Lunch
2782 recipes found
Mushroom Bread Pudding
Wonderful served as a brunch centerpiece or as a holiday side, this rich meatless casserole can be assembled in advance, refrigerated overnight, then baked just before serving. You could certainly prepare it day-of and let the bread soak for 15 minutes before baking, but allowing it to sit overnight will make it more tender. Delicate brioche is the ideal bread for this pudding, and it is available in most supermarkets, often in the form of hamburger rolls, which are a good size and shape for this dish. Challah is also a good option, but it’s a bit denser, so it may take more than 15 minutes for it to soak up the custard.
Cal Peternell’s Braised Chicken Legs
Here is a pleasant, delicious family meal adapted from the California chef Cal Peternell’s excellent home-cooking manifesto, “Twelve Recipes,” published in 2014 by HarperCollins. There are two steps to the process, which as Mr. Peternell points out can lead to endless improvisation. First, season the chicken and brown it well in a pan. Salt, pepper and flour are what’s called for in this basic recipe, but adding some paprika would be a delicious option, or some cumin, coriander, paprika and a dash of cinnamon and caraway for a scent of Morocco. Then, braise it in liquid — white wine for the classic, red wine for a coq-au-vin feel, or with beer, chicken stock or plain water. Mr. Peternell does his braising in the oven, but you could easily do it on the stovetop as well, simmering the chicken slowly beneath a lid. Pair with rice or boiled potatoes, with couscous, with big hunks of garlic bread.
Butternut Squash and Green Curry Soup
This creamy, vibrant soup is a Thai-inspired version of the puréed squash soup you know and love. The green curry paste, which is relatively easy to find in the international aisle of the grocery store, along with coconut milk and fish sauce, perfectly complements the butternut squash's sweetness. But it's the topping — a spin on miang kham, a snack in Thailand and Laos full of peanuts, coconut and chiles — that's the real standout.
Ham and Cheese Quick Bread
This is the kind of savory cake that you make once and then play around with for years to come. In this version, there are chopped roasted red peppers, small chunks of ham, some herbs and three cheeses (mozzarella, Parmesan and fontina). The cheeses could be Cheddar and Gruyère and a semisoft, easily meltable cheese of your choice. The batter could have chopped Calabrian chiles or pepperoncini (go easy on these hot peppers), a different mix of herbs, scallions or shallots for the chives and pancetta or bacon bits for the meat (or you can skip the meat). Cut the cake into fingers to have with wine or serve it alongside soup or salad. And if it goes a little stale, simply toast it.
Biscuits and Gravy
This is not the traditional way to make biscuits, but it may become your new technique. Instead of preparing individual drop biscuits, a sturdy dough is spread out into a baking dish over a bed of melted butter. Scoring the biscuit dough allows the butter to seep into the sides as the biscuits bake, creating tall biscuits with crisp edges and flaky insides. They’re perfect to soak up a classic Southern gravy, warmly seasoned with sage and nutmeg. This dish tastes like the holidays in the best way possible, while still being light enough for brunch. But if you made it for dinner, we wouldn’t blame you.
Fluffy Cheddar Biscuits
These biscuits are golden and crisp outside, light and fluffy inside, and wonderfully cheesy inside and out. They come together in minutes, and triple basting them in butter (before baking, halfway through baking and once more when they come out of the oven) really takes them over the top. You may be tempted to skip the 3 tablespoons of sugar in this otherwise savory biscuit, but don’t: It’s the secret to the biscuit’s tender interior. Inspired by Red Lobster’s buttery biscuits, these are drop-style, which means you just scoop up the batter and gently plop it onto baking sheets. Try to handle the dough gently to avoid compressing it, which can result in a less-than-fluffy biscuit.
Mussels With White Beans, Garlic and Rosemary
The best part of a pot of steamed mussels is arguably the broth — rich with garlic, wine and the heady saline juices from the bivalves. Here, the mussels are cooked in a pot of garlic and chile-braised white beans, which absorb all of their flavor, and turn them into a velvety stew. Don’t stint on the lemon zest or herbs at the end; they add just the right amount of freshness and verve.
Spicy Big Tray Chicken
At Spicy Village in in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the Spicy Big Tray Chicken arrives on an aluminum tray. You eat it on a foam plate with a plastic fork or chopsticks. It’s a mound of chicken nearly afloat in a bath of dark, spicy sauce that contains star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, chile, garlic, cilantro, a few mystery ingredients and potatoes. Those of you who live in or visit New York should eat this dish whenever you can, but it can absolutely be prepared at home. It’s not precisely a simple recipe. But it’s an excellent project one. And you can improve on the ingredients. The restaurant uses both MSG and Budweiser in the recipe. We subbed in Modelo Negra and omitted the MSG, but you certainly don't need to.
Pork Tocino
In the Philippines, tocino is a sweet, cured pork dish that is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Though the term “tocino” comes from the Spanish word for bacon, in the Philippines, the dish can be made from chicken or beef as well. Its vibrant red hue often comes from annatto seed, an orange-red food coloring from the achiote tree. In this recipe, the annatto seed is swapped out for beet juice, which adds both color and sweet earthiness to the dish. When cooking the meat, you don’t want to sear it in superhot oil; the key is to let the sugars caramelize slowly with the pork to achieve a beautiful, dark, sticky glaze. Garlic fried rice and fresh slices of tomato make excellent side dishes.
Broccoli Rabe Lasagna
Broccoli rabe (sometimes spelled raab, or known as rapini greens) is one of the most delicious members of the mustard green family. The leaves, tender stems and broccoli-like buds have a distinctive pleasant bitterness when cooked. For this vegetarian lasagna, some of the cooked greens are puréed to make a garlicky pesto and the rest is coarsely chopped and added to the layers. Find more lasagna recipes.
Pasta Salad With Marinated Tomatoes and Tuna
Fresh, quick-marinated tomatoes make the best sauces for pasta salad because not much needs to be done beyond tossing the tomatoes with hot pasta, salt and olive oil. The juices from the tomatoes and the heat create a gloriously glossy combination. Feel free to make this pasta salad ahead of time, then toss in flaked tuna right before serving.
Pork and Ricotta Meatballs
Ricotta is the secret to tenderness in these all-purpose meatballs. Serve them plain, with a marinara sauce for dipping, or simmer the meatballs in tomato sauce for serving over spaghetti. Ground chicken is a great alternative and will yield cheesier tasting meatballs.
Tepary Bean Salad
Indigenous communities in the Sonoran Desert have cultivated the tiny, drought-tolerant tepary bean for millennia. This recipe, adapted from “From I’Itoi’s Garden: Tohono O’odham Food Traditions” by Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA), a grassroots food and health community organization, reimagines a traditional tepary bean dish by adding venerable corn, colorful peppers and rich aromatics. The white beans have a sweet finish, while the brown variety showcases an uncommon nuttiness. Navy or Great Northern beans may be substituted for the white tepary beans, but there is no equivalent for the unparalleled tepary brown. Combined with an assertive cumin vinaigrette, this robust salad manifests a rich blend of old and new indigenous foodways.
Fried Chicken Biscuits With Hot Honey Butter
This recipe for chicken biscuits could be a weeknight dinner with a side of greens, but it's made to travel, and perfectly suited for a picnic. The biscuit dough, adapted from Sam Sifton's all-purpose biscuit recipe, is lightly kneaded here, so it's not too tender to work in a sandwich. The chicken tenders, inspired by Masaharu Morimoto's katsu in the cookbook "Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking," are pounded and coated in panko for plenty of crunch. Prepare both components the day you want to eat them, giving yourself at least one extra hour for everything to cool before you assemble, so the sandwich stays crisp. You can also cook well in advance, and assemble the sandwiches the next day. Either way, cooling the chicken completely, on a wire rack, is crucial. If you prefer breast meat over thigh, feel free to swap it in.
Artichoke and Olive Farro Salad
Farro, a nutty Italian grain with a chewy texture, is an excellent candidate for a savory, herb-flecked pantry salad that travels well. The grain is not intimidated by bold flavors: Tangy oil-marinated artichokes, briny kalamata olives, feta and crisp red onion take wholesome farro by the hand and lead it straight to the dance floor. Cook times vary depending on the type of farro. Quick-cooking, pearled or semi-pearled all work well, but hulled is not recommended here, as it would need soaking and takes a long time to cook. Don’t be shy with the oil and vinegar: The farro absorbs them the longer it sits. If farro is not available, you can use orzo (see Tip), or other hearty grains like barley, wheat berries or freekeh.
Muffuletta
Here is The Times’s take on a classic New Orleans sandwich, built between slices of light, airy sesame bread, and layered thick with olive salad and cold cuts. It is among the best picnic sandwiches on the planet.
Tahini-Parmesan Pasta Salad
Many traditional pasta salad recipes call for a heavy mayonnaise-based dressing, but this one combines tahini and Parmesan for a lighter, umami-packed dressing that can be used on noodles, salad greens, asparagus, grilled chicken or grains. Tahini and Parmesan may be a surprising duo, but they naturally work well together because tahini, which is made from sesame seeds, amplifies the cheese’s rich, nutty flavor. To add even more complexity, cherry tomatoes are blistered in a skillet to concentrate their sweetness and acidity. As with any good pasta salad, this one benefits from adding fresh scallions and mint right before serving, plus toasted sesame seeds and shards of Parmesan.
Spicy Crab Linguine with Mustard, Crème Fraîche and Herbs
This pasta dish is impressive, but it is barely any work at all, ideal for an impromptu gathering. The sauce is just warm crème fraîche, highly seasoned, along with a shower of herbs, and just enough green chile to cut the richness. (If you don’t want chile, increase the mustard and black pepper, and add lime zest.) Obviously, you’ll want the freshest sweetest crabmeat available. Substitute lobster if you can’t get crab, or use small shrimp, briefly cooked in butter, and feel free to vary the herbs — basil, mint, dill or chervil would be most welcome.
Greek Salad
While diner-style Greek salads made with chopped romaine, crumbled feta and often grilled chicken have become ubiquitous in American restaurants, a traditional Greek salad, or horiatiki salata, is a simpler affair. An assembled salad of large-diced vegetables with Kalamata olives and sometimes capers, this salad has no greens at all, and the feta is served sliced on top of the salad rather than crumbled and tossed into it. A traditional Greek salad dressing usually consists of olive oil and red wine vinegar; this recipe adds garlic and oregano. To make the salad into a satisfying vegetarian main course, throw in a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas.
Broccoli Salad
It is easy to understand why broccoli salad is a mainstay of potluck dinners and community gatherings. Not only is it a crowd-pleaser, but also raw broccoli is a clever make-ahead ingredient because, even when coated in dressing, it maintains its hardy texture and crunch over time. (This Southern-inspired recipe can be made up to 24 hours ahead, then stored in the fridge.) While most traditional Southern broccoli salads feature a creamy mayonnaise dressing and are finished with bacon bits and grated cheese, this vegan riff offers a punchy vinegar mixture that serves as a quick pickling liquid for the onions and raisins before it’s used as the final dressing. If you are making this salad in advance, leave the toasted almonds out until you are ready to eat.
Orzo Salad With Peppers and Feta
Piperade, a classic Basque dish of stewed peppers, onions and tomatoes, becomes a flavorful sauce for this pasta. Colorful bell peppers simmer in olive oil and aromatics until meltingly soft, and juicy tomatoes simmer alongside until they burst, lending both tangy and sweet notes. Briny feta adds salty bites to complement the sweet pepper sauce, but tart aged goat cheese makes a good alternative. This side is even better at room temperature, making it the perfect make-ahead dish for summer picnics or potlucks.
Beans, Bacon and Avocado Concha Sandwich
Conchas are the most well-known Mexican pan dulce. They are eaten for breakfast with hot chocolate, coffee or milk; as an anytime pick-me-up; as part of dinner or even as dessert. They can also be the base of a satisfying sandwich, creating a welcome clash between savory and sweet. Mexicans seem to be divided on the sandwich topic: Some can’t do without them; some can’t stand them. It is a dish you will not find in a cafeteria or restaurant, but in Mexican homes and lunch boxes. The most well-known versions involve refried beans; this one is filled with chipotle refried beans, bacon and avocado. A sunny-side-up egg can be a good addition.
Hot Dogs With Pico de Gallo
Tanya Sichynsky, a New York Times Cooking editor, tops salty, snappy grilled hot dogs with bright pico de gallo. Combining those two elements of fully loaded Mexican hot dogs makes these easy to cook for a crowd and tote to a cookout. You can prepare the pico de gallo early in the day and keep it in an airtight container until ready to pile onto the hot dogs, split to cradle the fresh filling. Be sure to keep the grill heat moderate. Too hot, and the hot dogs — and buns — will burn and dry out. Too cool, and they won’t take on a smoky char.
Rotisserie Chicken Panzanella
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Grab a super-tanned rotisserie chicken on the way home. Tear the meat into strips, then cut a few smallish supermarket tomatoes (or better, if you’ve got them) into wedges and marinate them in oil, salt, pepper and red wine vinegar. Pay a few bills or fold some laundry, then turn the whole thing into panzanella by mixing together the chicken, the tomatoes, some fresh watercress and some chunks of stale or toasted bread, then showering the salad with freshly ground black pepper and a spray of kosher salt. This, too, is cooking. 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.