Brunch
940 recipes found
Croque-Monsieur Breakfast Casserole
This French classic needs little introduction, but if you haven’t had it in baked form, you’re in for a treat. Think upscale ham sandwiches drenched in egg custard and cheese, melted to a deep golden-brown. There are no tricks here, save for the addition of two extra yolks for maximum French-toast tenderness. Serve it warm, or at room temperature — a fitting breakfast feast that's welcome any time of the day.
Onion Sandwich
James Beard took this recipe from his colleagues Irma and Bill Rhode over 60 years ago, but there’s something delicate, fresh and unfussy about the sandwich even now. There isn’t much to it, so each component really matters: Slice the onions thinly and evenly, season well, and be gentle so you don’t squish the bread as you press each sandwich shut. Rolling the edge of the sandwich in chopped parsley (or a mix of parsley and other fresh herbs), gives it a retro styling touch, but it’s crucial for flavor, too.
Grilled Carrots With Yogurt, Carrot-Top Oil and Dukkah
You can serve these carrots with Greek yogurt, or with homemade labneh, if you start the night before (see Tip below). This recipe calls for making your own dukkah: You’ll have more than you need, but keep any leftovers in a sealed container to sprinkle over salads, grilled meat or fish. A bunch of carrots from your farmers’ market will work best here, but you can also use regular carrots that have been halved or quartered lengthwise. If you can’t find bunches of carrots with their fresh tops, you can prepare the oil using parsley instead, or double the tarragon for an even more herbaceous version.
Crustless Egg and Cheese Quiche
If you love quiche, get to know this crustless version, dotted with cheese, mushrooms and herbs (and no fussy pastry to chill or roll). Once you master the perfect dairy-to-egg ratio, you’ll find this recipe to be as much of an ally to the Friday fridge clean-out as it is to a brunch for friends. Pay close attention to the baking time: The center should be a touch wiggly when you remove the quiche from the oven. The end result is a quivering, spoonable custard that melts in your mouth, to be served with a bracing salad. Crisp greens with mustardy vinaigrette, or a citrus laced endive and radicchio number — anything in that vein will do.
White Bark Balls
Eggnog Overnight French Toast
Like a good pitcher of eggnog, this French toast is rich, sweet, boozy and covered in nutmeg. Slicing the bread but keeping the base connected not only makes this an attractive breakfast centerpiece, it also feeds family and friends with little effort since all the servings bake simultaneously. Allowing it to soak in the refrigerator overnight deepens the dish’s flavors. Don’t worry about forcing the bread pieces apart when pouring in the soaking mixture: The loaf will flower naturally as it bakes. This dish is sweet enough to eat without a final drench in maple syrup, but it’s great with a mountain of fresh, tart berries. A little homemade whipped cream wouldn’t hurt either.
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.
Cheesy Breakfast Egg and Polenta Casserole
If you’ve had the pleasure of a cheesy polenta dinner, topped with a creamy-yolked egg, you can imagine how good that combination is at breakfast. This quick casserole for a crowd is exactly that, made elegant and easy so you can have a perfectly cooked portion for each person with very little work. Layer your polenta with anything you desire, whether salami or ham — or keep it vegetable-centric with spinach or oven-roasted tomatoes. Make nests between your toppings and the polenta where the eggs will cook slowly, giving you a soft-cooked finish that’s loaded with flavor.
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.
Bircher Muesli
Essentially oats soaked in fruit juice, or milk, with nuts and fruit, Bircher muesli has a long history, and enough versions floating around to prove it. The original was created in the early 1900s by Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a Swiss doctor. It consisted of oats, grated apple, nuts, lemon and condensed milk and honey, but over time, people have gotten creative with the formula. This version is a choose-your-own-adventure recipe that is great to make ahead in large or small batches. Some recipes call for apple juice or applesauce for moisture, but this version uses creamy Greek yogurt instead. Tahini adds richness, but substitute another nut butter or skip it all together if you’d rather. Swap out the nuts and dried fruit to suit your tastes and what you have. (Dates are especially nice.) Thin individual servings with more milk, if needed, then top with additional fresh fruit, nuts and a drizzle of maple syrup. It’s cool, creamy, chewy and crunchy all at once.
Seared Grapefruit With Ginger Maple Syrup
I call these seared ruby red grapefruit rounds “pancakes,” not because there is any batter involved, but because I serve them warm, with maple syrup that I spike with fresh ginger juice.
Menudo
Menudo is magic in a bowl — sporting tripe, a deeply spiced broth, and the choice of many different seasonings, the Mexican soup is a gift. Also known as pancita, the dish is amenable to many variations and this version from Mely Martínez’s book, “The Mexican Home Kitchen” (Rock Point, 2020), is especially soothing. Most menudo recipes follow a similar blueprint: protein (usually tripe) is simmered in broth until it reaches a silky completion. Your choice of meat sits nestled in a base which can be as spicy or soothing as your tolerance and preference allows. On the side, lime, oregano and onions are among the accoutrements to season your dish — and hominy can be a hearty addition to the bowl, complementing the textures that have been stacked atop one another.
Kimchi Cheddar Biscuits
Regardless of where, or even when, you’re eating a biscuit, the formula’s the same: a little flour, a little water, frozen butter. A pair of deft, knowing hands and an oven to bring them home. A biscuit can be a side dish of little note, or it can characterize an entire place and time, etching its own corner in your memory. The acidity and crunch of ripe kimchi meld deeply with Cheddar here, and also in versions from Kay Chun and Joy Cho, resulting in a biscuit that traverses multiple flavors from bite to bite. For the best results, chill your butter in the freezer and your buttermilk in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Creamed Tomatoes on Toast
Juicy canned tomatoes melted into fragrant cream mimic an instant cream of tomato soup. Served over toast, they make for a simple yet indulgent breakfast, or anytime snack. This dish is inspired by a recipe in "Roast Chicken and Other Stories." In the book, Simon Hopkinson writes that his version was inspired by Edouard de Pomiane’s "Cooking in 10 Minutes." Hopkinson bakes fresh tomatoes in garlicky, minty cream for half an hour. The version below, with canned tomatoes, woody herbs and a hint of cinnamon, is there for you when fresh tomatoes aren’t — and, like de Pomiane's approach, takes closer to 10 minutes.
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.