Lunch
2842 recipes found
Easy Turkey Meatloaf
There’s really no reason not to celebrate meatloaf — it’s simple, budget-friendly, cleanup is a breeze and there are almost always leftovers for next-day sandwiches. While beef is often the go-to choice for the meat, turkey is a flavorful alternative that can take on a slew of mix-ins. Here, seasoned bread crumbs, garlic powder and Worcestershire do the work, but a teaspoon of Italian seasoning or a palmful of fresh, chopped thyme or sage can be added for an extra boost. Grated apple ensures the meatloaf isn’t dry; use any variety you have on hand. A sweet, slightly vinegary sauce is spooned over the meatloaf after it’s formed, caramelizing when baked (if you have a favorite bottled or from-scratch barbecue sauce feel free to use 2/3 cup of it instead). Serve this meatloaf with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable.
Curry Tomatoes and Chickpeas With Cucumber Yogurt
Much like the combination of chana masala and raita, this dish’s appeal lies in the contrasts: soft and warm chickpeas and tomatoes rest atop a layer of cool and crunchy cucumber yogurt. The cooking happens quickly; sauté small tomatoes and chickpeas just until softened and fragrant with spices, then pile the mixture onto a swirl of yogurt that’s zesty with chopped cucumbers, garlic, lemon and herbs. The yogurt will loosen under the topping’s warmth and weight, so serve with rice, focaccia or flatbread such as roti or doubles to sop up the lushness.
Chile-Crisp Tofu, Tomatoes and Cucumbers
With cucumbers, tomatoes, browned tofu and a punchy dressing, this recipe’s combination of hot, cold, juicy and snappy makes for a refreshing lunch or light dinner. Inspired by Chinese smashed cucumber salads, many of which include dried chiles or chile oil, this recipe’s piquant and spicy dressing uses chile crisp as well as lemon juice, raw garlic and soy sauce. The only cooking that’s required is searing the tofu, which helps it drink up more of the dressing. Eat it over rice or salad greens, and feel free to embellish with thinly sliced snap peas or celery, cilantro and sesame oil, seeds or paste.
Tomato and Farro Salad With Arugula
This fresh, summery salad comes together quickly and holds well, making it perfect for a picnic at the beach or a backyard barbecue. Sun-dried tomatoes add a punch of concentrated, tangy tomato flavor alongside bright and sweet cherry tomatoes. Peppery arugula serves as the base here, but you could certainly substitute any other soft green or lettuce. The grain is just as adaptable: Try quinoa, pearled barley or smoky freekeh if farro isn’t available.
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Easy Grilled Shrimp Rolls With Herb Mayo
Juicy grilled shrimp tossed with an herby mayo and piled into toasted, buttered buns.
Caesar’s Caesar Salad
The Caesar salad on the menu today at Caesar’s in Tijuana, Mexico, is but a distant cousin of the original version first served there 100 years ago. It is believed to have included a whole coddled egg, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce, and did not include anchovies. But Javier Plascencia and his family, who have been running Caesar’s for more than a decade, consider this iteration the best one yet. Romaine lettuce is coated in a creamy, intensely pungent dressing seasoned with anchovies, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce and freshly squeezed lime juice. Garlicky, baked baguette croutons provide serious crunch. A few rules elevate a good Caesar salad to a great one: The leaves must be whole, crisp and cold; croutons must be sliced, not diced; and Parmesan must be applied generously.
Tomatoes Vinaigrette
Possibly too easy to even be called a salad, this satisfying summer side dresses thin slices of tomatoes with a vinaigrette of wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic and dried oregano. Salting the tomatoes brings out the best of both peak season and cold weather fruit, encouraging their sweet juices to leak onto the plate and mix with the dressing. Serve with grilled bread to sop up what’s left behind. This dish is greater than the sum of its parts.
Easy Chicken Salad
This simple chicken salad makes great use of leftover chicken, though you can certainly use a rotisserie chicken or roast or boil chicken breasts for this recipe. The recipe calls for classic crunchy mix-ins such as grapes, celery and pecans, but feel free to make it your own: Use a diced tart apple in place of the grapes, or toss in a handful of dried cranberries. Chicken salad gets better as it sits, so make this at least a few hours in advance if you can, or make it on Monday to have on hand for lunches all week long.
Grilled Hot Dogs
A crisp, snappy, juicy hot dog isn’t necessarily difficult to achieve, but two key steps ensure that yours won’t end up wrinkly, burnt or dry. First, let the flame mellow to a moderate heat, which will prevent bursting and provide ample time to pick up smoke from the grill. Second, arrange the hot dogs parallel to the grates. That way, the rods act like a sling, exposing more of the hot dogs for more browning and keeping them from rolling around. With a well-cooked hot dog, toppings can be as minimal or imaginative as you’d like. (For natural-casing hot dogs, see Tip.)
Oven-Roasted Corn on the Cob
Next time you’re thinking of boiling water for corn on the cob, consider this flavorful oven method instead. Ears of corn are brushed with a garlicky herb butter, then wrapped in foil and roasted until tender and just starting to brown. The butter flavors the corn as it roasts, and a spoonful spread on each ear just before serving delivers a little extra richness. For corn on the cob with a kick, consider adding a pinch of chili powder or ground cayenne to the butter mixture.
Grilled Chicken Salad
Next time you fire up the grill, throw on a few extra chicken breasts to use in this make-ahead salad, which is perfect for lunches all week. The yogurt dressing is light and tangy, spiced with turmeric, coriander and everything bagel seasoning, and packed with lots of crunchy celery and fresh cilantro. (If your everything bagel seasoning includes salt, add less salt to begin with and season to taste.) Top a pile of greens with a scoop of the grilled chicken salad, serve it in lettuce cups or on top of crackers.
Marinated Cherry Tomatoes on Toast
Taking a cue from Italian bruschetta and Spanish pan con tomate, these easy marinated cherry tomatoes go with everything. Toss them over greens for a summery salad or spoon them over grilled fish. Or serve them as they are here, on toasted bread, a great vehicle for catching all the delicious juices.
Tomato Salad
The minimal ingredients in this salad allow tomatoes to shine through. Besides our star, salt is the most important element because it draws out the juices to leave the tomato with more concentrated flavor. The resulting pink-hued juices mingle with the shallot, olive oil and lemon juice to create a dressing that is so good, it is reason enough to make this salad. Use up every drop by dipping into it with grilled bread, or pour it over braised beans, grilled fish or roast chicken. While tomato salads are often dressed with vinegar, lemon juice is more gentle, working behind the scenes to help tomatoes taste like their brightest selves.
Honey Mustard Potato Salad
There exist entire worlds between a good potato salad and a bad one. The good ones have good potatoes that have been prioritized and not just boiled to death: perfectly steamed, not too wet on the inside or outside. This clever, lazy method — boiling the potatoes for half their cook time, draining them, then using the residual heat of the pot to steam the spuds until tender, like one does with, say, sushi rice — ensures perfectly creamy, pillowy potatoes, whose fluffy edges are excellent at soaking up a curried dressing, dyed golden with mustard, lightly inspired by those delicious honey-mustard pretzel pieces from the snack aisle. If your curry powder isn’t hot enough for you, then add a dash of cayenne pepper or your favorite fresh chile, finely chopped. Some like it sweet; if that’s you, add a pinch of sugar or another dribble of honey; taste and adjust as you go.
Angel Hair Pasta Salad
Light, bouncy angel hair makes for a surprisingly stellar pasta salad. Dressed in a simple mayonnaise and vinegar dressing, a rainbow confetti of raw vegetables shines in this chill, endlessly adaptable recipe. Salting the vegetables in advance, allowing them to sweat their excess moisture and then patting them dry, leads to crunchier, longer-lasting results. This salad keeps for up to 3 days in the refrigerator, covered; as it sits, the vegetables give off their flavor and fragrance to the blank-canvas pasta. Simply stir before serving to redistribute any dressing that has collected on the bottom of the bowl.
Dijonnaise Grilled Chicken Breasts
The grilled chicken we dream of — juicy meat, bronzed crust, a hint of smoke — can be a reality when slathered with mayonnaise and Dijon mustard before cooking. While you won’t necessarily taste the condiments, they work in tandem to ensure that the boneless chicken has an easier time on the grill: The mayonnaise insulates and prevents sticking, and the mustard tenderizes and caramelizes. Serve with a spoonful of the Dijonnaise any way you like simply grilled chicken: atop a Caesar salad, alongside grilled corn or tucked into a sandwich with pickles, shredded lettuce and the Dijonnaise.
Pimento-Stuffed Eggs
You may know these as “deviled” eggs, but since they are often served at church functions, they’re sometimes referred to instead as “stuffed.” Here, they’re filled with a combination of their cooked yolks and some favorite ingredients in Louisiana cookery — from pimento peppers to paprika to cayenne — which add a pinch of heat to these savory bites. The relish adds just enough sweetness to balance out the pungent flavor from the Dijon mustard. Be sure to remove the shells from the eggs as soon as they are cool enough to handle so the peeling will be easier. The stuffed eggs can be prepared up to three days in advance, but they are best the day they’re made.
Farinata (Herbed Chickpea Flour and Onion Pancake)
Farinata is a popular street food from the Ligurian coast surrounding Genoa, Italy, to the French Côte d’Azur, where it’s called socca. Typically a humble pancake built on only chickpea flour, water, olive oil and salt, it’s inexpensive, gluten-free and suitable for vegans. It can be very thin, highlighting its crispy, golden exterior, and is usually eaten plain or with a simple side of cured meats. This version is thicker, showcasing its creamy herbed interior, and topped with an array of garnishes for a more substantial dish and a plant-based alternative to a frittata. (For an even heartier meal, top with roasted vegetables, such as broccolini.) Thyme, sumac and sesame oil are not traditional seasonings — unlike rosemary, fennel seed or sage — but they recall za’atar and meld with the chickpea flour and olive oil.
Cold Noodles With Zucchini
Zucchini loves the kiss of heat but can easily turn to mush. Briefly salting and drying half-moons of zucchini before quickly stir-frying them, mostly on one side, maintains their texture while lending so much flavor. An impactful dressing of maple syrup, soy sauce and fish sauce — plus a pinch of concentrated savoriness in the form of garlic powder — seasons both stir-fry and noodle. Ice is the secret ingredient that helps to cool down the noodles for quick eating, as well as to melt down and open up the flavors of the dressing (as water is wont to do) while you eat. The final spritz of citrus is not optional: It finishes the dressing and makes this chill meal taste multidimensional. A tableside sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds, furikake or shichimi togarashi is welcome.
Creamy Coconut-Lime Rice With Peanuts
Coconut milk does double duty here in this light yet hearty rice dish that straddles the line between side salad and pilaf-like main. First the rice is simmered in creamy coconut milk, then the remaining milk is used to make a soothing dressing spiked with lime juice, peanut butter, toasted peanuts and garlic, with a little added heat from chile sauce. Fresh cherry tomatoes and chopped herbs turn it all into a rice salad that can be a flavorful side for grilled chicken or the base for fried eggs.
Extra-Green Pasta Salad
This vibrant green pasta salad gets its color from a combination of spinach and basil, but you can swap the spinach for arugula for a more peppery finish. (Some of us need a little bite in our lives!). The miso in the sauce does a lot of the heavy lifting, imparting a salty, almost Parmesan-like quality. You can eat the salad immediately or chilled for a summer picnic. If making it a day ahead, don’t add the basil garnish and cheese until you’re ready to serve.
Radish, Cucumber and White Bean Farro Salad
This colorful grain salad gains punchy acidity from pepperoncini and lightly pickled vegetables. While the nutty farro is cooking, the soaking begins: Scallions, radishes, cucumber, parsley and white beans are tossed in a sherry-Dijon dressing spiked with a spoonful of pepperoncini pickling liquid. The beans add a creamy texture to the dish in lieu of cheese, though a crumbled feta or torn mozzarella would work nicely. Swap these ingredients as the season changes, adding corn kernels or snap peas, or play with the herbs, mixing in cilantro or mint, too.
Spicy Tuna and Avocado Tostadas
Topped with a cross between a chunky guacamole and a tuna salad, these tostadas are a super satisfying, no-cook lunch or dinner for a steamy summer night when turning on the stove is a no-go. Instead of fresh tuna, this recipe employs the tinned variety, making these tostadas accessible for any budget. The simple serrano and lime dressing is tart and spicy with a hint of creaminess that balances the lean nature of canned tuna. Eat the salad like a dip with a bag of totopos at your desk, or pack it up with a bottle of wine and assemble your tostadas outside for a picnic in the park or day at the beach.
Garlic-Scallion Chicken Sandwiches
Convenient and tender rotisserie chicken, sautéed scallions and garlic, vinegar-soaked currants and a couple big handfuls of peppery arugula make up this simple yet very flavorful sandwich. Inspired by the wood-oven-roasted chicken and bread salad from Zuni Café in San Francisco, this is a take on that famed dish in sandwich form. Parmesan and toasted nuts add texture, depth and a hit of umami. For the bread, a thick baguette cut into four sections to make sandwich rolls is economical and offers the duality of crunchy crust and soft inner crumb, although a sandwich roll of your choice works too.