Lunch
2782 recipes found
Dumpling Noodle Soup
Keep a package or two of frozen dumplings in your freezer for this warming weeknight meal. This recipe is loosely inspired by wonton noodle soup, but replaces homemade wontons with store-bought frozen dumplings for a quick alternative. The soup base, which comes together in just 10 minutes, is surprisingly rich and full-bodied, thanks to the trio of ginger, garlic and turmeric. Miso paste brings extra savoriness, but you could substitute soy sauce or tamari. Scale up on veggies if you like; carrots, peas, snow peas or mushrooms would be excellent additions. Any type of frozen dumpling works in this dish, making it easy to adapt for vegan, vegetarian or meat-loving diners.
Indian-Spiced Eggs With Spinach and Turmeric Yogurt
In this quick meal, sautéed spinach flecked with ginger, chile and garam masala are paired with eggs and used to top toasted pitas spread with turmeric yogurt. The pitas were chosen for their uniform size, but naan or flatbread would work equally well; you want something sturdy to stand up to the moisture of the yogurt and spinach. An olive oil-fried egg tops this dish, but if you prefer poached have at it — that runny yolk is a key element.
Ferran Adrià’s Potato Chip Omelet
This recipe, adapted from the cookbook “The Family Meal: Home Cooking With Ferran Adrià” (Phaidon, 2011), is a study in simplicity. The chef of El Bulli, the famous Spanish restaurant, Mr. Adrià created an omelet reminiscent of a Spanish tortilla that comes together in minutes using only eggs, salted potato chips and olive oil. As with any recipe calling for just a few ingredients, quality truly matters here, so opt for the best potato chips, the finest olive oil and the freshest eggs. There’s no need to season the dish with salt, Mr. Adrià advises, since the chips are already salted, but serving the omelet with salt and pepper adds nuance. If you like, add finely sliced chives, a handful of grated Manchego or perhaps a pinch of piment d’Espelette or paprika like a true tortilla Española.
Mushroom Veggie Patties
These flavor-packed veggie patties are shaped and served like kotlet, Iranian-style meat patties, and prepared like kookoo, an Iranian dish similar to a frittata. But unlike a frittata, kookoo is more about the vegetable- or herb-based filling than the eggs, of which there are just enough to bind the mixture. This recipe uses finely minced mushrooms that are gently spiced with a touch of turmeric, oregano and fresh parsley. You can serve these patties hot off the stove or at room temperature, with flatbread and accompaniments. For the perfect bite, wrap a patty in a piece of bread with something tangy, like pickled onions and peppers, and something fresh, like lettuce leaves or fresh herbs. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Toasted Coconut Rice With Bok Choy and Fried Eggs
Coconut oil toasts rice grains, lightly coats vegetables, and sizzles eggs in this dish, lending its unique tropical taste and richness. You get an extra dose of richness if you leave the egg yolks runny and cut and swirl them into the rice and greens mixture. If you’re vegan, you can fry tofu or tempeh in the coconut oil instead. If you’re gluten-free, you can use tamari in place of the soy sauce. Here, too, feel free to use prepackaged, trimmed haricots verts if you're short on time, or wax beans, in place of the green beans.
Tofu and Tomato Egg Drop Soup
This soup offers the same sweet, tangy and savory flavor profile of the beloved Chinese dish stir-fried tomato and egg. Like the stir-fry, this tomato soup is on the sweet side, with sharpness from the untraditional addition of ketchup. There are several ways to drop an egg: Beating the eggs lightly will result in both white and yellow swirls, while running a chopstick or wooden spoon through the egg as it cooks will produce long, willowy strands. This recipe calls for dropping the egg into the hot soup and leaving it, which will give you chunks. A tip: If you have a liquid measuring cup with a spout, beat the egg in that, as it will give you more control when pouring the egg into the hot liquid. If you want the soup spicy, top with chile oil or chile crisp.
Beans and Greens Alla Vodka
Pasta alla vodka is a classic because each ingredient works together beautifully: the heat of the red-pepper flakes and vodka, the sweetness of the tomato and the richness of the cream. And that combination works equally well with beans and greens. Use chickpeas or white beans, and kale or any other dark leafy green, like Swiss chard or broccoli rabe. The finished dish keeps for up to three days in the fridge. Eat it on its own, with crusty bread for dunking, or over pasta.
Beet and Lentil Salad With Cheddar
This salad is a party of sweet, earthy and salty flavors. Store-bought, vacuum-packed beets are called for here, which are not only convenient, but have a mellow fruitiness and a tender texture that is ideal in salads. (If you have fresh beets, and have the time to roast them, you can use those instead.) Beets naturally pair well with sharp and tangy ingredients, and while goat cheese may be a more common accompaniment, crumbly aged Cheddar offsets the sweetness of the beets and the apple cider dressing (though any sharp Cheddar works). French green lentils offer a nutty, peppery, almost mineral-like flavor and are perfect for salads because they hold their shape well, though if you only have brown lentils, that’s just fine. (They cook slightly faster, so adjust the cook time accordingly.) Finally, there’s no shame in opting for canned lentils.
White Bean Primavera
Pasta primavera, the creamy, vegetable-heavy pasta dish popularized in the 1980s at Le Cirque, in New York, is a little too fussy for a busy weeknight, but this reimagined white bean version comes together in less than a half-hour. The simple beans and vegetables feel fancy in their robe of cream, Parmesan, lemon juice and mustard. The dish is best with fresh spring vegetables, and it’s also very flexible: Substitute spinach for the peas, a handful of halved cherry tomatoes for the carrot, and sugar snap peas for the asparagus. Drained jarred artichoke hearts wouldn’t be out of place, either.
Bhindi Masala (Okra With Red Onion and Tomato)
Ready in less than 30 minutes, bhindi masala is a hot and spicy vegetarian main dish perfect for any weeknight. Okra often gets a bad rap, but in this recipe, searing it in ghee preserves its structure, adds texture and seals any potential stickiness. Onion, tomato, red chile powder, ginger and garlic come together to make this a zinger of a dish. Finishing with lime juice adds fresh tartness that balances the heat. If you can’t find fresh okra, frozen works just as well.
Crunchy Cauliflower Salad
This chopped salad celebrates raw cauliflower, a hearty vegetable often reserved for roasting, which renders it golden and soft. Here, crunchy, thinly sliced cauliflower and radicchio bring a mix of slightly sweet and pleasantly bitter flavors; the honey and Meyer lemon vinaigrette is a nod to winter, when citrus fruits are at their brightest and sweetest. Customize the salad with whatever crunchy vegetables you have on hand; celery, fennel and cabbage all make great candidates. This dish makes the perfect side for roasted fish or chicken, or enjoy the salad as a main dish topped with beans, shredded chicken or canned tuna.
Easiest Chicken Noodle Soup
The majority of shortcut chicken soup recipes use rotisserie chicken. It’s a convenient hack, but cooked chicken doesn’t absorb flavors very well. On the other hand, sautéing ground chicken in olive oil with garlic, coriander and celery seeds (or fennel seeds and rosemary, or herbes de Provence) creates a deeply complex base. Add the vegetables, then the stock and the noodles for a complete meal that cooks in 30 minutes. You can use egg noodles, cavatelli or alphabet noodles, but you may want to adjust the amount of stock to taste, since they’ll each absorb a different amount of liquid.
Classic Tuna Salad Sandwich
Here is Craig Claiborne’s version of the classic lunchbox staple. Celery, red onion and red bell pepper add crunch; capers and lemon juice lend a little tang.
Turkey and Apple Sandwiches With Maple Mayonnaise
Here’s a new fall classic for a young student’s lunch box: a fresh sandwich of turkey and apple, bound together with mayonnaise spiked with maple syrup. For a kick, swirl a little Sriracha sauce into the mayonnaise.
Cold Sesame Noodles With Crunchy Vegetables
The ingredients for this cold noodle dish can be prepared ahead of time, leaving nothing more to do in the morning before work than to assemble the noodles and vegetables and dress them with sesame oil, soy, tahini, ginger and a few other things. Prepare for lunchtime deliciousness.
Ludo Lefebvre’s Roasted-Carrot Salad
At Petit Trois, the tiny restaurant in Los Angeles where the chef Ludo Lefebvre serves bistro classics to the film industry and food-obsessed, this salad serves as an appetizer. But it works just as well spread across a platter as a light dinner or lunch, and pairs well with a fresh baguette and a glass of chilled red wine. Toasting the cumin for the carrots and the crème fraîche is very important, but don’t worry if you can’t find all the herbs for the garnish. Just one or two will bring pleasure.
Lemony Spinach Soup With Farro
Hearty enough to serve for dinner, but full of a salad’s worth of vibrant dark-leafed greens, this soup is both satisfyingly and extremely verdant. Puréeing a little potato into the broth adds creaminess and body, while chile and lemon juice make it bright and spicy. If you don’t have farro, you can leave it out, or substitute 2 cups of cooked rice (either brown or white). Farro adds a nice chewy texture and some heft to the bowl, but isn’t strictly necessary.
Tea Eggs
In the 18th century, the Qing dynasty scholar Yuan Mei wrote about cooking eggs in a solution of tea leaves and salt in “The Way of Eating.” Now, tea eggs are prepared throughout China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and in diaspora communities the world over. Known for their marbled design and savory soy flavor, the eggs are boiled, then cracked and soaked in tea blended with spices. The liquid seeps beneath the cracks to form fine lines all over the eggs while seasoning them. You can also simply marinate them without their shells and end up with a more robust taste. Adjust the seasonings below to your taste, if you like, and then enjoy the eggs on their own with a cup of tea or any way you would enjoy boiled eggs — in rice bowls, noodles, salads and other vegetable dishes.
Orange and Radish Salad With Pistachios
Before I put this salad together, I could imagine how it would feel and taste in my mouth: the juicy, sweet oranges playing against the crisp, pungent radishes. The combination was inspired by an orange, radish and carrot salad in Sally Butcher’s charming book “Salmagundi: A Celebration of Salads From Around the World.” The salad is a showcase for citrus, which is in season in California. Navels are particularly good right now, both the regular variety and the darker pink-fleshed Cara Cara oranges that taste like a cross between an orange and a pink grapefruit. I fell in love with blood oranges when I lived in Paris years ago, and although the Moro variety that we get in the United States doesn’t have quite as intense a red-berry flavor as the Mediterranean fruit, its color is hard to resist. Here I use a combination of blood oranges and navels, and a beautiful mix of red and purple radishes and daikon. Dress this bright mixture with roasted pistachio oil, which has a mild nutty flavor that marries beautifully with the citrus. Put the prepared oranges and radishes in separate bowls and use a slotted spoon to remove the orange slices from the juices. Just before serving, arrange the oranges and radishes on a platter or on plates, spoon on the dressing and juices, and sprinkle with pistachios. You can also layer the elements, undressed, and pour on the liquids right before serving. For a juicier version, skip the slotted spoon and toss all of the ingredients together for a quenching salad that is best served in bowls.
Silken Tofu With Crunchy Lettuce and Fried Shallots
Built like Japanese hiyayakko, in which cold, pudding-like tofu is heaped with toppings, this 20-minute dish is lively with contrasting textures and temperatures. Here, crunchy lettuces dressed with soy sauce, vinegar and seasoned oil are piled atop cold silken tofu, then scattered with crispy fried shallots and jalapeño. Eat the dish on its own, with rice or fish, and maybe a cold beer.
Pressure Cooker Porcini Risotto
This recipe, adapted from the slow-cooking maven Lorna Sass, proves that pressure cookers shouldn’t be associated with overcooked food. The rice turns out perfectly in the end, and you save a lot of time and effort. It’s finished off with peas for a bit of color, and the usual cheese, salt and pepper. It’s a meal that will justify buying that pressurized pot.
Air-Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
Like air-fryer French fries, air-fryer sweet potatoes achieve similar success, utilizing less oil and requiring less time than deep-fried versions. While sweet potato fries won’t crisp up as much as their potato counterparts, that’s part of the appeal, offering textural contrast of creamy centers and charred tips. Oomph from any of your favorite spices would work well here, along with the paprika. Sumac could add a punch of brightness or a dash of cayenne can impart some heat. If your air fryer basket is larger, try a bigger sweet potato for a higher serving — but don’t overfill it with sweet potatoes, or they’ll steam rather than crisping in spots.
Pressure Cooker White Bean-Parmesan Soup
A pressure cooker renders dried beans buttery soft in a fraction of the time the stovetop would take. For this recipe, seek out whole wheat berries — not hulled or pearled — because they stand up to the long cook time, developing a pleasant chewiness while maintaining their shape. You can substitute whole farro or spelt, but make sure the farro is not pearled. The key to this soup’s flavor is the Parmesan rind, which infuses the soup with an earthy saltiness. Finally, don’t forget the finishing touches of lemon and parsley: They add brightness and bring other deeper flavors into sharper focus. You can also make this recipe in a slow cooker. Find that recipe here.
Ponzu Tofu and Mushroom Rice Bowls
This quick, satisfying tofu and mushroom rice bowl uses citrusy ponzu sauce in two ways: first, to infuse the tofu as it cooks, then as a final bright drizzle over the rice. Japanese citrus (usually yuzu or sudachi) imparts tart, tangy flavor that complements and lightens soy sauce. (Some brands of ponzu contain bonito seasoning, which gives the sauce a slightly smoky flavor. Bonito flakes are made from dried and smoked skipjack tuna, and are commonly used to make dashi, a Japanese stock. If following a vegan diet, reach for a fish-free version of ponzu.) Tofu and mushrooms simmer in the zippy garlic and ginger-infused ponzu and absorb all of the aromas, with a final addition of snow peas for fresh crunch. Use any baby green or a mix; spinach, kale and mesclun are all great options.