Lunch
2815 recipes found
Dry Rye Manhattan
Chard Stalk, Chickpea, Tahini and Yogurt Dip
When you’ve bought a bunch of Swiss chard and used the leaves for another dish, like an oven-baked frittata with yogurt, Swiss chard and green garlic, save the stems. Then you can make this dip, which is a cross between hummus and classic Middle Eastern dip called silqbiltahina, made with chard stalks and tahini. I’ve added lots of yogurt to the mix. I love to use some red chard stalks because they give the dip a beautiful pale pink hue. This will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. It will become more pungent as it sits.
Fennel, Kale and Rice Gratin
Two types of greens provide delicious contrast in this comforting yet light dish, which is perfect for a weeknight dinner or a festive side. It's a flexible recipe, lending itself to all sorts of adaptations. Make it once, and then make it your own.
Curried Carrot and Coconut Soup
There’s a nice challenge in staring into a less than sufficiently stocked refrigerator. Last night we were down to not much more than carrots. Thus: them, an onion, grated ginger, a sort of curry mix. There was stock in the freezer, a can of coconut milk. A lime. Wish I’d had cilantro, but hey, it worked.
Baked Frittata With Yogurt, Chard and Green Garlic
Inspired by the signature Provençal chard omelet called truccha, this beautiful baked frittata incorporates thick Greek yogurt and lots of green garlic. It will puff up in the oven, but then it settles back down. Use a generous bunch of chard for this – green, red or rainbow – and save the stalks to use in the chard stalk and chickpea purée that I’m also posting this week. I like to serve the frittata at room temperature, or I grab a cold slice for lunch. It’s a wonderfully portable dish. The filling can be prepared through Step 4 up to 3 days ahead. The frittata keeps well for 2 or 3 days in the refrigerator.
Sautéed Beets With Pasta, Sage and Brown Butter
Give a cook a beet, and he’ll probably do one of two things with it: Reject it for fear of turning the kitchen into a juicy red crime scene, or roast it and serve it with goat cheese. I can take this marriage or leave it, but even if you love it, you must admit that it only scratches the surface of what beets have to offer. More than half the time that I prepare beets, I begin by shredding them in a food processor. After that, you can serve them raw with a simple dressing, or you can stir-fry them in a skillet to brown them slightly, which brings out their sweetness like nothing else. This recipe employs the latter technique (with the addition of sage) then calls for tossing the beets with pasta. A finishing of grated Parmesan is a salty counterpoint to the caramelized sweetness of the beets.
Butter-Braised Cardoons With Mushrooms and Bread Crumbs
Cardoons are related to artichokes but look like celery — or celery gone wild, anyway. They take a little time and trouble to find (try a specialty grocery store or an Italian market) and to trim and string, but they are worth the effort.
Cooked Butterscotch Scotch Eggnog
Pasta With Zucchini and Mint
This minty Roman-style zucchini is wonderful with pasta or served on its own.
Spinach With Mushrooms and Bread
This simple vegetarian recipe, from Mark Bittman, is a great light lunch, the result of a trip to a Parisian market in 2008. Pairing bread from an earlier dinner with flavorful chanterelles and spinach, he came up with this quick, flexible meal. It was, as he wrote, “a completely honest and delicious dish that might’ve been the most creative thing I did all week, had it not been among the most traditional.”
Bone Broth
"Bone broth" has become stylish as part of the Paleo diet, which enthusiastically recommends eating meat and bones. (The idea is to eat like our Paleolithic, pre-agricultural ancestors.) But cooks have known its wonderful qualities for centuries. This robust and savory beef broth — more than a stock, less than a soup — can be the basis for innumerable soups and stews, but it also makes a satisfying and nourishing snack on its own.
Cooked Grains Salad With Tomato Vinaigrette
You can use a variety of grains in this salad. I’ve made it with a mixture of brown rice and farro, with quinoa and with bulgur. The mixture makes a robust main-dish salad for summer.
Bow Ties With Arugula, Olives, Bulgur and Tomato Wedges
Sweet Whole Wheat Focaccia with Pears and Walnuts
This slightly sweet focaccia (three tablespoons sugar in the dough and another sprinkled over the top) is quite beautiful and makes a perfect fall or winter bread. It’s great on its own, and also great with cheese. I like to pair it with blue cheese in particular. There are sweet, nutty and savory flavors at play here, with the rosemary-scented olive oil and pears, and the walnuts tucked into the bread’s dimples.
Fish Cakes With Herbs and Chiles
Bright, bold and richly flavored, these are not your typical fish cakes. That flavor is layered into every step: the fish is browned with some garlic, and both are mixed with mashed potatoes along with vibrant herbs, green chile and fragrant lime zest. Choose a sustainable fish here, any mild white fillet will work. Consult either your local fishmonger, or the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood watch website, which has current information about supply. Then serve these crisp-edged cakes with a dollop of plain mayonnaise — or mayonnaise spiked with minced Indian pickles or preserved lemons.
Sweet Focaccia with Figs, Plums, and Hazelnuts
This is only slightly sweet, with three tablespoons of sugar in the dough and another tablespoon of cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. What I find irresistible about the topping is the flavor of the rosemary-scented oil against the subtle figs and sweet-tart plums, and the nutty crunch of the hazelnuts. I use a small amount of cornmeal in my sweet focaccia dough; look for fine cornmeal, which is sometimes called corn flour.
Whole Wheat Focaccia with Tomatoes and Fontina
Focaccia, a little crisp on the bottom but soft on the top and inside, can take on many toppings besides tomatoes. Focaccia is a dimpled flatbread that can take a number of toppings, like a pizza but breadier. I used Community Grains whole wheat flour for this half-whole-wheat version, and I’m loving the results so much that I’m ready to start on a week’s worth of focaccia recipes with different toppings very soon. The bread is fragrant with olive oil, a little crisp on the bottom but soft on the top and the inside. It’s a great vehicle for summer tomatoes.
Veracruzana Vinegar-Bathed Shrimp
Whole Wheat Focaccia with Cherry Tomatoes and Olives
Even in mid-September, you can find sweet cherry tomatoes, and they look beautiful in abundance on the top of this focaccia. I combined them with black olives for a bread that transports me to Provençe.
Tacos With Summer Squash, Tomatoes and Beans
Beans such as pintos, even out of a can, add substance to this summery taco filling. Goat cheese provides a creamy, rich finish.
Sautéed Lobster With Potatoes, Tomatoes and Basil
All measurements and times approximate.
Mushroom Tart
If you have made the mushroom ragoût, this tart is quickly assembled. You need about 2 cups of the ragoût for the filling.
Whole Wheat Focaccia with Peppers and Eggplant
I first made this because I had a festival of leftovers in my refrigerator – sautéed peppers with tomato and onion, and roasted eggplant. The combination made a delicious, typically Mediterranean topping. The peppers would suffice, but it’s even better with the eggplant. You can use one type of bell pepper or a mix, and if you want some heat, add a hot one.
Bulgur and Squash Kefteh
This mixture can be formed into patties, but it is just as wonderful and a lot easier to spread in a baking dish, served by the spoonful.