Lunch
2782 recipes found
Best Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich
The sandwich you make with all the prized leftovers the day after Thanksgiving might be even better than the main event. Assembling this leftover Thanksgiving sandwich is easy, but the details matter. The white and dark turkey meat each get special love and attention: The breast is warmed in butter, while the dark meat is shredded, then warmed in gravy. This club ditches the usual third slice of bread for a slab of crisp, fried stuffing instead. When heating the stuffing, make sure your pan is good and hot so the stuffing fries up fast without falling apart in the skillet. A generous swipe of cranberry mayo brings the whole thing together.
One-Pot Roasted Squash Soup
You could make pumpkin or squash soup by roasting the pumpkin on a sheet tray while sautéing onions, carrots and ginger on the stovetop before combining it all with stock and blending it. But it’s tedious compared with tossing everything into an oven-safe pot, roasting it all, then blending it directly in the same pot. The onions cook a little unevenly using this method, and that’s a good thing: Some slices sweeten gently while others deeply caramelize as they roast, giving the soup more complexity. For a little sweetness, some apples or pears are added to the roast as well, but you can omit them if you prefer a more savory soup.
Thin but Juicy Chargrilled Burgers
The key to cooking a thin, modestly sized burger on the grill is to use the highest heat possible, and to cook the meat most of the way through on one side before flipping it and briefly cooking the second side. This technique allows you to get a nice dark crust on that first side without the risk of overcooking. To form thin patties that hold together on the grill, massage the ground beef briefly — which is a cardinal sin with many other styles of burgers, but a necessity here for cohesion. This allows you to flatten the patty out extra-thin and wide to account for shrinking as the meat cooks.
Chicken and Cabbage Salad With Miso-Sesame Vinaigrette
This simple salad calls for a specific set of ingredients, but it can also be considered a loose guideline. Thinly sliced leftover steak, shredded salmon or sliced dense tofu could easily take the place of the chicken — and that chicken can be left over from the night before, whether it's been poached, grilled, pan-seared or cooked on a rotisserie. Any crisp, crunchy lettuce will do. You could opt for shredded carrots and diced jicama instead of cucumber and radish, or add a handful of split cherry tomatoes and raw snap peas cut on a bias. As long as the basic balance of protein, dressing, greens, vegetables and herbs is maintained, the rest is up to you and your vegetable drawer.
Brown-Butter Butter Beans With Lemon and Pesto
These roasted beans are treated in much the same way as toasted gnocchi, and yield similar results: They’re nicely browned on the surface, then coated in an unctuous, lemony, buttery sauce. Make sure to have your pesto and warm brown-butter sauce ready to pour onto the beans right when they come out of the oven, so that the beans remain crispy and the sauce nice and loose. For a vegetarian version, you can swap out the anchovies for some briny capers and leave out the Parmesan. The whole experience is quite rich, so serve these with some lightly cooked leafy greens.
Squash and Spinach Salad With Sesame Vinaigrette
This vibrant squash salad can stand on its own as a main salad or as a side to accompany all sorts of roasted meats or fish. Kabocha squash can be cooked with its skin on, and a simple roast results in supersweet, creamy flesh. The triple-sesame vinaigrette combines sesame seeds for crunch, tahini for smooth texture and toasted sesame oil for rich, nutty flavor. Equally tasty warm or at room temperature, this salad is super adaptable. (Delicata or acorn squash also have edible skins and are great alternatives.) It makes a terrific lunch, with the addition of beans or soft-boiled eggs for extra protein.
Wild Rice With Mushrooms
In Wisconsin, wild rice is truly wild, not cultivated as in other states, the tassels rising and swaying over rivers, lakes and floodplains come late August and September. Called manoomin by the local Chippewa, it is a protected crop that can be harvested only by state residents holding a valid license. And only by hand, as the Chippewa have always done, using wooden flails gently (the grains should fall from the stalk without great effort) from canoes propelled by paddles or push poles. Shellie Holmes of Rhinelander, Wis., who shares her recipe here, likes to cook wild rice just until it pops open. This is a break with her family’s tradition, which favored a chewier texture and did not allow popping. “Do not mix with other rice,” she urged, lest you lose the flavor of the wild.
Purê de Mandioca (Creamy Yuca Purée)
For some Brazilians in the United States, yuca purée takes the place of mashed potatoes on the Thanksgiving table. In Brazil, where yuca is indigenous and abundant, the root vegetable is often peeled, boiled and mashed. Milk and butter make the purée rich and creamy. This recipe was provided by Thailine Kolb, who learned the dish from her mother, Liomar dos Santos Paula Araujo. In Brazil, her mother serves the dish at Christmas, but Mrs. Kolb, who lives in New Haven, Conn., has embraced it as a Thanksgiving tradition. You can use fresh or frozen yuca, with similar results. If using fresh, be careful when cutting the firm vegetable and removing the outer bark. When using fresh or frozen yuca, be sure to remove and discard the starchy core before eating.
Tuna Poke
This is a dish that comes from Long Island, New York, not the Big Island of Hawaii, a Northeastern take on a Pacific classic. I’ve made it with Atlantic bonito caught offshore and yellowfin tuna bought at the market, the meat trimmed, cubed and mixed with sesame oil and soy sauce, a little chile-garlic sauce and lot of chopped scallions. I top the salad with roasted macadamia nuts and a few vigorous shakes of furikake, a Japanese seasoning that is made of sesame seeds, dried fish and seaweed, salt and sugar. It makes for about the most delicious eating in the world.
Grilled Cucumbers With Tomato-Cardamom Dressing and Mozzarella
Grilling cucumbers gives them a nice charred flavor while retaining their bite. Try to buy Persian cucumbers that are thicker as the thin ones can often be too flimsy to cook. Torn mozzarella adds richness to the cucumbers doused with a garlicky, spiced tomato dressing. (Feel free to cook the cucumbers on an outdoor grill, treating them in the same way.) If you’re into creamy cheeses, then burrata works very well here, too — or, you could keep this dish vegan by leaving out the mozzarella completely. It will still have a wonderful umami flavor without it. Make this a complete meal by serving alongside your protein of choice.
Lemony Fish and Orzo Soup
This warming, weeknight one-pot meal is inspired by avgolemono, the Greek lemony chicken soup that’s rendered silky from egg whisked into its broth. Here, the technique of adding an egg mixture at the end creates a creamy soup that remains light in body. Mild, flaky fish, such as sea bass or cod, pairs beautifully with the buttery leek-and-garlic broth, which is fortified with clam juice for extra briny flavor. Orzo adds texture, while a final addition of freshly grated ginger brightens the soup. For a thicker, stew-like meal, make the soup an hour ahead and let it rest at room temperature (it will thicken as it sits); gently reheat before serving.
Lamb Meatball and Semolina Dumpling Soup With Collard Greens
This hearty soup is a meal in a bowl. It is very much inspired by Iraqi kubba hamuth. “Hamuth” means sour in Arabic, which refers to the soup’s sour tomato and lemon broth. Traditionally, the soup contains lamb-stuffed semolina dumplings called “kubba.” The divergence here is that they exist as two separate components — meatballs and semolina dumplings — and add a wonderful textural contrast. If you can’t find collard greens, feel free to swap these out for an equal amount of Tuscan kale.
Spinach and Chermoula Pie
This pie is a great way to use up your freezer staples: that one bag of frozen spinach and that packet of puff pastry sitting in the back. Feel free to make this pie your own by playing around with the herbs and spices. You can also veganize it by leaving out the feta and using a vegan-friendly puff pastry. Typically used as a marinade or condiment, chermoula is a North African spice paste with a multitude of variations. Here, it is used twice, once to flavor the base and then again as a sauce to drizzle alongside.
Leek and Cod Tortilla
Inspired by tortilla Española, this version of the classic Spanish dish uses mild, sweet leeks instead of onions. The addition of paprika-seasoned cod adds unexpected bites of smoky flavor, and cutting the potatoes into small cubes allows the tortilla to cook faster. The leek- and garlic-infused cooking oil is used to make a flavorful aioli to accompany the omelet. Store leftover flavored oil in the fridge and use it to make salad dressings, to sauté greens or fry eggs.
Salmon Croquettes
These croquettes have what may just be the perfect texture combination: crispy outsides and tender insides. Made from simple ingredients, they’re also a great use of leftovers, putting to work those halves of onion and bell pepper from last night’s dinner, and any remaining salmon, though you can also use canned (boneless works best). The filling may be a little delicate when you put it together, but a quick pop in the fridge or freezer makes it easier to work with. Serve the croquettes alone as an appetizer with tartar sauce or hot sauce, or make them a bigger meal alongside grits.
Sloppy Joes
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Put a Dutch oven over medium-high heat on your stove, then add a glug of olive oil and sauté in it a handful of chopped onions, a couple diced ribs of celery, a diced jalapeño and a small diced red pepper. When the mixture is supersoft, add a few cloves of minced garlic and cook for a couple more minutes, then dump a pound and a half of ground beef into the pot — ideally the sort that is 20 percent fat — and stir and sizzle until it is well browned, about 10 minutes. Bring the heat down a bit and add a lot of tomato paste — say 3 tablespoons, maybe 4 — and let it get a little toasty before adding a cup or more of puréed canned tomatoes. Cook that down for a few minutes, then add quite a few glugs of Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce to taste, and continue cooking until the mixture is quite thick, another 15 or 20 minutes. Season to taste and serve on toasted potato buns. I like steamed broccoli on the side, a walk for the dog and bed. 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.
Russian Salmon Pie
The Russians call it kulebyaka, but in Alaska it is pirok, perok or peroche — all amendments of pirog, the more general Russian word for pie. Inside the flaky crust, wild salmon from Alaskan waters is layered with rice and cabbage, crops introduced to the 18th-century natives of Kodiak Island by fur traders from across the strait. Long after the Russians gave up the hunt for sea otter pelts and sold their claim to the territory to the United States, the frontier fish-camp dish remained a staple of the Alaskan table. Kirsten Dixon, the chef and an owner of Winterlake Lodge, along the Iditarod Trail, and Tutka Bay Lodge, near Homer, likes to make salmon pie at Thanksgiving, when the Alaskan back country is already muffled in snow and guests arrive by ski plane, landing on a frozen lake.
Mushroom Toast With Pea Purée
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Take a bag of frozen organic peas and heat them in a little bit of boiling water for a couple of minutes to get them warm and cooked through, then drain them off and whiz them in a food processor with a hit of olive oil, some lemon juice and, if you have any, some tarragon leaves, until it resembles a thickish purée. Next, sauté a bunch of thick-sliced portobellos (count on about two mushrooms per person) in a lot of butter with a little bit of garlic. Really cook those down. Finally, make toast from hefty slices of your favorite bread, spread them with the pea purée, top with the mushrooms and — dinner! 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.
Caldo Verde (Potato and Greens Soup With Sausage)
Caldo verde (“green broth”) is a beloved Portuguese soup, named for the shredded collard greens (or sometimes kale) that give it an earthy tinge. Made with basic ingredients, the humble soup is naturally creamy from potatoes that simmer in chicken broth until supertender. A paprika- and garlic-spiked smoked pork sausage imparts complex flavor. Fully cooked Portuguese chouriço or thinner linguiça are typical, but Spanish chorizo, which can be a bit heavier on the paprika, can also be used. Some versions call to purée the base of the soup, while other variations call to leave it chunky. This recipe has the best of both worlds, with bites of potato remaining in the velvety broth. The greens are just briefly simmered to maintain some bite, but can be cooked longer if softer greens are desired.
Brown Rice Bowls With Stewed Peppers
I always include at least three elements in my grain bowls: the grains, the topping and something to garnish the topping, usually a protein, often a poached egg. I wanted some contrasting crunch as well as some cheese, so I made Parmesan crisps, also known as frico, one of the easiest, best-kept secrets in the Italian repertoire.
Kale and Bacon Hash Brown Casserole
With bacon, eggs and hash browns in the baking dish, this sounds like breakfast — but it works just as well as lunch or dinner. This recipe from Joanna Gaines, the reigning queen of Southern home design, is a good example of how she works: Texas tradition but with some modern touches. You can use other kinds of frozen potatoes, like waffle fries, or add par-boiled fresh potatoes to the skillet with the kale and garlic.
Sonoran-Style Flour Tortillas
In Sonora, a Northern Mexican region where wheat has been cultivated for more than 400 years, tortillas are typically made of flour rather than corn. But unlike the generally lackluster store-bought wrappers most Americans are familiar with, handmade flour tortillas are pliable, chewy, fragrant, and dotted with mahogany blisters. While this recipe, adapted from Teo Diaz and Julia Guerrero of Sonoratown taqueria in downtown Los Angeles, isn’t complicated, it does require allowing some time for the dough to rest. But the investment is worth it. Once you roll out the tortillas and set them on the hot griddle, they’ll begin to puff with steam as they start to brown. When you take a bite, the aroma of sweet flour enveloped in fat will fill your nose and mouth. Finally, you’ll understand that a tortilla is meant to be an essential component rather than just monotextured wrapping paper for tacos, burritos, or chimichangas.
Spinach-and-Cilantro Soup With Tahini and Lemon
The simplicity of this soup’s technique belies its depth of flavor, which is both vivid and complex. The soup is made bright with lemon and fresh with cilantro, but the secret ingredient is tahini, which is layered into the soup to thicken it, and then drizzled generously on top in the form of a gently spiced sauce. The result is a soup that’s both vegetal and creamy, tangy and rich. You’ll find it so tasty that you’ll forget you're drinking your vegetables.
Stewed Romano Beans With Tomatoes
Romanos hold up to longer cooking, as you’ll see when you make this dish. Even when they soften, after 20 minutes of braising or stewing, they still have plenty of texture, their color remains good and they become somewhat juicy. If you can’t find romano beans use regular green beans. Just reduce cooking time to 15 minutes.