Lunch
2782 recipes found
Lemony Mashed Potatoes With Asparagus, Almonds and Mint
Sautéing asparagus in butter and oil, rather than boiling it in water, locks much of the flavor inside. The asparagus could be served without the lemony mashed potatoes, or the other way around, but together they make a glorious side dish to roasted chicken, fish or spring lamb. Alternatively, adding a poached egg or two to each plate will turn this into a substantial vegetarian meal.
A Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg
Master this simple technique and every hard-boiled egg you make from here on out will have a perfectly-cooked, creamy sunshine center. Here are loads of recipes to make with them.
Best Black Bean Soup
This American classic can be a perfect dish: big-tasting, filling, nutritious, easy and very possibly vegetarian. With their rich natural broth, turtle beans do not need bacon, ham or any meat ingredient to make a satisfying soup. Black bean soup recipes have a tendency to turn out sludgy or bland, but the trick here is to season generously, and purée sparingly. The beans should be swimming in liquid, not sitting in sludge: The more beans are puréed, the more starch is released into the soup. For flavor, this recipe deploys marinated chipotle chiles, but a tablespoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander make a good heat-free substitute. (A note: Since there is acid from the wine here, if your tap water is hard there might be a reaction that will prevent the beans from softening. To be safe, add the wine later, along with the stock. And if there is any question about the hardness of your water, use distilled.)
Grilled Steak Tacos With Cherry Tomato-Avocado Salsa
In this supremely summery taco recipe, chile-rubbed grilled steak is topped with a spicy tomato-avocado salsa before being rolled into warm corn tortillas. Grilling the onions, garlic and jalapeño for the salsa adds a concentrated sweetness, while lime zest keeps everything sharp and bright. If you don’t have access to a grill, feel free to use your broiler.
Cobb Salad
While the origins of a Cobb salad are still up for debate, what goes into one is fairly absolute: tender chicken breast, tangy tomatoes, perfectly hard-boiled egg and, perhaps most important, crispy bacon. This classic version relies on crumbled blue cheese and ripe avocado for creaminess, rather than a cheese or buttermilk-based dressing, making way for a mustardy shallot vinaigrette. The way each of the ingredients is prepared will depend on personal preference: Are you a chunky, chopped salad kind of person? Or do you prefer your lettuce torn and tomatoes sliced? Here, the torn and sliced approach is taken for a more elegant visual, but feel free to make it your own. It also halves nicely if you're cooking for two.
Mario Batali's Snappy Celery and White Bean Salad
This White Bean Celery Salad recipe is not groundbreaking or experimental. But it’s healthy and available in most bodegas. Serve salad at room temperature.
Ratatouille
In this classic Provençal dish, summer vegetables, like eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and zucchini, are covered in olive oil and roasted separately, then all together, until they become a soft, harmonious stew. This recipe calls for seeding and peeling the tomatoes, which is a bit of work. But it’s worth it for the intensity of flavor and the velvety texture. Ratatouille takes some time to make, and tastes better the next day, so plan ahead. The upside is that it’s a perfect make-ahead dish for a party. You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, then gently reheat it, or bring it to room temperature before serving. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Lamb Tagine
The word "tagine" refers to both a North African cooking pot with a conical lid, and the aromatic stew traditionally cooked inside. Tagine, the stew, classically incorporates savory and sweet ingredients to make a complex dish with a richly spiced sauce. Here, dried apricots, cinnamon, nutmeg and a sprinkling of almonds toasted in butter provide the sweetness, while lamb, saffron, turmeric, tomato paste and a bright garnish of scallions, herbs and lemon juice make it deeply savory. If you have a tagine, the pot, feel free to use it here. Otherwise, a Dutch oven or a different large pot with a tightfitting lid will work well. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Sole Meunière
The dish that made Julia Child fall in love with French cuisine, sole meunière highlights the simple flavors of fresh fish, butter, lemon and parsley. Fish is the center of the dish, so using a quality fillet is important: A true English Dover sole is preferred. Clarified butter, which takes a few extra minutes to prepare, can take on heat without browning, making it ideal for pan-frying fish. A classic sole meunière is made with a bone-in fillet, but boneless sole is faster and easier. You'll find a recipe for clarified butter here. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Farro With Roasted Squash, Feta and Mint
Falling somewhere between a grain bowl and a warm grain salad, this colorful dish is substantial enough to be a meatless main course, or it makes a hearty side dish to simple roasted meat or fish. You can use whatever kind of squash you like here, either peeled or unpeeled. Squash skin is perfectly edible; let anyone who objects cut theirs away at the table (though see if you can get them to try it first). If you don’t have farro, you can substitute brown rice. Just increase the cooking time by about 20 minutes.
Chicken Soup From Scratch
Chicken soup is one of the most painless and pleasing recipes a home cook can master. This soup has all the classic flavors (celery, carrot, parsley) but has been updated for today's cooks, who can't easily buy the stewing hen and packet of soup vegetables that old-fashioned recipes used to call for. A whole bird provides the right combination of fat, salt and flavor. Don't be tempted to use all white meat, as the flavor won't be as round. Because making soup involves the bones and deep tissues of the bird, it is particularly reassuring here to use the highest-quality poultry you can find. This method produces a fragrant, golden, savory soup you want to eat all winter long; it's a perfect backdrop for noodles, rice or matzo balls.
Spinach Salad With Pancetta and Fried Eggs
Laced with nuggets of pancetta and crisp-edged fried eggs, there’s a lot going on in this hearty salad, and you need a green that can stand up to it all. With its thick, ruffled leaves and almost mineral flavor, mature spinach (as opposed to those ubiquitous baby leaves) does the job well. If you can’t find it, you can substitute baby spinach, though it will wilt when it makes contact with the hot eggs. Or try kale, which also holds up nicely. Serve this for a light dinner or a hearty brunch with some good bread and olive oil for dipping on the side.
Whole Roasted Breast of Veal
A whole breast of veal is a succulent, fatty, tender magnificence to enjoy, at any time, but especially so when you have holiday turkey and ham fatigue. It doesn’t make immediate sense that I consider the veal — with its fat and cartilage and bone and sinew and silver skin — a light meal, but in my experience, the few bites of sticky tender meat you end up with are so outrageously succulent and hit the spot so hard you don’t need more. The long, slow, low overnight cooking is perfect for both the meat and your schedule if you are trying to pull off a real, civilian party — and sit down at it.
Winter Citrus Salad With Belgian Endive
Late winter really is the time for the best citrus. Produce markets have piles of blood oranges, as well as navel and cara cara oranges and grapefruit, the flesh of each in different vivid brilliant colors. For this salad, use as many kinds of citrus as possible. If you can find pomelos, they add their own kind of sweet tanginess. The combined flavor of sweet and sour citrus, fruity olive oil and coarse salt is seductive.
Mushroom Soup Gratinée
This hearty soup takes its cue from the classic soupe à l’oignon gratinée. I swapped out the onions for mushrooms and served the hearty soup paved with a layer of toast and cheese as a cold-weather first course. For an informal supper, it could be the main event, especially with additions like potatoes or other root vegetables, shredded cabbage, cooked lentils, buckwheat pasta or even chunks of duck confit, sausage or boneless short ribs or veal shank. As for the finishing glaze of cheese, I suggest Gruyère, though the Bitto of the region, a firm cow’s milk cheese made with a funky touch of goat milk, would be lovely if you can find it.
Slab Grilled Cheese
You're just one sheet pan, one piece of focaccia, and a whole lotta cheese away from this Slab Grilled Cheese recipe. We use cheddar, but you can use any cheese.
Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma
Here is a recipe for an oven-roasted version of the flavorful street-side classic usually cooked on a rotisserie. It is perfect for an evening with family and friends. Serve with pita and tahini, chopped cucumbers and tomatoes, some olives, chopped parsley, some feta, fried eggplant, hummus swirled with harissa, rice or rice pilaf. You can make the white sauce that traditionally accompanies it by cutting plain yogurt with mayonnaise and lemon juice, and flecking it with garlic. For a red to offset it, simmer ketchup with crushed red pepper and a hit of red-wine vinegar until it goes syrupy and thick, or just use your favorite hot sauce instead.
Caramelized Tomato Tarte Tatin
This tart is a stunning mosaic of red, orange and yellow tomatoes so shiny and candied that the tart really looks like dessert. But it's safely on the savory side thanks to a splash of vinegar and a sprinkling of briny olives.
Best Gazpacho
More of a drink than a soup, served in frosted glasses or chilled tumblers, gazpacho is perfect when it is too hot to eat but you need cold, salt and lunch all at the same time. Gazpacho is everywhere in Seville, Spain, where this recipe comes from, but it's not the watered-down salsa or grainy vegetable purée often served in the United States. This version has no bread and is a creamy orange-pink rather than a lipstick red. That is because a large quantity of olive oil is required for making delicious gazpacho, rather than take-it-or-leave it gazpacho. The emulsion of red tomato juice, palest green cucumber juice and golden olive oil produces the right color and a smooth, almost fluffy texture.
Panzanella
At the height of tomato season, for every perfectly ripe, taut and juicy specimen there’s an overripe, oozing counterpart not far away. The Tuscan bread salad called panzanella is the perfect place to use those sad, soft tomatoes that are still rich in flavor. Traditional panzanella is made with stale, dried bread that’s rehydrated with a dressing of sweet tomato juices, vinegar and plenty of olive oil. This version includes mozzarella for richness and cucumber for crunch. It’s an ideal do-ahead dish; the longer the mixture sits (up to 6 or so hours), the better it tastes. Just be sure to dry your bread out thoroughly in the oven so it won’t turn to mush. For a make-ahead summer party, serve alongside crunchy fried chicken and round out the meal with a luscious coconut cake accented with peaches.
Simple Chicken Biriyani
When you raise the lid on a pot of good biriyani, the smell should beguile you: chicken, butter and spices should dominate, followed by the subtle aroma of basmati rice. You might even smell the salt.
Bulgogi
Bulgogi, a Korean classic of marinated grilled beef, is easy to make and fun to eat; it’s no wonder it is one of the country’s most successful culinary exports. As with most Korean barbecue, the meat is seasoned with sesame and scallion, and has ripe pears in the marinade to tenderize the meat and add a characteristic sweetness. Round, pale yellow Asian pears are traditional, but Bosc pears are just fine. The meat is only half the recipe: Just as important are the crunchy vegetables, pungent herbs and savory sauces that all get wrapped together into delicious mouthfuls. Perilla is a common Korean herb in the mint family, but if you cannot find it, you can try other herbs like shiso or cilantro. Make sure to wrap your bundle tightly: According to Korean tradition, you must finish it in a single bite!
Lemon Potato Salad With Mint
This light and refreshing potato salad is the antithesis of the usual, creamy, mayonnaise-based recipes. The mint and scallion add a bright, herbal flavor while the sprinkle of chile lends a kick. Make this the morning you plan to serve it and let it marinate at room temperature all day long. Or refrigerate for longer storage but be sure to bring it to room temperature before serving. Other herbs like cilantro, parsley, tarragon and sage can be substituted for the mint; adjust the quantity to taste.
Avocado-Cucumber Soup
This simple but elegant soup graced the table at one of the monthly luncheons held by the Thursday Afternoon Cooking Club, an organization of Wichita, Kan., women that has been meeting since 1894. Each month, the 24 women of the club gather over their best tableware to share recipes and cooking tips. English cucumbers work well for this recipe, but cucumbers fresh from the garden are a great choice if you have them. The soup could also be blended and served chilled in small cups and passed around on a tray for a cocktail party.