Lunch
2782 recipes found
Stuffed Roasted Yellow Peppers or Red Peppers in Tomato Sauce
These roasted yellow peppers are filled with a savory mix of quinoa seasoned with garlic and parsley and tossed with Manchego or Parmesan cheese. The roasted peppers make a nice contrast in color and flavor to the sweet tomato sauce. You’ll get plenty of Vitamin C and lycopene from both the peppers and the sauce in this dish.
All Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread
The dough will be somewhat stiff. So to get it into the pan, first pat and coax it into a rectangle shape a little smaller than the pan, smoothing out the cracks and holes as you work. Then transfer the rectangle to the pan and use the back of your hand to gently press the dough into the pan.
Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread
You can use any white bread recipe to make any swirl breads listed below. The cinnamon raisin version is a classic, inspired by a recipe from James Beard. The sherry gives an unusual complexity to the sweet raisins and brown sugar, and most of the alcohol is cooked off while the mixture simmers. Feel free to use apple cider instead. This recipe makes two loaves, one to eat right away, preferably warm from the oven, or toasted and buttered the next day. Freeze the other loaf and use it to make what is arguably the best French toast imaginable.
Quinoa and Rice Bowl With Kale, Kimchi and Egg
Easy, healthful and infinitely adaptable, grain bowls are equally ideal for feeding a family (picky eaters can build it to suit their own tastes) and using up leftovers in the fridge. You could also cook up the ingredients at the beginning of the week, and mix and match ingredients at will as the week progresses. Try rice, quinoa, kamut, farro, freekeh, wheat berries, barley and grits for the grain (this recipe calls for mixing brown rice and quinoa for a nice variety of textures, but feel free to use just one or the other). Put your grains in a large bowl, then arrange small piles of vegetables, protein and something pickled or spicy over the grains. Top with a sauce that brings together all the ingredients in the bowl. Crunch — here, sesame seed and dried seaweed — is a nice finishing touch.
Brothy Cod With Peas and Mushrooms
In this recipe, tender, flaky cod is poached in a light, flavorful broth that optimizes bottled clam juice, a versatile yet underused ingredient. The juice is perfect for weeknight cooking, when shortcuts to big flavor are key, and it adds a subtle, briny backbone to any broth. This broth is also infused with rich shiitake mushrooms, aromatic garlic and a generous boost of bright ginger. Pearl couscous gets toasted before boiling, adding nutty notes to the soup. It also contributes delightful chewiness, but other small pastas like ditalini or orzo are also good substitutes, though cook time may need to be adjusted accordingly.
Jambon Beurre
Unlike ham and cheese, a sandwich that’s ubiquitous across the globe, jambon beurre (ham butter) is strictly French. Though it’s a seemingly sparse construction — simply baguette, cooked ham and butter — the ingredients for this interpretation from L’Ami Pierre in New York require careful selection. High-quality baguettes are now sold in many bakeries. High-butterfat butter enhances the sandwich, providing more fat than 80 percent supermarket standard, and the ham, preferably silky jambon de Paris, a cooked ham sliced, in the finer shops, from a bone-in joint, can make it or break it. French-style or similar cooked ham is available in many areas; to avoid are boneless, often waterlogged deli hams. Like most sandwiches, this one is designed as a treat for one, but, cut into smaller sections and served on a platter, it can enhance a buffet, even at holiday time.
Country Bread With Apples
This is a whole wheat version of a classic Norman country bread. Normandy is apple country and apples find their way into many dishes in this region. I came across the bread in “Bread Alone” by Daniel Leader, and have adapted the recipe. The dough ferments overnight in the refrigerator, and after it has come back to room temperature the chopped apples are kneaded in. It goes beautifully with cheese.
Sourdough Starter
This is an adaptation of the instructions for making a starter outlined by Peter Reinhart in his “Artisan Breads Every Day.” It takes a little more or less than a week of mixing flour with liquid – Mr. Reinhart starts with unsweetened pineapple juice (though you could also use orange juice or apple cider), then switches to water – to achieve a vigorous, living starter. Once it is bubbling and fragrant, with a light yeasty-boozy scent, you can use it and feed it daily with a cup of flour and a half-cup of water. Or put the starter in the refrigerator and feed it weekly, always discarding (or using!) a cup of the original when you do. (All measurements are by weight.)
Baghali Ghatogh (Fava Bean Stew)
A popular and beloved stew from northern Iran, baghali ghatogh is an ambassador of early spring produce. Earthy, bright-green fava beans, fragrant dill and an assertive amount of garlic are combined with eggs for a comforting meal. Although shelling and peeling fresh favas is a rite of passage (see Tip), it’s a time-consuming task, given the amount needed here (but if you have the time, go for it!). Frozen fava beans are a worthy substitute, but if they aren't available, you can use canned butter beans or frozen lima beans. Just enough eggs are used to give the stew some heft, but they shouldn’t overwhelm the vibrant flavors of this verdant stew. The eggs can be incorporated two ways: cracked in and poached, or stirred in to break apart. Baghali ghatogh is typically served over rice with a side of smoked fish and pickled garlic, or with bread.
Cauliflower Salad Sandwiches
Pulling from the greatest hits of chicken salads, with crunchy walnuts, crisp apples, sweet raisins and a spiced mayo-yogurt dressing, this best-of-all-worlds sandwich subs out the chicken for cauliflower. The aggressively roasted cauliflower serves as a sponge, soaking up all the flavors of the dressing while adding layers of bitterness and earthiness. This salad only gets better as it sits, allowing the flavors to meld and the cauliflower to soak up even more dressing. Even once it’s built, this sandwich improves after it has sat for a few hours. Do you plan ahead? This makes an ideal picnic dish. Not sure when you’ll get a chance to eat or where the day will take you? This cauliflower salad sandwich is here for you.
Seven Vegetable Couscous
Seven-vegetable couscous is a well-known offering at Sephardic Jewish New Year celebrations, but since it's a bountiful, colorful tribute to the harvest, it makes a great meat-free main dish for Thanksgiving as well. Despite the long ingredient list, it's as easy as can be to make.
Giant Couscous Cake With Roasted Pepper Sauce
This savory cake is very versatile in that you could substitute the couscous with other cooked grains, or make use of whatever herbs, cheeses or spices you have on hand. The options to make this cake your own are endless; leftover cooked barley or maftoul, Parmesan and Gruyère, dill or tarragon, toasted cumin or fennel seeds would all work well. Serve with a big green salad for a complete meal.
Salmon and Couscous Salad With Cucumber-Feta Dressing
The dressing in this 30-minute recipe is inspired by green goddess dressing and mast-o khiar, a Persian side dish of cucumbers and yogurt. Here, thick yogurt is combined with fresh herbs, tangy feta and crunchy Persian cucumbers. If you have trouble finding Persian cucumbers, they can be swapped for similarly sweet-skinned English cucumbers or peeled regular cucumbers. Flaking the salmon into the salad evenly distributes it and is a nice alternative to serving a fillet for dinner. Leftover salad can be enjoyed cold for lunch the next day, freshened up with a squeeze of lime juice and more fresh herbs.
The Best Roast Beef for Sandwiches
The best cut of roast beef for sandwiches isn’t necessarily the same as what you’d want hot from the oven. A hot roast demands plenty of marbling so that the rich fat can melt and baste the meat with its goodness. Roast beef sandwiches work better made from a leaner cut, preferably one with a mineral, earthy taste and a nice chew. A top loin roast is ideal. It’s got plenty of brawny flavor, and all of the fat is on the surface, which you can easily trim off after the meat is cooked. Here, the beef is roasted low and slow to ensure rare, juicy meat. This said, if you want a more economical cut, use bottom, top or eye round here instead. Just adjust the roasting time if the cut is larger or smaller. As long as you pull the meat out of the oven when it reaches between 125 and 130 degrees, you’ll get nicely rare meat. More sandwich recipes.
Italian Hero Sandwich
Italian hero, sub, hoagie, grinder — this classic sandwich has many names, and every deli makes it differently. Its deliciousness lies in the proportion of rich-and-fatty ingredients to spicy-and-crunchy ones. For optimal structure and texture, start with crusty rolls with pillowy insides (or toast soft rolls). Use two to four types of cured meat for a range of umami, and plenty of lettuce and pickles to counterbalance them. Then assemble wisely: Shingle the meat and cheese across the rolls, then top with pickles, onions and dressed lettuce. Once put together, the wet ingredients are wrapped in meat so they’re held in place and the bread doesn’t get soggy. Wrap with parchment or wax paper for tidier eating and transporting.
Butternut Squash Lasagna Pie
This comforting dish lands somewhere between a lasagna and a pie. Thinly sliced butternut squash and broken dried lasagna noodles are all tossed together in one bowl with cheese, spices and a red pepper sauce, then pressed into a cake pan before baking, at which point everything softens and cooks together into imperfectly perfect layers. A simple béchamel topping is made while your pie is in the oven, leaving you ample time to get on with assembling a big salad or a side dish of your choosing.
Split Pea Soup
This customizable recipe for classic split pea soup allows you to make it vegetarian or not with equally delicious results. Meat eaters can get that classic smoky flavor by adding bacon or ham hock, while vegetarians can reach for the smoked paprika. Half the split peas are added part way through cooking, which adds texture to each cozy, hearty spoonful.
Yvonne Maffei’s Roast Chicken With Couscous, Dates and Buttered Almonds
Deglet Noors dates shine when they are cooked in chutneys, desserts or North African dishes like this whole roast chicken. The chicken is cooked with fluffy couscous that absorbs the sweetness of dates and the butteriness of toasted almonds. Supermarket Deglet Noors are often dark brown and hard, because they have been kept well past their natural point of ripeness; seek out soft, light-colored ones for the best flavor.
Niku Jyaga (Japanese Beef and Potato Stew)
There’s nothing extraordinary about meat and potatoes stewed in a sweet soy broth, and yet it’s easy to find yourself taking just one more taste until half the pot is gone. Patience pays off though: niku jyaga tastes better the second day, when the potatoes are saturated with sauce. Every household makes it a little differently in Japan, and so the flavor is affectionately called “mother’s taste.” Saori Kurioka, a private chef in Brooklyn, cooks hers the same minimalist way her mother and grandmother did in Kobe, with just beef, potatoes, onion and carrot. She uses a wooden otoshibuta, a drop-lid that fits inside the pot, so the vegetables simmer and steam evenly as the broth slowly concentrates, but the same thing can be achieved with parchment paper. Beveling the edges of the potatoes with a peeler keeps them from crumbling as the jostle around the simmering pot, but skip it if you’re rushed or impatient.
Korean Bulgogi Bolognese
In this recipe, Korean grilled barbecue meets Bolognese, the classic Italian meat sauce. Ground beef is simmered in a sauce that starts with a traditional base of sautéed onion, carrots and celery, to which scallions, garlic, ginger and soy sauce are added. As the sauce cooks, the flavors of the tomato paste and soy sauce meld, creating a deeply salty-sweet mixture, while the addition of chopped mushrooms provides depth and complexity. Be sure to use egg pasta here as the richness contrasts nicely with the sauce.
Texas-Style Chili
Calling a dish "Texas Chili,” especially if you’re not a native of that state, is clearly asking for trouble. But this recipe, refined over years of potlucks and Super Bowl parties, is too good to keep under wraps. Its depth of flavor, from different chile types, makes this recipe stand out. It also has whole spices, unsweetened chocolate and dark beer that meld seamlessly into a brick-red sauce that naps the succulent meat. The meat can be cut into large chunks, or, more traditionally, thin slices, especially if you are using a tougher cut than chuck. Sirloin also makes good chili. If you have masa harina, the corn flour used to make tortillas, that will make the gravy even thicker, but it is not necessary. Like many vigorously spiced dishes, this one tastes even better a day or two after it is made and will hold its flavor well for at least a week.
Pumpkin Soup With Ancho and Apple
Chances are the contents of that can of pumpkin purée you may be using for pie, soup, biscuits, custard, ice cream or bread came from Illinois. It’s the state that produces the most pumpkin for canning. This vibrant soup, from the chef Rick Bayless, an owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, is inspired by Mexico, where pumpkin is as typical an ingredient as the pepitas, ancho chile, canela and crema that are also in the recipe. His original calls for fresh squash or pumpkin — about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled, seeded, cut in chunks and added to the pot with the apple. But Mr. Bayless was amenable to adapting his recipe for canned purée, paying homage to Illinois.
Cheddar-Stuffed Turkey Burger With Avocado
The secret to keeping lean turkey juicy as a burger? Adding fat. The burgers in this recipe, stuffed with cheese and a bit of butter, are moist, flavorful and, best of all, hold together and flip easily. These are best cooked on a flat-top griddle, burger-joint style, or you can use a large, wide skillet (like cast-iron) if that’s what you have. Both give the outside of these burgers an irresistible sear that keeps the juice and flavor inside the burger, not dripping through grill grates. Finally, Hawaiian buns are a must. Their softness and subtle sweetness give these burgers a universal appeal.
Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew
This rich, comforting stew was brought to The Times by Regina Schrambling in 2001, in the dark days immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The accompanying article was an ode to the therapeutic benefits of cooking and baking: "Whoever said cooking should be entered into with abandon or not at all had it wrong. Going into it when you have no hope is sometimes just what you need to get to a better place. Long before there were antidepressants, there was stew." This one, while complex in flavor, is not difficult to prepare, but it cannot be rushed. Make it when you have the time to indulge in the meditative qualities of chopping, sautéing, reducing, braising, waiting and tasting. You will be rewarded with an exceptionally flavorful dish that is just as satisfying to eat as it was to cook.