Lunch
2842 recipes found
Miso Broiled Tofu
For tofu with crisp edges and custardy middles, give it just 15 minutes under the broiler. The technique is inspired by Nobu Matsuhisa’s miso-broiled black cod, which combines miso and sugar to create a charred crust that also insulates the protein, preventing it from toughening. Tearing the tofu into jagged pieces — as opposed to sliced cubes or rectangles — creates more nooks and crannies for the broiler to singe, creating yet more texture. Eat any way you would enjoy baked tofu, perhaps with steamed rice and a green vegetable (broil green beans or asparagus for 5 to 8 minutes), or over salad greens (in which case you’ll want to make a double batch of the miso marinade to dress your lettuces).
Taverna Salad
This colorful, meal-of-a-salad from Lidey Heuck’s cookbook, “Cooking in Real Life” (S&S/Simon Element, 2024), is inspired by two dishes: classic Greek salad (also known as horiatiki) and fattoush, the Lebanese salad of vegetables and pieces of fried pita. The ingredient list may look long at first, but each ingredient contributes to the harmony of the salad: bell pepper and cucumbers for crunch; shallot, olives and capers for a bit of tang; chopped tomatoes for sweetness. Pan-fried halloumi adds richness and heft, but you can skip the searing process and instead opt for a 6-ounce block of feta, if desired. To save even more time, you can add a large handful of crumbled pita chips instead of making your own.
Littleneck Clams With Cherry Tomatoes and Pearl Couscous
In this one-pot dish from Lidey Heuck’s cookbook, “Cooking in Real Life” (S&S/Simon Element, 2024), fresh clams cook together with garlic, white wine, shallots and tomatoes to form a deliciously fragrant sauce that’s perfect for mopping up with a piece of bread. As the clams open, they release their briny liquor, which gives the broth a salty, savory complexity. While this dish is particularly well-suited to a summer evening, you can make it any time of year; the tomatoes will sweeten and burst as they cook. The fregola or couscous gives this recipe enough heft to be a main course, but it can easily be stretched to serve 6 as a part of a larger spread.
Everyday Dal
The warming, soothing and downright healing effects of dal are well known throughout South Asia and its diaspora. This is an everyday dish for a good reason: It’s simple to make but tastes complex, and the flavor only deepens over time. There are countless ways to make dal; this version requires just 10 minutes and five ingredients (not including salt), all serving important purposes: The lentils cook quickly, the turmeric lends an earthy wholesomeness and the rich chhonk, or tempering, made by sizzling spices with ghee, brings instant depth. To gussy it up, try adding a packet of frozen spinach, or stirring minced garlic into the chhonk. If you’re tempted to use ground cumin instead of cumin seeds, resist! The seeds have a distinctly smokier flavor and add a pleasant texture to the dal.
Maraq Digaag (Spiced Chicken Soup)
This aromatic and revitalizing soup is the lesser known sibling of maraq ari, a traditional Somali goat soup beloved for both its nutritious and healing properties. Maraq digaag is a comforting soup to turn to in times of sickness. This soup is thick and filling, thanks to the addition of potatoes, and has small hints of heat due to the jalapeño, plus the layered flavors of the xawaash spice blend. Eat it as it is, with bread, or with the noodles of your choice mixed in. The fresh chile invigorates this comforting soup, but the heat level is entirely up to you; you can remove the jalapeño early for a milder soup or keep it throughout, spicing up the broth for as long as you’d like.
Sheet-Pan Quesadillas
A single quesadilla thrown together on the stovetop takes mere moments, but when you want to make a larger batch all at once, a sheet pan comes in handy. Lightly greasing the pan results in the richness of a stovetop quesadilla, and the dry heat of the oven gives you crisp tortillas and bronzed, bubbling cheese in 10 minutes. A sprinkle of salt on the tortilla maximizes its inherent nutty flavor and all it needs is cheese to be a great quesadilla. But, a little extra filling in the form of vegetables — like corn kernels and onions, or leftover beans or shredded chicken — would be welcome. Serve with the usual accouterments: raw onion, cilantro and avocado, maybe sour cream and salsa or hot sauce, whatever you like to eat with your quesadillas. This recipe makes 6 quesadillas, but that amount can easily be scaled down.
Roasted Chicken Thighs With Hot Honey and Lime
These sweet and spicy chicken thighs pack enormous flavor using only a handful of pantry ingredients. Generously seasoned with salt, pepper, and onion and garlic powders, they’re roasted at a high temperature to maximize the crispiness of the skin. Halfway through cooking, the chicken is brushed with a butter-and-hot-sauce blend. Finally, honey and lime zest are whisked into the remaining hot sauce butter to coat the fully baked chicken thighs. A squirt of tangy lime juice provides balance and the perfect finishing touch. Serve with a simple and refreshing cucumber salad or coleslaw.
Smoked Mackerel Rundown
Rundown is only one of many names for this earthy Jamaican stew of fish and vegetables simmered in coconut milk. It's “an easy dish with big rewards,” says Melissa Thompson, a British writer and the author of the “Motherland” cookbook (Interlink Books, 2022). She begins by slackening onions in a pan, followed by garlic, yellow yam, tomatoes and red bell peppers. Spices are half the transformation: ginger, allspice and cumin, built to warm; thyme, with its kiss of camphor; bay leaves for a piney depth. Coconut milk is poured over, and the heat is left to do its work. When the yam turns tender, the fish goes in — in Ms. Thompson’s version, adapted for life in England, smoked mackerel takes the place of more classic salted mackerel — and then the coconut milk gets another 10 minutes to “run down” and thicken to near cream. This dish is also known as dip-dip, because diners traditionally scoop up the stew with the likes of boiled dumplings and, here, green bananas, not yet sweet.
Pea and Ricotta Frittata
This frittata is a celebration of spring: Its color, flavor and tenderness capture the spirit of beginnings. A purée of mint and peas, as well as a sprinkling of both, give it its pastel green freshness. Heavy cream and a long cook time in a low oven give it a quivering, custardy texture that may remind you more of steamed eggs than most frittatas. To get this gentle wobble, undercook the frittata ever so slightly, and let the residual heat finish the job. Be brave and take it out of the oven right after you feel the middle go from swampy to jiggly, and allow it to cool slightly before slicing. As is always the case with frittatas, they are best at or right above room temperature, so do not refrigerate before serving.
Greens and Peas Salad With Bacon
This salad has all the snappy sweetness of spring, offset by the smoky saltiness of bacon and a bacon fat vinaigrette. Black pepper is a key ingredient, not an accent, so grind on. Bacon fat sets as it cools, so make the dressing when the bacon pan is still warm, and if you’re making it in advance, make sure it's just warmer than room temperature. If you store it in a jar, sit the jar in a hot water bath to melt the fat before dressing the salad. Also make sure that your salad ingredients are room temperature, rather than cold, when you dress. To make this salad vegetarian, leave out the bacon and replace the bacon fat in the dressing with olive oil.
Broccoli Korma
Broccoli florets are simmered in coconut milk and almond butter then topped with slivered almonds, resulting in a nutty, luxurious main or side in just 30 minutes. Malabar pepper, grown and commonly used in the south of India, has a delicate lingering heat. (You could use another black pepper, but if the former is an option, try it.) Garam masala dials up the spice and an onion provides subtle sweetness. Serve with rice or roti.
Spicy Mushroom and Tofu Mazemen
Mazemen, sometimes known as mazesoba or abura soba, is a brothless ramen dish believed to have originated in Nagoya, Japan. Inspired by a punchier and spicier Taiwanese flavor profile, the soup is replaced with an intensely savory sauce. In this vegan take, this sesame paste-based sauce delivers a rich finish, bolstered with umami agents such as miso, soy sauce and chile crisp. Mazemen, which translates to mixed noodles in Japanese, should be tossed before eating, so that the sauce and the toppings distribute evenly through the noodles. While this recipe is vegan, an egg yolk or an onsen tamago (soft-cooked egg) is a common mazemen topping, which falls apart as it is tossed through the noodles, leaving a silky and creamy finish.
One-Pot Tofu and Broccoli Rice
One pot is all you need to make custardy tofu, fluffy rice, crisp vegetables and a spicy sauce for dinner tonight. Toast rice with ginger and garlic for a fragrant base, then partway through steaming the rice, add broccoli florets. Once the rice is tender and the broccoli bright green, use the rice’s resting time to warm the tofu on top. The tofu’s marinade of peanut butter, soy sauce and chile crisp adds a punchy, creamy complement that completes the meal. If you want to use another vegetable instead of broccoli, you may need to adjust when it’s added to the pot: add sturdier vegetables like sliced carrots and winter squash with the rice, as they take longer to cook, and more delicate asparagus or spinach with the tofu.
Baked Fish With Olives and Ginger
Set in a shallow pool of briny, gingery oil, mild fish fillets cook effortlessly on a sheet pan, layered with bold lemon, olives and capers, similar to a deconstructed tapenade. The mixture is brightened even further with the addition of grated ginger, which provides a zingy contrast to the salty, meaty olives. (But this recipe is flexible: Sliced garlic or anchovies would also work nicely, taking a more savory turn.) Nestling the delicate fish in oil helps it stay moist in the oven, and creates a no-effort pan sauce that is best served with bread, to soak up every delicious drop.
One-Pot Mushroom and Ginger Rice
Inspired by Cantonese one-bowl rice dishes like bo zai fan and sticky rice, this mushroom and ginger rice has clean yet robust flavors. The Chinese cooking technique of velveting — dusting protein in cornstarch to keep it tender and silky during cooking — is usually reserved for meat or seafood but here, the same method is used for the mushrooms, allowing them to stay juicy and plump as they cook in the rice. Crisping the rice at the bottom of the pot is optional, but if you choose to do it, stay close, listen to the sound of the sizzle, smell the aroma; if you detect any burning scents, take it off the heat immediately. At first, the rice will seem stuck to the pot, but it will release more easily once it has cooled. A dish like this would traditionally be cooked in a clay pot, so use that if you have one, but if not, a cast-iron Dutch oven will do the job.
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Pastrami on Rye
This classic Jewish deli sandwich is all about the quality of the pastrami: beef brisket that's rich with smoke and spice, streaked with the melting juices of ample fat.
Chopped Wedge Salad
About three-quarters of the way through eating a wedge salad, the toppings are gone and you’re often left with unseasoned, watery lettuce that you have little interest in finishing. If this sounds familiar, consider messing with tradition by skipping the wedge and chopping all of the ingredients. When the salad’s elements are the same size and tossed together in a bowl, the lettuce is thoroughly dressed, and every bite is an ideal one with a perfect mix of juicy tomatoes, smoky bacon, crunchy lettuce and creamy blue cheese. A chopped wedge salad can be a meal unto itself, or serve it alongside burgers, steak or garlic bread.
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PB&J
The perfect PB&J has an ideal ratio of peanut butter to jelly, a particular bread thickness, and a deliberate construction. Here's the explanation.
Crispy Tofu
For the crispiest, crunchiest tofu, freeze it first. Tofu is mostly made up of water. When that water turns to ice, then melts and runs out, it leaves behind a more compact, spongy tofu, which is especially great at becoming cacophonously crisp in the oven without a lick of breading. This method — just oil and salt and a hot sheet pan — also concentrates and accentuates the comforting taste of soybeans: gently sweet with a quiet savoriness, and, at the caramelized edges, a little nutty like popcorn. With just a generous sprinkle of salt, the tofu’s true flavor shines. But you could serve the tofu on a large platter with your favorite dipping sauce, or stuff it into a sandwich with iceberg lettuce and mayonnaise.
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Chip Butty
The chip butty, a sandwich of fried potatoes on buttered, untoasted white bread, is a staple at fish and chip shops across the United Kingdom—and is the sandwich you never knew you needed.
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Macau Pork Chop Sandwich
This salty-sweet sandwich featuring a tender, flavorful bone-in pork chop on a toasted, buttered pineapple bun is a classic in Macau, where it's won over the hearts and stomachs of locals and tourists alike.
Easy Boneless Chicken Thighs
For boneless, skinless chicken as crisp and juicy as its bone-in, skin-on counterparts, start with chicken thighs, pat them dry and sear them in a hot skillet. Thighs have enough fat that in a very dry, hot environment, they can develop a bronze crust without getting tough. Compare them to seared breasts or rotisserie chicken and you’ll notice a considerable improvement in succulence and richness of flavor. Serve these thighs with a side dish or two — say Southern fried corn, mixed sabzi or refried beans — or use them anywhere you’d use cooked chicken, like in salads, soups and enchiladas.
Jocón (Chicken and Tomatillo Stew)
Jocón — whose name comes from jok’, meaning to grind or mash in Mayan K’iche’ — is a fresh chicken and tomatillo stew that is popular throughout Guatemala. The stew stems from Maya culture but some of its ingredients today, like sesame seeds and chicken, were likely introduced by Spanish colonizers. Some Maya groups also made theirs more spicy, or with red tomatoes rather than tomatillos, depending on in which part of the country they lived. This bright recipe is from Jorge Cárdenas, an owner of Ix Restaurant in Brooklyn, who was taught by his Maya grandmother to make it. This soup base is blended until creamy, but there can be some variety in texture, depending on how someone grinds the seed mixture and purées the soup itself. Though the tomatillos, peppers, onions and jalapeño are typically scorched on a comal or pan, this recipe makes the process easier by broiling them in a sheet pan.
Kotlet (Meat, Potato and Onion Patties)
Crisp on the outside and juicy in the middle, Iranian kotlets are made from mixing grated potatoes and onions with ground beef or lamb and spices, then forming them into patties before frying. Every Persian household has its own signature spice blend, or advieh, and it traditionally includes a variety of spices such as cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, rose petals and cloves. Typically eaten for lunch or taken along on picnics, kotlets are great hot or at room temperature; they can be served right away with steamed basmati rice or saved for later, tucked into a sandwich with tomatoes, pickles and herbs.