Lunch
2851 recipes found
Fried Rice
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Start with some cooked rice, white or brown, a cup or so per person, made fresh or pulled from the freezer where you keep some in a plastic bag against the promise of just such an exercise. (The chill helps separate the grains.) Also helpful, also in the freezer: bags of diced organic vegetables you can get at the market (the mixed corn, carrots and peas number, for instance). For the rest: meat if you eat meat, a couple eggs, lots of chopped garlic and ginger, some scallions. You can make a sauce from soy sauce and sesame oil (about a 3:1 ratio) and fire it up with a teaspoon or two of gochujang. You’ll need a little less than a quarter cup of sauce to feed four. To the wok! Crank the heat, add a little neutral oil, then toss in your meat. I like chopped brisket from the barbecue joint, or pastrami from the deli, or ground pork, or bacon, or leftover roast chicken — whatever you decide on, you’ll need far less than you think. After the meat crisps, fish it from the pan and add about a tablespoon each of minced garlic and ginger, a handful of chopped scallions. Stir-fry for 30 seconds or so, then add those frozen vegetables. More stir-frying. Return the meat to the wok. Stir-fry. Clear a space in the center of the wok and add the eggs, cooking them quickly to softness. Throw in the sauce, then the rice, and mix it all together until it’s steaming hot. Finish with more chopped scallions. 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.
Peanut Butter Sandwich With Sriracha and Pickles
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Here’s a spin on a great old sandwich of the American South: peanut butter and pickle sandwiches with a spray of sriracha or sambal oelek, and a tiny drizzle of soy sauce. Toasting the bread before spreading it with peanut butter adds crunch and warmth, and the result is a sandwich of remarkable intensity, sweet and salty, sour and soft and crisp. Trust me on this one! 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.
Hummus Wrap
Hummus is a great filling for a vegetarian wrap. You can buy hummus in many grocery stores, but nothing can beat hummus you make at home. It takes no time at all to make this version with canned chickpeas.
Classic Bean Salad
You can use any kind or combination of canned beans to make this classic picnic salad, but a mix of white beans, chickpeas and red kidney beans makes it especially colorful. Although this is delicious when freshly made, it gets even better as it sits. If you have time, make it at least an hour or two before serving; it can rest at room temperature for up to 4 hours — but after that, slip it into the fridge. If you want to make this the day before, add the celery and parsley just before serving, so they stay crisp and green.
Roasted Tomato and White Bean Stew
This hearty, flexible stew comes together with pantry ingredients and delivers layers of flavors. Cherry tomatoes, roasted in a generous glug of olive oil to amplify their sweetness, lend a welcome brightness to this otherwise rich dish. Onion, garlic and red-pepper flakes form the backbone of this dish, to which white beans and broth are added, then simmered until thick. While this stew is lovely on its own, you could also add wilt-able greens such as kale, escarole or Swiss chard at the end, and toasted bread crumbs on top. The dish is vegan as written, but should you choose to top your bowl with a showering of grated pecorino or Parmesan, it would most likely work well in your favor.
Fried Egg Quesadilla
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. This simple fried egg quesadilla makes as fine a light supper as it does a breakfast repast. Easy work: Melt some butter in a pan and gently cook a corn tortilla in it. Top the tortilla with grated Cheddar, a slice of deli ham or some cooked bacon if you want them, a little chopped cilantro or salsa or hot sauce, and another tortilla. Cook, flipping the quesadilla a few times, until it is crisp and golden and the cheese has melted into lace at the sides. Use a spatula to pull it out of the pan, and place it onto a cutting board to rest. Fry an egg in the now-empty pan with a little more butter, then cut the quesadilla into quarters, placing the egg on top. Top with cilantro and hot sauce or salsa. 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 Sandwich
The trick to making the best grilled cheese sandwich isn't just in the ingredients (mayonnaise and butter, together at last). It's also on the stove. Achieving a golden, crusty outside and oozy inside takes a little patience: if the heat is too high, the outside will scorch before the cheese melts. Cooking the slices separately at first gives the cheese a good head start. There’s no need to search out artisanal loaves or local cheese (though they won’t hurt), but definitely do not use homemade mayonnaise. Mustard, chutney or even strawberry jam (believe it) can be dabbed on the cheese as it melts, or add ham, prosciutto or slices of apple or tomato (drain on paper towels first). You can use any melting cheese, such as American, Muenster or Swiss, but not too much: part of the perfection here is in the proportion of bread to cheese.
Cold Udon Noodles With Carrot and Egg
This simple udon dish is a perfect to-go lunch or easy dinner. Catherine Eng, a website designer in Los Angeles, makes this for her son. "I've got it down to a science, so it only takes me 10 or 15 minutes," she said. "And I can be sure he gets his carbs and protein." For the bonito-flavored soy soup base, like Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu, check your local Asian market or order it online.
Grilled Cheese With Apples and Apple Butter
If Cheddar on a slice of apple pie sounds good to you, you will love this twist on a grilled cheese sandwich, which marries salty and sweet elements between two caramelized pieces of buttery bread. Look for dark apple butter, with no added sugar, since it will have the richest flavor. Unlike most grilled cheese recipes, which call for building the sandwiches, cooking them on one side, then flipping, this one calls for cooking the sandwiches open-faced, then assembling them.The cheese melts more quickly and reliably if cooked this way. Depending on the size of your bread slices and your skillet, you may be able to cook two sandwiches at a time. You could also have two pans going, or just serve them as they are finished. To serve all four at once, just transfer the cooked sandwiches to a baking sheet in a 200-degree oven while you crisp up the remaining sandwiches on the stovetop.
Easy Lentil Soup
This earthy, simple-to-make lentil soup can be embellished however you please. Leave it plain, and it’s warming and velvety. Or dress it up as you like, either with one or two of the suggested garnishes listed in the recipe (see Tip), or with anything else in your pantry or fridge. If you’d like to make this in a pressure cooker, reduce the stock to 3 1/2 cups, and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes, allowing the pressure to release naturally.
Korean BBQ-Style Meatballs
These meatballs, inspired by traditional Korean barbecue, bring the savory-sweet flavors of caramelized meat without the need for a grill. As the meatballs bake, the soy sauce marries the garlic and scallions to create a glaze. This meatball mixture can be made ahead and left to marinate in the fridge for 3 hours or even overnight. Use ground beef that is 85 percent lean meat, 15 percent fat, or 80 percent lean and 20 percent fat for juicier meatballs. The Ritz crackers here make for a more tender meatball, but feel free to substitute plain dry bread crumbs. The meatballs are tasty on their own, but for a simple dipping sauce, combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar. Serve over steamed rice with kimchi, or as a sandwich with mayonnaise or marinara sauce.
Classic Caprese Salad
This classic summer dish doesn’t get any simpler or more delicious. Use different-colored heirloom tomatoes for the prettiest salad, and buffalo milk mozzarella for the best tasting one.
Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Tender meatballs filled with onions and Parmesan, bathed in plenty of tomato sauce, are classics in every way except for one: They call for turkey instead of the usual beef (or beef-veal-pork combination). Serve them over spaghetti or polenta, or stuff them into a hero roll for a sandwich. Try to use ground dark meat turkey here if you can, it has a deeper, richer flavor than ground white meat.
Green Salad With Apple Cider Vinaigrette
With its delicate, crisp bite, this salad can be a simple addition to your holiday spread. Dressed with an acidic, lightly sweetened cider vinaigrette, it carries a lot of the bright notes of the season and uses ingredients you most likely have on hand. Green is the theme but not the rule, so any sour-sweet red apple will also work just great. The nuts are optional but add a hearty crunch.
Sweet Potato Fries
These addictive seasoned "fries" from Mark Bittman are actually baked, but we promise you won't miss the grease. The spice mix – garlic powder, paprika, salt and black pepper – can be used on regular potatoes as well (you'll just need to increase the baking time a bit).
Green Bean Salad With Hot Mustard Dressing
Hot mustard powder brings a sharp, spicy twist to traditional mustard vinaigrette, which complements sweet green beans well. The beans are blanched until crisp-tender, then tossed in the vinaigrette while still hot. As the beans cool, they absorb all the flavors of mild shallot, fragrant garlic, tangy rice vinegar and hot mustard. Rich, roasted pecans add nutty sweetness to balance the spicy dressing. Though the salad can be made a few hours ahead, you’ll want to top it with the nuts right before serving to preserve their crunch. The beans themselves can be served at room temperature or chilled.
Espresso Fizz
Like any conscientious bartender, Ryan Clur, who created this drink at the restaurant Maialino in New York, is particular about the ingredients he uses: Hologram espresso from Counter Culture Coffee, Fever-Tree tonic water and Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6. For the best results, use these same brands. If you use other brands, you will change the flavor of the drink (though not necessarily in a bad way). Mr. Clur pulls the shot of espresso into a stainless steel steam pitcher so that the coffee is easier to pour over the back of the bar spoon in a classic bartender’s float, and because the metal will absorb some of the heat of the espresso and drop the temperature of the drink. The result: a drink that feels like an iced coffee even though there is no ice.
Mapo Tofu
You can order mapo tofu from many Chinese restaurants, but it’s also quite doable at home. You can find the pivotal fermented chile and broad (fava) bean sauce or paste called doubanjiang (sometimes rendered as “toban djan”) at a Chinese market. Look for a doubanjiang from Pixian, in Sichuan, and bear in mind that oilier versions have extra heat but may lack an earthy depth. Sichuan peppercorns add mala — tingly zing — and fermented black beans, called douchi, lend this dish a kick of umami. Ground beef is traditional, but many cooks choose pork; you can also try lamb, turkey thigh or a plant-based meat alternatives. Add chile flakes for extra fire, and balance mapo’s intensity with rice and steamed or stir-fried broccoli.
Jamie Oliver’s Vegetarian Black Bean Burgers
Beans have been a staple in the human diet for more than 4,000 years, and in recent history, they’ve formed the foundation of countless vegetarian burgers. There are white bean burgers, kidney bean burgers and a plethora of other veggie burgers. Most have two things in common: beans and binders. This version from the chef Jamie Oliver’s new book “Ultimate Veg” (Flatiron Books, 2020) combines black beans, rye bread, fresh mushrooms and ground coriander. Mr. Oliver tops his burgers with tangy yogurt, mangoes and salsa, but these crisp, oven-roasted patties are equally delicious with just lettuce and ketchup.
The Ultimate Veggie Burger
You make a veggie burger because you want the hamburger experience without the meat. This one delivers. It’s got a firm, beefy texture that takes on the char and smoke of the grill, but is adaptable enough to cook inside on your stove. The enemy of a veggie burger is mushiness, which stems from a high moisture content. To combat that, the very watery ingredients – mushrooms, tofu, beans and beets – are roasted to both dehydrate them somewhat and intensify their flavors. Yes, the ingredient list here is long; you need a diverse lot to make a good veggie burger. And each one adds something in terms of flavor and/or texture. Garnish this any way you like, and don’t forget to toast the buns.
Suvir Saran’s Palak Ki Tikki (Spinach and Potato Patties)
These are adapted from Suvir Saran’s potato patties called palak ki tikki, from his lovely cookbook “Masala Farm.” They are a striking green because of all of the raw spinach that gets packed into them. The big, spicy burgers are incredibly easy to put together and to cook. Suvir serves them with chutney, either green or tamarind, but we both agree that they’re delicious with plain old ketchup. I made a quick raita to serve with the burgers by stirring sweet pickle relish into plain yogurt.
Black Bean Burgers
Also known as McBitty's Bean Burgers, these veggie burgers from Mark Bittman are loaded with black beans, porcini mushrooms, garlic, smoked paprika (or chili powder) and soy sauce, for a satisfying patty you can serve with all the usual burger fixings.
Kimchi Tuna Salad
Kimchi and canned tuna make a popular combination in Korean cooking. These two pantry staples are found together in a number of dishes like kimchi jjigae and kimbap, and here they are the basis of a lively, fortifying salad. Combine them with fresh ginger and celery for crunch (or an equal amount of other crunchy vegetables, like thinly sliced sugar snap or snow peas, radishes, carrot, cabbage or fennel). The dressing is made using the spicy liquid from the kimchi jar, rice wine vinegar and sesame oil, but because each jar of kimchi is different, you may want to tweak the seasonings to taste. Eat the salad on its own; with gim, or seaweed, as a hand roll; or with something starchy to balance the punch, like a burger bun, rice, boiled potatoes, soba or ramen noodles.
Kimbap
Kimbap, or “seaweed rice,” is often mistakenly referred to as sushi, but it is a popular Korean dish with its own unique flavors and history. These rolls can be simple, with just a single sheet of seaweed wrapped around cooked rice, or complex, with entire restaurants dedicated to serving variations of kimbap. This recipe uses traditional fillings, like a mix of vegetables, egg and meat, but other popular fillings include cucumber, imitation crab, bulgogi or canned tuna. It’s very adaptable, and it does well with substitutions. Leftover kimbap can be kept in the refrigerator, but the rice will lose some of its moisture, so to serve a second time, soak each piece in beaten egg, then pan-fry them until golden.