit of oregano, these delicate Mexican meatballs have served Linda Ronstadt’s family for generations. They were lunch for her grandfather, or a soup course when the family gathered at her grandparent’s house. The recipe, published in her memoir-cookbook hybrid “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands” (Heyday, 2022), is different from many traditional albóndigas recipes, which use rice or soft vegetables like potatoes or carrots to bind the meatballs. It may seem like the meatball components won’t come together when kneading at first, but stick with it. The poaching liquid becomes a broth, which benefits from skimming off the little bit of foam that appears before serving. A variation of the Ronstadt family meatballs first appeared in The Times in 1989.
Taktouka With Burrata and Lime-Parsley Oil
Taktouka is a Moroccan cooked salad traditionally made of bell peppers simmered in a tomato sauce that’s seasoned with sweet paprika and cumin. The end result is a lightly fragrant and flavorful dish that is typically served with plenty of bread. Here, it is also served with burrata. Although the addition of the creamy cheese is not traditional, it makes taktouka a complete vegetarian meal. The optional addition of lime-parsley oil adds a touch of acidity and freshness.
Herby Rice Salad With Peas and Prosciutto
This bright, lemony salad laced with fresh herbs is a passport to spring. Simmering the rice in plenty of salted water just until it’s al dente and then cooling it well is key. Blanched fresh peas are terrific if you can find them, but frozen work just fine. The trick is marinating them in lemony olive oil, a technique borrowed from the Michigan chef Abra Berens, who uses it in her comprehensive book “Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables” (Chronicle Books, 2019). The prosciutto adds a nice salty hit, but you could sub in a dollop of creamy ricotta or leave both out for your vegan friends. Either way, the recipe delivers a bright salad that can stand in for a light meal.
El Minuto’s Cheese Crisps
In Tucson, Ariz., a late night out is often punctuated by a stop at a local Mexican restaurant for cheese crisp. Linda Ronstadt grew up eating the version at El Minuto, which was across the street from the building where her brother worked as the chief of police. She included the recipe in her hybrid memoir-cookbook “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands” (Heyday, 2022). The ingredients are ridiculously simple but it is essential to search out an approximation of the large, nearly translucent flour tortillas that are a mainstay of Sonoran cooking. The trick is to let the tortillas cool and harden before topping them with cheese and sending them under the broiler. Chopped green chiles are a nice way to add some character to the snack, but a good hot sauce will do.
Crunchy Chickpeas With Sesame, Cumin and Lime
It's a bit more work than just tossing chickpeas, oil and spices together onto a sheet pan, but dry-roasting the beans first, then stirring them into oil that's been infused with spices encourages the seasoning to cling to the bean. Here, nutty sesame seeds are combined with earthy cumin before being tossed with roasted chickpeas and a little lime zest for brightness. They make a nice addition to a charcuterie plate or as a topping for roasted vegetables such as carrots or baby turnips. They also make a great high-protein snack for kids of all ages.
Oven-Fried Patatas Bravas (Crispy Potatoes With Two Sauces)
Served with spicy salsa brava and garlicky allioli, crispy hot patatas bravas are traditionally served in tapas bars throughout Spain. The salsa brava is made with pimentón, the smoked Spanish paprika sold as picante (hot) and dulce (sweet). Some cooks include a lot of chopped tomato, but my friends in Madrid tell me they prefer this version, which looks a bit like rusty gravy. As for the allioli, you can mount it by hand with a whisk, or use a stick blender as most Spaniards do. Though patatas bravas are typically pan-fried on the stovetop, I came up with this easier, oven-fried method. The potatoes emerge beautifully browned and crisped, and their flavor is sensational cooked in extra-virgin olive oil. This is not fancy fare. Grab a fork and dip the hot potatoes in both sauces for the optimal experience.
Crepes
These delicate pliable crepes can be simply served warm, dusted with confectioners' sugar, or given a little flair by dousing with a buttery orange syrup to make the French dessert, Crêpes Suzette. You can make the crepes in advance; pile them between torn-off sheets of baking parchment then wrap well and store in the refrigerator for a good three days.
Broccoli Toasts With Melty Provolone
A beautifully assembled toast can make a lovely light dinner. In this version, blanched broccoli is cooked in olive oil that's been infused with garlic and anchovies (always optional) until it’s very tender, then it’s piled onto toasted bread. Grated extra-sharp provolone, which is a nice complement to the mildly sweet broccoli, is sprinkled on top, then the toasts are broiled until the cheese is melted and golden brown. You can use cauliflower, broccoli rabe or thickly sliced sweet peppers in place of the broccoli, but be sure to cook your vegetables until they are velvety soft — it provides a nice contrast to the crunchy bread. While these toasts work well on their own, they make an equally good accompaniment to roast chicken or grilled fish.
Creamy Blue Cheese Dip With Walnuts
Blue cheese can be a polarizing ingredient, but the sweetness of toasted walnuts rounds out the sharpness of the cheese in this creamy dip. If serving this dip to friends, surround it with large pieces of cabbage, sliced celery sticks and a sleeve of saltine crackers — and make extra, because it can disappear quickly. But it’s built for more than entertaining guests: Slather it on a potato bun in a chicken cutlet sandwich, or use it to dress up a BLT.
Bagna Cauda
Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Walnut Pumpkin Butter
These homemade ravioli are simple to make but add a wow factor to the holiday table. And they can be made ahead and frozen, and cooked up in minutes on the day. Two (15-ounce) cans of pure pumpkin purée may be substituted for the fresh pumpkin if desired.
Beet Soup With Tarragon, Chives and Yogurt
Freshly cooked beets, though they take a while to prepare (see Tip), are so delicious that they’re worth the effort. Cook them the day before you need them and keep them in the fridge for up to a week, to use in salads or for a soup. For this borscht-inspired soup, a splash of vinegar tempers the beets’ natural sweetness, which is perfectly complemented by a splash of tart herby yogurt. The good news is this soup may be served warm or chilled; each way is refreshing.
Tostones
A staple dish throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, tostones are crisp, flattened plantains that are often served as appetizers and side dishes. Unlike sweet maduros, which are made with very ripe, almost black, yellow plantains, savory tostones are made with unripe green plantains. Tostones are fried twice: The first fry sears the cut sides of the plantains, establishing a base layer of color; the second fry ensures that every edge is golden and crunchy. Tostoneras, wooden tools designed to create the perfect tostone shape, come in handy here, but a flat-bottomed cup will do just fine in its place.
Miso Soup
In the United States, especially in Japanese American restaurants, the standard version of miso soup usually involves little more than soft tofu, seaweed and a lily-pad suspension of scallions. Think of this recipe as your blank canvas: You could add thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms at the end, or replace the katsuobushi entirely with dried shiitakes for a vegan version. Fried tofu, clams and even chicken are all fair game when cooking miso soup at home. The chef Seiji Ando, of Benkay restaurant in Portland, Maine, adds sake and mirin for balance, and says even a tiny bit of butter can be delicious.
Skillet Fried Plantains
Exceptionally ripe plantains are key in this recipe from Ricky Moore, the chef at Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, N.C. The chief indicator of a plantain’s ripeness is its color and texture; the darker and softer the fruit, the sweeter its meat. For this recipe, which is not unlike maduros or dodo, opt for fruit that are as black and as soft to the touch as possible. This will likely require some in-home ripening, as most store-bought plantains are sold firm and unripened, in shades that run the gamut from dark green to pale yellow. To ripen them at home, store plantains in a loosely closed paper bag in a warm, dry place. The inclusion of fresh lime juice to the finished dish adds a bracing zing of citrus, which pairs wonderfully if you enjoy the plantains with Brown Stew Pork Shoulder, as the chef does.
Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad With Pear and Halloumi
Salty, fried halloumi cubes are the star of this bright, lemony kale and brussels sprouts salad. Crispy, melty and squidgy all at once, they are delightfully textural. Though the kale and brussels sprouts mix can sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving, for best results, you should fry the halloumi just before you plan to eat.
Cauliflower Ceviche
On the hottest summer days, this is the dish to make because it requires zero cooking. A quick marinade of lemon juice, seaweed and fresh vegetables sets up a flavorful, no-fuss ceviche that tastes like the sea despite having no seafood in it. Store-bought minced or “riced” cauliflower won’t work for this dish. You have to start by grating or mincing a fresh whole head of cauliflower — that extra step will be more than worth the work it requires. ¡Buen provecho!
Seamus Mullen's Pan Con Tomate
Pan con tomate is traditionally a humble dish, a way to make a single tomato and some old bread serve a family for lunch. For Tertulia's version, use a box grater to shred the best tomato you can find. Microplane some garlic into it. Add salt and a big drizzle of fruity Spanish olive oil, then a little less of sherry vinegar. You'll heap this mixture onto a few thick slices of bread, and then scrape most of the tomato off. Add more olive oil and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Tofu-Vegetable Satay With Peanut Sauce
Caramelized pineapple, tofu and vegetables take center stage in these vegan satay, which are inspired by Indonesian charcoal-grilled skewers. Here, the smoky satay are glazed with sweet and sticky kecap manis, a fermented sweet soy sauce (see Tip), which also flavors the peanut sauce along with garlic, shallots and chile. The sauce is meant to be generously poured over the satay to serve, but any leftovers will last for one week in the refrigerator. The sauce thickens over time, so loosen it with extra water as needed. Serve the satay and peanut sauce with steamed rice or noodles, and a side of stir-fried greens or roast potatoes. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Butterscotch Wheels
This recipe first appeared in “More Quick Breads,” a pamphlet from the Food News Department of The New York Times, published in 1954. The booklet was one of 15 produced by the section covering “easy-to-make” recipes on topics ranging from fish to party cakes. For this recipe, feel free to substitute the nuts, and be sure to eat these small cinnamon rolls right out of the oven.
Cracked Green Olive, Walnut and Pomegranate Relish
This classic recipe from Paula Wolfert, who picked it up from her friend, the Turkish food journalist Ayfer Unsal, is a versatile relish that can be spooned alongside pork skewers, simply cooked fish or sliced steak. Each ingredient is important to the final relish. Leave one out and it will seem out of balance. A note: Rinse the olives with cool water before you use them, then taste one. If they seem too salty, soak them in lukewarm water for 30 minutes. Drain and rinse again.
Potato Korokke
Korokke, or Japanese croquettes, are comforting oval-shaped staples. The dish was introduced to Japan in the late 1800s and is said to have descended from French croquettes. Now, you’re as likely to find these crunchy-creamy cakes in a neighbor’s kitchen as at a butcher’s shop, street vendor or convenience store counter. Potato korokke consists of mashed potatoes folded into a mixture of onion and ground beef, but that formula is a platform for endless variation. Kabocha korokke substitutes potatoes with Japanese squash; kani cream korokke is filled with crabmeat and bound by bechamel; kare rice korokke eats like a distant cousin of arancini; kon kurimu korokke uses corn and cream. Leftover korokke can be reheated and eaten with toasted milk bread for a miracle sandwich.