Dinner
8856 recipes found
Scrunched Cabbage Salad With Fried Almonds
Crunchy and succulent, this hearty salad takes the humble cabbage and celebrates it as a leafy green. Raw cabbage can be tough and fibrous, which is why it is often thinly sliced for coleslaw. Massaging the leaves with salt — a technique common in kale salads — tenderizes the vegetable. The softened greens absorb the lemony dressing while nuts and seeds fry in olive oil. Store-bought roasted, salted almonds and toasted sesame seeds can be substituted, but adding freshly fried nuts and seeds to the salad while they’re still warm showcases their rich, earthy aromas. Serve alongside a fried chicken cutlet or on a plate with hummus and pita.
Bacon, Egg and Cheese Fried Rice
Bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches and fried rice are each beloved for their simplicity and affordability, but also because they deliver great comfort and satisfaction. They typically offer a combination of salty meat, creamy eggs and a carb in the form of bread or rice, but each dish is infinitely adaptable. In this playful weeknight meal, the two come together. Rendered bacon fat is used to cook the dish’s components, infusing the vegetables and rice with smokiness. Eggs are beaten with nutty grated Parmesan to create rich, fluffy scrambled eggs that add an extra layer of savoriness to the dish. Any type of leftover rice will work, as would other leftover grains like farro or barley.
Miso-Glazed Eggplant With a Bowl of Rice
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. You know how to make rice. For the rest of this dish, grab some small eggplants — the Japanese variety is a good option — and cut them on the bias into little steaks. Drizzle them with neutral oil and roast in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes or so, turning them once or twice, until they’re soft. Then crank the oven to broil, and paint them with white miso that’s been cut with splashes of sesame oil and rice wine, a smaller splash of soy and a few grinds of black pepper. Let that get going until the skin begins to pop, then serve those little vegetarian flavor steaks over rice, with a spray of sesame seeds over the top. 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.
Silky Eggplant With Almond Salsa and Yogurt
Eggplant that’s silky-soft and bubbly-brown all over (rather than tough, oily or fossil-like) is a revelation — and, with just a little maneuvering, it’s not that hard. You’ll want to sear the eggplant slices in hot oil, cover them for a minute or two, until they’re soft, and then add a touch more oil until they’re beautifully golden. You could, of course, eat these rounds on their own (and you might!), but spicy almond salsa, cubes of salty, crispy halloumi, and a bed of garlicky yogurt make them a full meal (especially if have warmed pita for swiping everything up). While salting the eggplant slices before you cook isn’t completely necessary, it will help draw out some of the vegetable’s moisture, making it less prone to bitterness and oil saturation.
Pastrami-Spiced Steak With Charred Cabbage
Pastrami is typically a time-intensive affair, but in this recipe, its seasonings — black pepper, coriander, sugar and paprika — are applied to strip steaks for a fast weeknight dinner. Coat the steaks with the spice mixture, then brush them with mayonnaise to magnify the flavor of the spices better than oil does. (Instead of steak, you could also use tofu, chicken or a firm fish, reducing the cook time as needed.) To brown the steak without burning the spices, follow an unconventional method engineered by Andrew Janjigian, a recipe developer and writer: Start the steaks in a cold skillet, then turn the stove to high, and flip the steak every couple minutes. Eat with charred cabbage seasoned with garlic and the steak’s resting juices, plus a spoonful of mustard. Mashed potatoes, roasted carrots or simmered lentils wouldn’t be out of place, either.
Roasted Cabbage Wedges With Lemon Vinaigrette
Sliced into wedges and drizzled with a tangy lemon-mustard dressing, cabbage roasts in high heat as it tenderizes and sweetens for this easy, make-ahead salad or side. Apply some heat and the cruciferous vegetable loses its crunch, turning sweet and silky like leeks vinaigrette, with unexpected nutty notes. This salad is best enjoyed chilled, but it can also be enjoyed hot or at room temperature, making it particularly party-friendly. Because sturdy cabbage holds up better than fragile salad greens, this dish can be prepared in advance and refrigerated. Drizzled with a tangy crème fraîche-and-mayonnaise sauce that is faintly reminiscent of ranch dressing, this wedge salad is fresh and cooling, its chill an unexpected delight.
Cabbage Rolls With Walnuts and Sour Cream
Packed full of flavor, the filling for this stuffed cabbage is inspired by pkhali, a Georgian spread prepared by mixing ground walnuts, onions and spices with different vegetables, often cabbage. This version is eaten warm and uses allspice, cumin and cinnamon in the filling. To get ahead, stuff and bake the cabbage rolls the day before, but don’t finish with the sour cream until just before serving. Serve with rice, as a vegetarian main.
Pasta al Pomodoro
Pomodoro, the Italian word for tomato, comes from pomo d’oro (“golden apple”), and also refers to this sauce. A good pomodoro leans into the inherently savory, umami-rich flavor of the tomatoes, so use the best ones you can find. Any combination of low-water, high-flavor tomatoes like plum, grape, cherry and Campari, cooked down to their purest essence, makes for the most vibrant result. Thin spaghetti works best here, as its airy bounciness catches the pulpy tomato sauce beautifully, but regular spaghetti would taste great, too. Add basil at the end, if you’d like, or a dusting of cheese, but a stalwart pasta al pomodoro made with peak-season tomatoes needs neither.
Papadzules (Eggs and Asparagus in Tortillas With Pepita Sauce)
A dish from the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico, papadzules are similar to enchiladas in that they feature tortillas that are dipped and coated in a sauce, then filled, rolled and topped with more sauce. Traditionally, papadzules are served with hard-boiled eggs and topped with a toasted pepita sauce and a spicy habanero-tomato salsa. In this late-spring version, jammy eggs and blanched asparagus serve as the filling, and an uncooked sauce of pepitas and jalapeños finishes everything off. Be sure to cook the eggs for the full 6½ minutes or the yolks will be too runny.
Spring Ramen Bowl With Snap Peas and Asparagus
This lighter take on ramen, with snap peas and shaved asparagus, comes from the vegetarian cookbook author Lukas Volger. The flavors are perked up with pounded or grated ginger and lemon zest. You can skip the frizzled scallion garnish, but it does add nice texture to the finished bowl.
Spanish Asparagus Revuelto
In Spain, wild asparagus is very popular, and it’s a sure sign of spring. Because the variety of wild asparagus there can be a slightly bitter, cooks blanch it in boiling water before sautéing in olive oil. (In North America, both wild and cultivated asparagus are sweet, so this step is unnecessary here.) This dish features typical Spanish ingredients — garlic, chorizo and bread crumbs — incorporated into soft scrambled eggs, for a hearty breakfast, or a simple lunch or first course.
Pork-Cabbage Casserole
This hearty skillet meal is filled with layers of buttery, caramelized cabbage sandwiching a filling of herby pork and rice. A garlicky yogurt sauce, plus plenty of lemon juice and zest, keeps the dish bright and tangy, and the soft cabbage makes it especially warming on a cold winter day. This reheats perfectly, so make it ahead if you like (up to three days, store it in the fridge), then heat it up in a 350-degree oven until steaming.
Country Panzanella With Watermelon Dressing
Consumed plainly or with a salt sprinkle, fresh watermelon conjures warm-weather memories. In the U.S. (primarily in the American South), master gardeners are growing heirloom (seedful) varieties: sugar baby, jubilee and Georgia rattlesnake. In Apex, N.C., Gabrielle E.W. Carter is the new steward of the property once owned by her maternal great-grandfather, where she grows herbs, tomatoes and watermelon. As a multimedia artist, she is documenting the food ways of Black families in Eastern North Carolina and preserving cooking traditions using fruits and vegetables straight from the garden. Crimson-flesh watermelon transforms the classic panzanella with a balanced sweetness. Using a coarse grater is essential in achieving a vibrant, textured dressing. Bocconcini can be substituted for feta cheese in this salad, which pairs well with festive mains like dry-rub mushrooms and spicy tamarind pork ribs.
Tofu and Cabbage Stir-Fry With Basil
Tofu and cabbage make ideal partners in a stir-fry, bringing contrasting soft and crisp textures. For best results, the tofu is pan-fried until golden, then stirred in at the end to maintain its shape and preserve its creamy texture. Scrambled eggs add fluffy bites, while fresh basil perfumes and brightens the dish. The hot mustard sauce complements the caramelized cabbage. Green cabbage is used here, but Napa or Savoy varieties are fantastic alternatives.
Pasta With Asparagus, Arugula and Ricotta
This recipe works best if you use thin asparagus and peppery wild arugula, available at some farmers’ markets.
Lamb Chops With Green Tomatoes
Lamb chops cooked with tomatoes is traditional, but less so when the tomatoes are green. Here, unripe, green tomatoes add acidity, which works nicely with the rich gaminess of the shoulder chops. If you can’t get green tomatoes, you can make this with the half-green, half-red tomatoes, the kind that haven’t fully ripened on the vine before they need to be picked in advance of a frost. In a pinch you can even use tomatillos or bland, out-of-season supermarket tomatoes, which will add the necessary juiciness and vegetable matter to the pan if not the same complexity of flavor (a squeeze of lemon would help). In any case, make sure to taste before stirring in the honey, since the acid content of tomatoes varies widely. And if you aren’t a lamb lover but are wondering what to do with a plethora of green tomatoes, you can make this recipe with pork chops; just add a few minutes to the cooking time.
Tsaramaso Malagasy (White Bean Tomato Stew)
Jeanne Razanamaria, a cook from Madagascar, transforms three ingredients with some oil and salt into a rich dish that tastes like it has secret seasonings hidden in its depths. Her simple technique of collapsing tomatoes with sautéed red onion then simmering both with beans and their cooking liquid concentrates them into a tangy, earthy stew. She shared this recipe with Hawa Hassan for the book “In Bibi’s Kitchen,” written with Julia Turshen. It works with any dried white bean, large or small, and tastes great on its own or with steamed rice.
Linguine With Asparagus Pesto
Asparagus dresses this spring pasta in pastel green. Use the stems to make a finely ground pestolike mixture with garlic, olive oil and cheese; reserve the tips for quickly cooking and then tossing into the skillet with the linguine and sauce just before serving.
Spicy Tomato-Coconut Bisque With Shrimp and Mushrooms
A full-bodied, mildly spiced tomato soup with sweetness and depth from roasted red peppers, this is a tasty base for lightly poached shrimp or pieces of any firm white fish. The gingery, herbed mushroom gets with a citrusy lift from makrut lime leaves, ensuring this dish is packed with flavor. As a substitute, lime zest will work in a pinch. Serve over steamed rice or dig in with torn pieces from a crusty loaf of bread.
Caramelized Corn and Asparagus Pasta With Ricotta
This summery pasta features caramelized corn, crisp-tender asparagus and earthy turmeric, which provides the dish’s sunny hue. It’s not easy to cook corn to the point of browning without losing all its moisture, but a pinch of sugar helps speed up the caramelization process. Vermouth lends acidity to the light, glossy garlicky sauce, but you could use wine, or even a tablespoon of lemon juice or champagne vinegar for lift. Fresh ricotta provides richness.
Fast Tomato Sauce With Anchovies
Despite their reputation, anchovies are not overpowering, at least once cooked. Used with garlic as the start of a fast pasta sauce, they dissolve almost instantly and add a mysteriously meaty complexity that makes the sauce seem as if it had simmered for hours. Tossed with linguine and arugula, they make a simple dish sophisticated. If you're feeding a crowd, it doubles or triples beautifully.
Grilled Cabbage With Paprika-Lime Butter
The ideal grilled cabbage is smoky and sweet, with crackly leaves and a core that yields to a knife and fork. To make that a reality and ensure it isn’t dry, tough or bland, soak the cabbage wedges in water and salt while the grill heats. The wet brine will soften and season every bit of the hardy vegetable (like in kimchi and sauerkraut). Once the cabbage is drained and over the grill’s flame, the water trapped in the crevices will steam the inner leaves, while the cabbage’s surfaces will crisp and brown. A smoky-citrusy butter melts into the wedges, adding richness and luxury, but a creamy dressing or a bright sauce would be great, too.
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.
Pan-Fried Tofu With Red Curry Paste
Raghavan Iyer says Thailand is the only country outside of India that worships curries with as much devotion. In the way Indian cooks use a blend of herbs and spices, Thai cooks use an array of curry pastes to create regional curries. He created three for his 2023 book “On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced The World” (Workman Publishing). His red curry paste is a version of the most common curry. When frying the tofu, add a little more oil if the pan seems dry and be aware that when the chile paste is added to the pan, the capsaicin can produce a head-clearing whiff of heat.