Lunch
2813 recipes found
Herb Omelet Pita Sandwich
There are other options besides fried falafel or spit roasted lamb to fill a pita. A less well-known filling is an herb omelet, called ejjeh in Lebanese cuisine. This version -- made with lots of chopped parsley, dill, mint and cilantro -- mimics the Persian herb omelet called kuku sabzi. It makes a perfect vegetarian sandwich filling, topped with a salad of chickpeas, chopped cucumber and tomato and a refreshing tahini-yogurt sauce.
Basic Phyllo Dough
It seems scary at first, making your own phyllo dough. But with this recipe, we learn that although phyllo means leaf, that leaf need not be the paper-thin kind we’re used to seeing in Middle Eastern pastry. A Greek chef, Diane Kochilas, gives the lesson here, and she’s not overly careful of the dough, she patches holes where needed and she uses a good amount of olive oil. It’s delicious.
Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup
Fast Scallion Pancakes
This isn’t the dense scallion pancake you see served in Chinese restaurants, which is made with what amounts to bread dough. But this recipe is inspired by that pancake. Made with a simplified, scallion-laden batter, it is a fork-tender pancake reminiscent of a vegetable fritter. The flavor is great, and the preparation time is about 20 minutes, an improvement on the hours you’d need to let typical scallion pancake dough rise. They are good not only as a side dish, but also as a platform for stews and juicy roasts — place a couple on a plate and spoon the stew on top. And although I still associate them with Asian-flavor dishes, omitting the optional soy sauce makes them a perfect accompaniment to braised foods that use European seasonings. (If you omit the soy sauce, also feel free to use any vegetable oil, or even good olive oil.) The same formula can be used to make pancakes with other members of the onion family, especially shallots and spring onions.
Beef Ribs with Mol Coloradito
The earthy, fruity, spicy, though not especially fiery “little red” mole -- one of Oaxaca’s seven classic sauces -- is cooked separately and seared onto the ribs at the end to form a savory crust.
New Amsterdam Pea Soup
Roasted Tomatoes and Lentils With Dukkah-Crumbled Eggs
At once homey and inspired, this recipe from Diana Henry lifts stewed lentils out of the quotidian by topping them with harissa-roasted plum tomatoes, runny-centered eggs, and a pungent, Middle Eastern nut-and-spice mix called dukkah. Ms. Henry calls for making the dukkah with a mortar and pestle, which helps maintain a chunky, rustic texture. A food processor works, too, just add the nuts last so they don’t turn into paste, and don’t overdo the processing. You’re looking for coarsely rather than finely ground. You can make the dukkah, lentils and tomatoes a few days ahead. Just heat them up before serving.
Bresaola, Goat Cheese, Arugula And Truffle Oil On Focaccia
Onion Phyllo Pie
Wheat Berry and Tomato Salad
Whole wheat berries lend themselves to both summer and winter dishes. Much of the flavor in this salad comes from the tangy juice of chopped tomatoes, almost like a marinade for the chewy wheat. The salad is all about texture, with crunchy celery (or cucumber) and soft feta contrasting with wheat.
Giancarlo Quadalti's Capon Broth
Pan-Roasted Shrimp With Mezcal, Tomatoes and Arbol Chiles
Shrimp are like cotton balls, absorbing the flavor of whatever they bathe in. Whitney Otawka developed this dish for Cinco y Diez in Athens, Ga. The shrimp takes on the smoky notes of the tequila and roasted tomatoes and the deep heat of dried arbol chilies. Cooking the shrimp with the heads adds flavor to the sauce. The adventurous can break off the heads and suck in the juices. Make sure you have all the ingredients assembled next to the stove before hand. The cooking goes quickly.
Fish Cakes with Herbs and Chiles
Spinach and Bacon Tartine
In Paris’s small neighborhood cafés and bistros, kitchens are extremely small, consisting often of no more than a small wooden cutting board and a wall mounted heavy-duty toaster oven. At lunchtime a hot open-faced tartine — bubbling with fragrant cheese — is a popular menu choice. Similar to a piece of pizza, a tartine is constructed from a thick slice of rustic bread, lightly toasted. A savory topping and some good French cheese precede a few minutes of browning under the broiler. This tartine has a light smear of Dijon mustard, wilted spinach, bacon lardons and the bold-flavored cheese called Raclette, which melts in a spectacular way. If you can’t get Raclette, substitute Gruyère or Emmenthaler. Accompanied by a green salad, it makes a quick light meal, or you may cut the tartine into small wedges to serve with drinks.
Microwave Mixed Rice
Leftovers are the simplest thing to take to work for lunch. Sometimes you just end up with them. But if you are planning ahead you can cook a little more than you are going to eat at dinner so you have the makings of the next day’s lunch. This combination of cooked rice, vegetables and meat can accompany virtually any sauce you can imagine putting on it: vinaigrette, sesame dipping sauce, tahini sauce, pico de gallo, onion chutney, pesto, hummus. Simply pop it in the office microwave for a couple of minutes and eat.
Shrimp Linguine
Soft-Shell Crab Poor-Boy
Ask your fishmonger to clean the crabs for you, because though the process is a quick and easy one, it's not for the squeamish. There's not much cooking here. Sometimes crabs spatter, so it's best to fry them in oil that's not smoking hot.
Seared Tuna Salad With Anchovy Tomato Sauce
Sweet Potato and Kale Salad With Roquefort
This is a great salad to make with leftover roasted sweet potatoes but you can also roast them just to make the salad. The trick to succeeding with crispy kale is to make sure it is completely dry before you put it in the oven. If you are using bunched kale I recommend that you stem and wash it, spin it twice in a salad spinner, then set the leaves in single layers on a few layers of paper towels and roll them up. You can then refrigerate for up to a day or two. Once the salad is assembled, the portion of kale that you toss with the sweet potatoes will soften, and the kale that surrounds the sweet potatoes will remain crispy.
Tea-Smoked Chicken Thighs With Pomegranate Glaze
Cumberland Sauce
Creamy Oat Groats
“Groat” — not to be confused with “grit” — is an old Scottish term for a dehulled oat kernel. Like steel-cut oats, which are just pieces of groat that get broken during dehulling, groats have been prepared and eaten as hot cereal or gruel for centuries, sustaining generations of hard-working farmers and laborers. These days, it’s fortifying the food elite. Quinn and Karen Hatfield of Hatfield’s in Los Angeles use the hearty grain as inspiration for an elegant (some might even say delicate) vegetarian entrée of wild-mushroom “cannelloni.” To make the dish, creamy, hollandaise-enriched groats flecked with herbs and lemon zest are combined with mushrooms and then stuffed into oat crepes.
Broccoli Panzanella with Walnut Sauce and Basil