Lunch
2851 recipes found
Muffuletta Chopped Salad
This crisp, vibrant salad is inspired by muffuletta, a popular sandwich created in New Orleans and packed with cured meats, provolone cheese and a signature chunky olive relish. This salad’s pantry-driven vinaigrette comes together quickly, with briny olives, sweet roasted peppers, nutty provolone, cured deli meats and tangy pickled pepperoncini for mild heat. (To keep the salad vegetarian, simply omit the meat.) Fresh romaine lettuce and celery are combined with avocado and chickpeas to create both crunchy and creamy textures. This recipe makes a great side salad for pizza night, but it’s equally delicious served alongside rotisserie chicken or roasted salmon.
Vegan Mapo Tofu
Mapo tofu is a justly popular menu item in many Chinese restaurants. It is a quickly cooked dish of braised tofu with minced pork (sometimes beef) in a bracing spicy sauce made with fermented black beans and fermented broad bean paste, along with hot red pepper and Sichuan pepper. This meatless version with fresh shiitake mushrooms is completely satisfying, and surprisingly easy to make. For the best texture, use soft tofu rather than firm, taking care to cook it gently to keep it from crumbling.
Za’atar Roasted Tofu With Chickpeas, Tomatoes and Lemony Tahini
Tofu and chickpeas form the hearty base for vibrant, woodsy za’atar, the popular Middle Eastern spice blend. The tomatoes, when roasted, become acidic, little bursts in the salad, a great complement to the earthiness of the other ingredients. The roasted vegetables, chickpeas and tofu and the tahini dressing will keep for days once refrigerated. Assemble your bowl to order, and enjoy it for lunch or as a light dinner.
Bulgur Mujadara
Mujadara is one of the most popular dishes across the Levant, with a complex taste that belies its simple ingredients. The mix of contrasting tastes — sweet onions with savory hearty lentils, tender bulgur with crunchy fried onions — is a feast for the tastebuds. The dish is quite forgiving as there is no right or wrong texture. Some people prefer it fluffy like a pilaf while others prefer it more dense, like sticky rice. This version falls somewhere in the middle. Since lentils and bulgur absorb different amounts of liquid depending on variety, check on them periodically, taste and add water as necessary while cooking. The finished dish is equally delicious warm or at room temperature. It is wholesome on its own, but combined with yogurt and served with a chopped salad, bread and olives, it becomes a most satisfying meal.
Tomato-Marinated Greens and Beans Toast
This fresh, no-cook dish makes the most out of tomatoes by grating the flesh, which preserves all of the sweet juices and raw pulp. The natural acidity in the tomato juice, combined with capers and vinegar, create a piquant sauce that tenderizes and subdues sturdy greens. Earthy Swiss chard is used here, but other leafy greens like lacinato kale would work, as would spicy mustard greens. The lentils add a meaty bite, but red kidney beans or chickpeas would also work. Refrigerate leftovers and serve over eggs, tossed with warm pasta or as a sauce for roasted chicken or fish.
Tofu and Mushroom Jorim (Soy-Braised Tofu)
Korean jorim is a traditional braised dish typically made with beef that is stewed in a savory garlic- and ginger-spiked soy sauce until tender. This version highlights tofu’s ability to absorb the aromatic salty-sweet sauce like a sponge; earthy shiitake mushrooms add depth and a meaty texture that contrasts the tofu’s softness. The dish is as delicious cold as it is hot, so it’s a great make-ahead meal; simply cool and chill overnight in an airtight container.
Curried Red Lentil Soup With Toasted Coconut
Fresh ginger along with plenty of earthy spices like turmeric and coriander add complexity to this otherwise unassuming lentil soup. The dish is perfect for a weeknight as the legumes here cook fairly quickly. Pairing the lentils with bold, warming spices gives them a big boost of flavor in a short amount of time. To make the soup feel extra special, toast coconut flakes for a crunchy topping, and put out bowls of roughly chopped cilantro, thinly sliced scallions and lime wedges, so guests can top their soup as they please. If you’re feeling ambitious, a topping of fried shallots seasoned with flaky salt would also be nice.
Roasted Cabbage Caesar Salad With Chickpeas
This is not your usual Caesar salad. It forgoes the lettuce for wedges of roasted cabbage and replaces the croutons with roasted chickpeas. The Caesar dressing is a cheater’s version, using store-bought mayonnaise instead of fresh egg yolks; roasted garlic adds creamy richness, while briny capers and lemon evoke traditional Caesar flavors. A hot oven and a heated sheet pan are your friends here — start heating as soon as you think about cooking this dish — ensuring that everything cooks quickly and evenly. The cabbage caramelizes on the outside while the interior retains crisp-tenderness, and the chickpeas become warm and creamy with just a bit of crunch. (If you want them crispier, roast for 10 to 15 minutes more.) To make this dish vegan, use plant-based mayonnaise and omit the Parmesan.
Squash and Chickpea Stew With Lemongrass
This comforting weeknight squash stew is inspired by Thai curries that combine rich coconut and fragrant lemongrass, but it’s quite mild and soothing rather than spicy. Deeply orange kabocha is used here, but butternut, delicata or acorn squash would all work well. The secret behind this quick yet flavorful dish is peanut butter; it adds nutty depth to balance the aromatic and bright lemongrass-infused broth. Chickpeas pair well with squash, but this customizable stew can accommodate any bean (like white, pinto or black beans); lightly mashing half of the tender squash and beans at the end thickens the sauce.
Lentils Diavolo
Lentils, like beans, soak up whatever flavors they’re cooked in. Here, it’s a chile oil made with both dried and fresh chiles, so it’s devilishly spiced — not just spicy. Simmer the lentils in the potent oil and some tomato paste until they’re glossy and tender, rich and spicy as you’d expect from a diavolo-style sauce. (Add more water if you’re after more of a quasi-chili.) Eat the lentils with a spray of lemon juice, parsley and-or bread crumbs on toast, grains, pasta, a sweet potato, bitter greens or all on their own. The lentils will keep for up to 4 days in the fridge; reheat over low heat or in the microwave loosened with a little water.
Couscous Salad With Turmeric, Chickpea and Tomato
Turmeric highlights the golden hue of couscous while adding a welcome bit of flavor. The grains are paired with tomatoes, which have been left to sit in red wine and vinegar, infusing them with flavor and making the dressing even more juicy for the couscous-chickpea mix. If you want the onion to be nice and crisp and to take its raw edge off, put the slices in a bowl of ice and water before you cook the couscous. Drain them right before tossing them in. You can add even more crunch by topping the salad with sliced celery or chiles, if you like your food spicy. Either thinly sliced fresh chiles, such as fresno or jalapeños, or preserved ones, like peppadews or hot cherry, work well.
Vegetable Tabbouleh With Chickpeas
This vegetable-packed salad requires no cooking, other than boiling water to soak the bulgur wheat. Sweet tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers and crisp asparagus provide texture, while creamy chickpeas add heft. A tangy shallot-lemon vinaigrette brightens the dish and soaks into the bulgur as it sits, developing more flavor over time. The salad can be made a few hours ahead; for best results, toss the salad with half of the dressing and reserve the remaining half. When ready to serve, toss with the reserved dressing to freshen it up. It’s a satisfying vegetarian main, a great side for roasted meats and fish, or an easy make-ahead picnic dish.
Turkey Pho
A play on the Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, this clear broth, paired with rice noodles and flavored with charred onions and ginger, star anise, brown sugar and fish sauce, comes served with a platter of fresh garnishes. But this is more than your basic noodle soup: A spritz of lime at the end adds some tang, and mung beans and Thai basil a crunchy bite.
Smoky Roasted Chickpeas With Lemon-Garlic Mayonnaise
This recipe is inspired by the popular Spanish tapa patatas bravas, or papas bravas, crispy potatoes that are typically served with a paprika-stained sauce or a garlic aioli. Here, chickpeas crisped in the oven instead of the fryer are seasoned with smoked paprika and ground cayenne, then swaddled in a garlicky mayonnaise cut with lemon. Eat half a batch of these chickpeas for a great dinner, or eat them over lemon-dressed lettuces or parsley, steamed greens, pasta, toast or a fried egg. You can also roast another vegetable with the chickpeas, like cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes or carrots for a complete one-pan meal.
Lentils With Chorizo, Greens and Yellow Rice
Interpretations of beans and rice — a humble, hearty, filling and delicious meal — are found throughout the world, made with various types of dried bean (sometimes called peas). In many versions, the cooked rice and beans are folded together in the pot. Others, like this one, serve the rice on the side. Here, lentils are cooked Spanish-style, with chorizo and greens for a thick stew. If you want it to be soupier, thin it with a little water or broth, and feel free to omit the sausage to make it vegetarian.
Chickpea Stew With Orzo and Mustard Greens
A complex and colorful chickpea stew, this is rich with vegetables, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. You can vary the vegetables to use what you’ve got. Here, I keep to the basics, adding carrots for sweetness, fennel or celery for depth, cherry tomatoes for looks. Tender greens, wilted into the bubbling mixture at the end, are optional, but they do add a bright, almost herbal note. I particularly love using baby mustard greens, which are pleasantly peppery. But spinach, arugula and kale work well, too.
Red Beans and Rice
Every Monday, you can find a pot of red beans and rice cooking in someone’s kitchen in New Orleans. The food writer and New Orleans bon vivant Pableaux Johnson’s house is no exception. The dish, an easy meal from when people used to reserve Monday to do the wash, was once made with the pork bone left over from Sunday supper. In this version, Mr. Johnson strongly encourages the use of hand-made Louisiana andouille, but smoked sausage will do.
Spicy Pan-Fried Noodles
Garlicky, gingery and as spicy as you dare to make it, this Asian-influenced pan-fried noodle dish comes together in minutes. Most of the ingredients are pantry staples, which means you can make it whenever you need a comforting noodle dish that comes with a bite. If you can’t find the Chinese egg noodles (also called Hong Kong-style noodles), you can make this with rice noodles or soba. The key is to only boil them until they are halfway done. (They should be pliable but still firm in the center.) They will finish cooking when you pan-fry them.
Pasta With Chickpeas and a Negroni
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. A drink before dinner? Make a Negroni, then pasta with chickpeas and tomato sauce. First, the Negroni: one part gin, one part sweet vermouth, one part Campari, stirred with ice then strained over ice and garnished with orange peel. Sip! Then peel and chop an onion and sauté it in olive oil with a few cloves of smashed garlic and a spray of salt and pepper. Have another hit of Negroni. When the mixture has just started to brown, add a tablespoon of tomato paste and a 28-ounce can of chopped tomatoes, along with a stick of cinnamon. Stir and simmer away for 10 minutes or so, longer if you can, then add enough cream or half-and-half so that the sauce turns softer in color, running to pink. Meanwhile, boil some salted water and prepare your favorite pasta (I like shells for this application) until it is just al dente. Drain, then toss in a 14-ounce can of drained chickpeas and stir the whole thing into the tomato sauce, topping with chopped parsley and a sprinkle of red-pepper flakes. Finish that Negroni. Eat. 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.
Vietnamese Lemongrass Beef and Noodle Salad
Bun bo xao, a zesty stir-fry of marinated beef hot from the wok paired with room temperature rice noodles, makes a satisfying main-course salad year-round. Dressed with a classic Vietnamese dipping sauce and topped with roasted peanuts, the flavors are clean, bright and restorative. Yes, this recipe calls for a lot of ingredients, but the prep is simple, and it’s an easy introduction to Vietnam cooking for the uninitiated.
Lemon Spaghetti With Roasted Artichokes
Lemon zest, lemon juice, Parmesan and basil come together for a silky and vibrant sauce that makes this weeknight-friendly pasta sing. The addition of roasted artichoke hearts adds texture and complements the zestiness of the dish. There’s no better time than a weeknight to embrace canned or frozen artichoke hearts, as they are immensely less work than whole fresh ones, and they roast beautifully — and effortlessly — in a hot oven. Holding onto that salty, starchy pasta water is key to ensuring that each spaghetti noodle is enveloped in the lemony sauce; use it judiciously to emulsify the sauce as you quickly toss it.
Yellow Rice
Yellow rice is a beloved dish among many cultural traditions. A staple side in Latin American kitchens, arroz amarillo appears in various iterations across the region. The appeal of yellow rice extends to Central and South Asia, and South Africa, and its brilliant hue achieved with saffron, turmeric or achiote. This version uses widely available and economical ground turmeric, and is a canvas upon which you can incorporate other ingredients and spices. Consider adding a bell pepper to the onion and garlic, or stir in a cup of frozen peas at the very end. The amount of cooking liquid you use depends on the type and quality of your rice, and be mindful to cut down on salt if you use a salted broth. Typically served as a side dish, the dish can also be served on its own.
Chile-Oil Noodles With Cilantro
In this 20-minute recipe, a mixture of savory condiments coats bowlfuls of wide noodles chilled slightly by a quick rinse in cool water. While you cook the udon, take the time to prepare the sauce, abundant with contrasting flavors, and the fresh herbs. The sauce can be made in advance, but make sure it’s at room temperature before tossing it with the noodles and the cilantro at the last minute. Substitutions are welcome: Swap in chile crisp in place of the chile oil with crunchy garlic, or scallions in place of garlic chives. Sichuan chile oil brings a citrusy flavor that is hard to replicate, so don’t skip it. It can vary in spice level: For a milder sauce, use only the liquid oil, or add Sichuan peppercorns from the bottom of the oil for extra tingle. Fried shallots are here for texture, but omit them if you use chile crisp.
Microwave Rice
The microwave is for more than just popping popcorn or heating leftovers. It can also make an excellent bowl of rice. Unlike a stovetop, which can create hot spots on a pan that result in scorched rice, microwaves provide even heat on all sides, creating uniformly textured grains. This method is also very practical: You don’t have to babysit the grains, and you won’t have to clean a pot with stuck-on bits of rice. It may take a few attempts to figure out the exact timing for your microwave as machines differ in wattage and efficiency in air circulation. If you want to jazz up your rice, try adding a pat of butter, a drizzle of olive oil or even a pinch of a spice blend like ras el hanout before microwaving.