Lunch
2782 recipes found
Rotisserie Chicken Salad With Greens and Herbs
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Pick up a heat-lamp roast chicken at the market on the way home — it’s O.K.! — and tear it apart to feed four, or half of it for two, shredding the meat with your fingers. Mix the chicken with a few handfuls of baby arugula, a large handful of sliced scallions and a lot of chopped cilantro. Cut an avocado or two into the mix if you have them on hand. Then make a dressing out of lime juice — one juicy squeezed lime will do — a pressed garlic clove and a few glugs of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Drizzle that over the top and serve. Dinner in 15 minutes, tops. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Grilled Cheese With Jalapeño, Tomato and Fried Egg
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Sometimes I get it into my head to make a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t have a recipe because you don’t really need a recipe to make grilled cheese sandwiches. You just need desire, and a triangle in your head: salt; crunch; melting ooze. So I’ll slice some mild Cheddar. Get some decent bread, a sliced jalapeño, the tail end of a beefsteak tomato. Then, sizzle-sizzle-flip-flip in some unsalted butter, and top with a sunny-side-up egg. It’s the simplest kind of cooking, and on a weeknight that’s exactly what most of us need. Make grilled cheese! Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Spicy Tomato Pasta With Arugula
A back-pocket recipe for tired weeknights when you don’t want to cut an onion or mince garlic, this one-pot pasta is coated in a flavorful sauce thanks to a simple base of olive oil, tomato paste, fiery Calabrian chile paste and pasta water. Crushed Calabrian chiles blended with oil, salt and sometimes vinegar comprise this Italian chile paste that offers both heat and flavor, though a chile-garlic paste or hot pickled chiles can be used if you have trouble finding it. (Err on the side of caution with the chile, as you can always top your bowl with more.) Serve the arugula two ways: Add a tangle of it to the bottom of each serving bowl and toss it with the hot pasta to soften and cut the rawness, or pile it on top, drizzle with your nice olive oil and some grated cheese for a salad and pasta combination.
Ham and Radicchio Toast
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Take a quick trip to the supermarket on the way home: bread and a small head of radicchio, as well as a half-pound of thin-sliced ham at the deli counter and some good mustard. When you’re ready to eat, cut the ham and radicchio into ribbons, then sauté the radicchio in a medium-hot sauté pan with a few glugs of olive oil and some chopped garlic until softened. Take the pan off the stove, add the ham and toss to combine. Meanwhile, slice the bread — you want two slices per person — and toast it if you like. Either way, slash some mustard onto the slices. Pile the warm radicchio and ham on top and consume with good wine. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Air-Fryer Salmon
Salmon cooks perfectly in the air fryer because the device’s circulating high heat keeps the fish moist and crisps skin-on fillets. Here, tomatoes and lemon slices provide a bright boost to the dish, but feel free to forgo or vary the recipe with seasonings like brown sugar and mustard or simply try out other salmon recipes. Keys to This Recipe How Long It Takes to Cook Salmon in the Air Fryer: The cook time depends on the thickness and temperature of the fillets. To test for doneness, insert a metal cake tester or thin paring knife into the middle of a fillet to see if the fish is warmed all the way through. If the metal feels cold, continue to cook for an additional minute or two. Generally, 6-ounce fillets take about 10 minutes. To cook frozen salmon, place unthawed fillets in the machine and add an extra 5 to 7 minutes. How to Double the Recipe: Use a larger air fryer and double the quantities below, but keep the cooking time the same. How to Use Leftover Salmon: Leftover salmon can be refrigerated for up to 2 days and would work well as a substitute for tuna in Eric Kim’s tuna rice recipe if you happen to have rice on hand. Or, toss flaked salmon into a salad for a hearty complete meal. How to Clean an Air Fryer After Cooking Salmon: To get rid of any lingering fishy smells, be sure to clean your air fryer right away, following these tips from Wirecutter.
Radicchio Caesar Salad
This fragrant take on Caesar salad uses up an entire tin of anchovies and replaces the sweet romaine with gloriously bitter radicchio. For the dressing: Though you could use a raw egg yolk and slowly stream in oil while whisking constantly, relying on the already emulsifying qualities of store-bought mayonnaise gets you to creamy heights with less fuss. This salad does not keep well, so serve it immediately, while the radicchio is still plump and crunchy. There’s no added salt in this recipe, as the many anchovies season both the bread crumbs and the dressing. But should your radicchio be especially bitter — pleasant though that flavor can be — feel free to add a pinch of salt to help tame the bitterness.
Asparagus Ricotta Pasta With Almonds
In this comforting pasta, fragrant herbs, spinach and crisp-tender asparagus offer the lightness of spring balanced by rich, garlicky, scallion-infused ricotta. For the creamiest sauce, look for ricotta without added stabilizers or gums, or try making it yourself. An almond crumble brightened with lemon zest adds a nutty crunch and makes each bite texturally diverse. Spiral-shaped pastas have long nooks and crannies for the thickened sauce to cling to, but other short shapes of pasta like penne work well here, too.
Shrimp Salad
Using plenty of lemon — both the zest and juice — is the secret to this tangy, creamy shrimp salad. If you’re using this to make sandwiches, chop the shrimp into pieces before adding them to the dressing. You can also leave the shrimp whole for an elegant salad, served with lettuce, avocado, and other vegetables if you like. If you’re starting with precooked shrimp, you can skip the first step entirely. The salad can be made and refrigerated for up to 6 hours before serving.
Creamy Chickpea Pasta With Spinach and Rosemary
Luxurious and hearty, cheap and easy, this vegetarian pasta uses mostly pantry staples, requiring just a few fresh ingredients, like baby spinach, rosemary and heavy cream. Canned chickpeas form the foundation of the dish: They’re cooked until crisp and caramelized. Half are then saved as a garnish, while the rest are simmered until they break down and thicken the sauce. You can swap out your greens or beans, and if you want to experiment with flavor, raid your spice cabinet: Ground coriander, toasted fennel seeds, coarsely crumbled pink peppercorns or a sprinkle of smoked paprika perk up the dish.
Perfect Instant Ramen
Make some instant ramen. Slide an egg into the hot broth, then some butter. Crown the steaming noodles with slices of American cheese. Scatter a bunch of toasted sesame seeds and chopped scallions across the top, if you want to. Hardly a recipe! But for the chef Roy Choi, who gave it to The Times in 2014, doctored instant ramen is a taste of Korean-American straight-from-the-bag soul food. The butter, egg and cheese help coat the ramen noodles and deepen their flavor. “It’s our snack, it’s our peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it’s our bowl of cereal,” Mr. Choi said. “It’s something that has been a part of my life forever.”
Roasted Squash With Turmeric-Ginger Chickpeas
Custardy, mildly sweet roasted squash holds its own as a main course in this easy weeknight recipe. Although fresh turmeric root is suitable, a high-quality ground turmeric will do a better job of infusing the chickpeas with its earthy, floral notes. Marinating the chickpeas a day or two ahead will allow the turmeric, ginger and other aromatics to intensify in flavor. If you do make this ahead of time, hold off on tossing in the fresh herbs until just before serving. Pomegranate seeds add color and crunch, and a dollop of yogurt would be the last of your obligations, if you want to take this dish out of vegan territory.
BLT Pasta
When another summer tomato sandwich just won’t do, try this BLT pasta instead. This clever twist on the classic sandwich substitutes spicy arugula for lettuce and in-season cherry tomatoes for heirlooms, which cook in bacon fat and produce a silky, smoky sauce. If baby arugula is out of reach, baby spinach, watercress or Swiss chard would work well in its place. Serve with a raw, shaved zucchini salad tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and mint.
The Best Scrambled Eggs
For silky, outrageously good scrambled eggs, cook them low and slow. This method, which Mark Bittman learned from James Beard, is very low and very slow: you place the eggs over very low heat, stirring frequently, breaking up the curds as they form. The results are without compare. Make them for breakfast on the weekend, while the coffee brews and the bacon fries.
Breakfast Burritos
A delightful breakfast, these burritos filled with soft scrambled eggs, scallion-flecked refried beans and buttery avocado slices are also great any time of the day. Cilantro adds freshness, and a few drops of your favorite hot sauce will deliver a nice zing. The nontraditional open-ended rolling technique used here will tightly encase the filling in the smaller-size tortillas while ensuring the optimal tortilla-to-stuffing ratio. To seal completely, wrap each tortilla in a strip of foil and twist both ends. For convenience, the little wraps can be made ahead of time, stored in the refrigerator or freezer and reheated in an oven.
Scrambled Peppers and Eggs
As in many Mark Bittman recipes, the idea here is more vegetables -- in this case, peppers -- than protein. It works because except for the jalapeño, none of the peppers is hot.
Flaky Folded Biscuits
These biscuits rely on frozen grated butter to create an extra light and crispy texture. The dough can be gently kneaded together, rolled and cut into biscuits using a biscuit cutter or knife before baking, but this method of folding and rolling produces more flaky layers. The final step of rolling the dough like a jellyroll, flattening it, and cutting it into triangles results in triangular biscuits that gently fan apart in layers that are perfect for catching extra butter and jam, or for pulling apart with your fingertips. If the dough or butter feels like it is getting warm or greasy at any point, transfer the dough to a rimmed baking sheet and place in the freezer for five minutes before proceeding.
Green Smoothie With Cucumber and Cumin
This smoothie, the only savory drink in this week’s Recipes for Health, is a bit like an Indian lassi, with a little heat from the pinch of cayenne, and some lovely spice. I used a mix of baby greens – chard, baby kale and spinach, as well as parsley and mint. It makes for a filling lunch.
Sausage, Egg and Kale Casserole
Finding a brunch dish that feeds a crowd can be a challenge, but this large-scale frittata does just that by layering sausage, kale and fontina with cream-thickened eggs. Use any fresh sausage you like (chorizo, merguez, or hot pork sausage work well), and swap in mild Swiss chard or peppery mustard greens in place of the kale. You can prepare this dish the night before serving by cooking through Step 5 and layering the sausage, vegetables and cheese in the baking dish. Let it warm up slightly at room temperature before adding the eggs, then bake as directed. Baking times will vary depending on how cold or warm the dish is, as well as its depth and ingredients, so keep an eye on the eggs; they should be just set in the center.
Mango Lassi
Mangoes tend to vary in texture and sweetness depending on where they are from; tart varieties can add sour notes to salad while milder mangoes go well with chile and lime. In Pakistan and across South Asia, there is a revered, intoxicating sweetness to most mangoes. Adding yogurt and milk to chopped bits balances that sweetness and makes this Punjabi mango lassi the perfect chilled drink for hot summer months, when the fruit is in season. This recipe adds honey to the mix, making allowances for the kind of mango that might be available — but you can skip it, if luck sources sweet mangoes. For added luxury, finish the drink off with powdered cardamom and crushed nuts.
Strawberry, Millet and Banana Smoothie
Whenever you find sweet, ripe strawberries buy twice what you need and hull and freeze half of them. I freeze them in small freezer bags, one smoothie portion per bag. You can also use commercial frozen strawberries for this nourishing mix of fruit, millet, cashews and kefir. I have gotten into the habit of soaking a small amount of cashews and almonds in water and keeping them in the refrigerator to use in smoothies. For a vegan version substitute almond milk for the kefir, and if you can’t find plain kefir, use yogurt or buttermilk.
Grain Frittata With Chile, Lime and Fresh Herbs
You may think of frittatas as leftovers’ idea of heaven, but is it yours? For a frittata to look forward to, throw in leftover grains: The result is something like a Spanish tortilla, pleasingly dense, but with more bounce. Add an acid, like lime, and umami, like fish sauce, which melts into an underlying savoriness when warmed. Whatever you do, don’t turn on the oven for this. Instead, stir the frittata on the stove and all but the top will set — nothing a few minutes covered can't fix (no precarious flip!). Finally, put a salad on top. The herby one here adds pep to the substantial frittata, as does a final squeeze of lime.
Pineapple and Millet Smoothie
I played around with this smoothie, toying with adding this ingredient (banana) or that (coconut); but in the end what I love about it is the pure flavor of pineapple, softened by the grain that also thickens and bulks up the drink.
Matzo Frittata
This savory matzo brei, loaded with caramelized onions and mushrooms, is made like a frittata that you cut into wedges. While commonly eaten for breakfast during Passover, this one serves as a substantial side dish. Leftovers make a nice brunch or lunch, especially with a green salad. The key to a good matzo brei is soaking the matzo just enough to retain a little bit of chew, but not so much that it becomes soggy. Here, the matzo is submerged in boiling water for one minute to soften. If keeping kosher and making this for a dairy meal, use a tablespoon of butter instead of oil for extra flavor.
Deep Purple Blueberry Smoothie With Black Quinoa
My idea for this week’s Recipes for Health was to match grains and fruit by color and make nourishing smoothies. For this one I could have also used any of the black or purple rices on the market, such as Alter Eco’s purple jasmine rice, Lotus Food’s Forbidden Rice or Lundberg Black Japonica. I happened to have a full bag of black quinoa in the pantry, so that’s what I went for and it worked beautifully. You can also use fresh blueberries for this, but when they are not in season, frozen will do fine and will eliminate the need for ice cubes.