Brunch
923 recipes found
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.
Sweet Corn and Ricotta Sformato
Think of a sformato as a soufflé that requires no technique. This one is fluffy and rich at the same time. A cheesy base of ricotta, Parmesan and crème fraîche is combined with a double dose of corn: whole kernels and a purée. Lightness and rise comes from egg whites, whipped to stiff peaks and folded through right before cooking. Make sure your eaters are assembled at the table when you pull this out of the oven. It’s best eaten immediately, still puffed up and drizzled with crushed basil oil.
Shrimp Bathed in Olive Oil and Lemon
A simple but lavish bath of olive oil and lemon juice is the Italian way of showing off superfresh seafood. The key, according to Marcella Hazan, is that the dish should never see the inside of a refrigerator, which changes the texture of the seafood and the flavor of the olive oil. She calls for shrimp in this recipe, but the formula also works with squid, clams and meaty fish fillets.
Focaccia
Seasoned with little more than olive oil and crunchy sea salt, focaccia is an ancient bread that is unexpectedly easy to make. Once a staple at Caroline Fidanza’s now-closed sandwich shop, Saltie, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this recipe from the “Saltie: A Cookbook” is perfect on its own, but also serves as a base upon which you can experiment. If you want to alter its flavor, sprinkling some aromatic dry herbs on top of the dough provides deep savory notes. Or decorate it vibrantly with the vegetables and fresh herbs of your choosing for an Instagram-worthy focaccia garden (see Tip).
Sugar Snap Pea Salad With Calabrian Pepper and Fennel
Whitney Otawka, whom you may remember from "Top Chef" or Hugh Acheson’s Five & Ten restaurant in Athens, Ga., cooks at the Greyfield Inn. It’s the only place to stay on Cumberland Island, the largest barrier island off Georgia’s coast. The farmers who live there grow sugar snap peas, which she welcomes as one of the early tastes of spring. She is also a fan of Calabrian peppers packed in oil, which she started eating at Antico Pizza in Atlanta. She uses them to make a dressing base that enlivens the peas. The fennel, which needs to be sliced very finely, adds crunch and depth. Buy baby fennel, if you can find it. This is a great salad on its own, or use it as a kind of relish on grilled meat or braised lamb. There will be extra chile dressing, which is a fine condiment for grilled chicken. It will also add character to a pasta dish or even a slice of takeout pizza.
Boxty (Irish Potato Pancakes)
Boxty, breadlike potato pancakes that originated in Ireland as early as the late 18th century, were created as a resourceful way to transform less-than-stellar potatoes into a hearty side dish. Variations of these crisp, chewy potato pancakes abound, but most involve some combination of mashed potatoes, grated potatoes, flour, baking soda or baking powder; buttermilk or eggs are sometimes added for richness. Popular in pubs but also made at home, they’re typically served as an accompaniment to stews and rich meat dishes. This recipe is adapted from “The Irish Cookbook” by Jp McMahon (Phaidon, 2020), who serves them in a more modern fashion, with smoked salmon, sour cream and pickled onions, which balance and brighten.
Scallion Egg Wrap
This is a common Chinese-American adaptation of a breakfast dish served throughout northern China and Taiwan. Street vendors start peddling jian bing as the sun rises, spreading a wheat flour and mung bean batter on a large griddle until thin, then cracking an egg or two on top. They scatter on scallions, cilantro and pickled mustard greens, and scramble and spread the mix before squirting on hoisin sauce and chile paste. Sometimes, they add sliced lettuce or wonton crisps for crunch. Making jian bing is a specialized skill and not easily recreated, but this approximation delivers the pleasure and convenience of an omelet cooked onto a thin pancake, the pancake here being store-bought flour tortillas. When warmed, they share the comforting chewiness of the original. This version uses a few essential condiments: Pickled mustard greens, hoisin and chile paste can be found in Chinese or Asian markets or online. But you can, of course, leave them out. In fact, kids often prefer just the egg and tortilla.
Olive Oil-Fried Egg
This method for making fried eggs lies somewhere between the techniques for Spanish fried eggs and for classic sunny side up: The edges are crispy and golden, the whites are set, yet the yolk is still runny. To achieve this contrast in textures, the eggs are cooked in a thin layer of rippling-hot oil. While this recipe is written for four eggs, it will work with any number. (Adjust the pan size and oil accordingly). Avoid touching the eggs until the bottoms and edges are lacy and crisp. Once that happens, spoon some of the oil onto the whites until cooked through. The yolk remains untouched, ready to be sopped up by toast or potatoes, or with yogurt.
Olive Oil Refried Beans
Use whatever variety of beans and chiles you’ve got in your pantry to make this recipe, which is inspired by the silky, lard-fried, pinto bean version available at nearly every Southern Californian taqueria. Eat these however you like, whether alongside rice and greens, smeared onto garlic-rubbed toast or spread onto a warm tortilla and with a perfectly fried egg on top. The overnight soak allows the time for both water and salt to penetrate the beans, cutting down the cooking time and leading to better seasoned, more evenly cooked beans. But if you’re short on time, you can skip the presoak; the beans will just take longer to cook through, and might not cook as evenly, which isn’t the end of the world if you’re mashing them up. You can also skip simmering altogether and use the drained, rinsed beans from two (15-ounce) cans and begin with Step 3.
Vermicelli Sweet Corn Usli
This is a take on vermicelli usli, also known as upma — an ideal South Indian breakfast, savory and satisfying, full of vegetables and delicate fried noodles, and seasoned with coconut and cashews. Though commonly made with carrots and peas, you can toss in whatever vegetables you have on hand. In summer, fresh corn adds plenty of crunch and sweetness, and the dish works for lunch and dinner, just as it is.
Scrapple
Most recipes for scrapple, a dish popular at diners in eastern Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic, call for offal rather than cooked pork. But ours, first published in December 1953 and later in the Food News Department’s booklet “Encore for the Roast,” was devised as a way to use up leftover pork loin. You can substitute in 1 1/2 cups puréed pork loin or start from scratch with ground pork. You’ll need a food processor and a double boiler for this recipe. The latter will save you 45 minutes active stirring time.
Baked Eggs With Kale, Bacon and Cornbread Crumbs
This Southern riff on bacon and eggs comes together quickly and with just a few ingredients. Using a store-bought corn muffin to make the toasted cornbread crumbs is a quick shortcut that gives this dish its star power. (Try using these crumbs as croutons in a kale Caesar salad, too!) Curly kale, collard greens, Swiss chard or a combination may be used in place of the Tuscan kale. For a vegetarian-friendly version, this recipe can be made without the bacon: Just sauté the garlic, onion and greens in 3 tablespoons olive oil, and add an additional 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Blueberry, Almond and Lemon Cake
A slice of this berry-dotted cake is perfect late in the morning, for afternoon tea or after dinner, with coffee. It keeps for up to three days in a sealed container, but is at its absolute best on the day it's made.
Dooymaaj Salad
Dooymaaj is a nostalgic Iranian childhood snack of dried, days-old bread — it’s an effort to not waste a single crumb — combined with fresh herbs, cheese and walnuts. The ingredients are bound with a splash of milk and a drizzle of butter, then rolled into balls and enjoyed as an afternoon treat. This refreshing, zesty, herb-filled bread salad is an homage to the beloved snack. Use any flatbread you like, but crisp lavash bread holds up particularly well against the creamy and tangy buttermilk dressing. This is hearty enough to be served on its own as a light meal or alongside grilled chicken or fish, such as chicken or salmon kababs.
Watermelon and Grapefruit Salad With Tahini
This fruit salad is simple to make but thrilling to eat because it hits all the marks of a good salad in surprising ways. The base is crunchy-sweet watermelon and tangy-tart grapefruit. (If you can’t eat grapefruit, substitute orange sprinkled with lemon or lime juice.) These two fruits look similar, but taste different, and that is part of the fun of eating them together. Tahini is used like a nuttier, richer oil, and honey mellows the mix. The balance really depends on the quality of your ingredients, though, so adjust to taste until each bite races between sweet, savory, juicy and creamy.
Avocado Toast
It may seem silly to give a recipe for avocado toast, but there is an art to it, as with most things that are both simple and perfect. Here, you want to make sure of a few things: that the bread you use is sturdy and has some taste; that there's enough salt and citrus to bring out the avocado's flavor; and that you use a good olive oil to bring it all together. These garnishes, from the Australian café Two Hands in Manhattan, are tasty but unnecessary.
Stone Fruit Caprese
A standout caprese starts with great fruit. You need ripe tomatoes to weep juices, which then mingle with grassy olive oil and milky cheese to make your dressing. Basil adds freshness, black pepper and flakes of sea salt add crunch, and that’s it, a perfect combination. But if the stone fruit options are looking better than the tomatoes at the market, you can use them instead. They’re similar in flavor to tomatoes, but need cajoling to relinquish their juices. By letting sliced fruit macerate with salt, sugar and lemon juice, their fruitiness becomes more electric and their juices pool on the plate. Start with fruit you can smell and pair it with equally quality ingredients. Caprese is more about shopping than cooking.
Frittata With Kasha, Leeks and Spinach
I like adding cooked grains to a frittata, but you have to choose just the right one; it should be soft, not too chewy. Rice works, and so does bulgur. But if you want to add a grain that will contribute a lot of flavor to a frittata, kasha is your grain. It is wonderfully nutty, and a cup of cooked kasha contributes just the right amount of bulk to make this frittata substantial but not at all heavy. Leeks, cooked down until sweet and tender, a small amount of baby spinach, which always partners well with kasha whether raw or cooked, lots of fresh dill and a little bit of feta are the other components. Serve this for dinner and take leftovers to work for lunch.
Farro and Green Bean Salad With Walnuts and Dill
Farro is a perfect vehicle to showcase summer produce. With its nutty flavor and toothsome texture, the whole grain is a great counterbalance to snappy, sweet green beans. The farro cooks while you prepare the rest of the salad, allowing for an easy-to-assemble meal. Dill and walnuts, a nod to Middle Eastern flavors, are used in the gremolata, but pistachios and mint or hazelnuts and parsley would also work. Feta cheese or ricotta salata tossed in at the end would also be a nice addition. This hearty salad works well on its own, but would also be a fine companion to grilled fish or any other protein. Add the acid just before serving; it makes every ingredient sing.
Breakfast Wheat Berries
Wheat berries sweetened with honey and perfumed with rose water and spices make a delicious breakfast on their own or stirred into yogurt (that’s the way I prefer to serve this). Whether you use farro, kamut, spelt or wheat berries (and whether you are cooking them for breakfast or for dinner) the trick here is to cook the grains for as long as it takes for them to really soften and to splay (that is, to burst at one end).
Vegan Catalan-Style Radicchio and White Beans
Savory French Toast With Cherry Tomatoes and Basil
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. You know a stash of leftover bread makes the best French toast for breakfast, so it stands to reason that a savory version would be equally satisfying for the crew around your dinner table. At least that’s true in my house. Whisk the eggs as you usually would, but omit the sugar and cinnamon, hitting it instead with black pepper, chopped basil and a dash of hot sauce. Slide some slices of old bread in there to soak, then fry the toasts up in butter just as you would at breakfast. Scattering a few handfuls of halved cherry tomatoes into the pan as the bread cooks will yield a fine topping. Those who have doubted will doubt no more. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Breakfast Salad
From the same trend that brought us avocado toast, the breakfasts served in Australian cafes often include bright vegetables arranged in eye-catching ways. Salad is definitely not part of the traditional American breakfast menu, but on a sunny morning the combination of chilled, crunchy greens; protein-rich cheese and eggs; and an eye-opening dressing is hugely appealing. This one was created at Carthage Must Be Destroyed, an airy (and slightly eccentric) Australian-style cafe hidden behind an unmarked entrance in Brooklyn. The chef and owner Amanda Bechara likes to leave the lettuce leaves whole to make it easier to eat with your fingers. (You can prepare the vegetables the day before, and skip marinating the feta if you must.) This would also make a lovely lunch.
Cardamom-Scented Oatmeal Pancakes With Apricots and Almonds
Oatmeal, always underrated, is the foundation of this pancake. But the ingredient that really makes this recipe shine is the cardamom, a spice that has been treasured in Europe for centuries and has been subtly employed since then in pastries throughout the northern part of the continent. These pancakes are incredibly tender, with a little chew from the grain and the dried fruit, but beyond that they’re exotic. Here are flavors and textures that ordinary pancakes could never approach.