Lunch
2795 recipes found
Make-Ahead Fried Chicken
Fried chicken is one of the few fried foods that tastes just as good served at room temperature as it does when it's served hot enough to burn your fingers. This recipe has been specially engineered to be made in advance. It’s seasoned assertively, so the flavors won’t dull as it cools. But the real key is double-dipping the chicken in the flour mixture before you fry it, making for an extra-crunchy crust that holds up all afternoon. And it lets you serve fried chicken to your guests and still have enough time to clean the kitchen and take a shower before they arrive. Although the recipe calls for all drumsticks, which won’t dry out as they sit, feel free to substitute other chicken parts.
Alice Waters’s Seasonal Minestrone
Alice Waters often recommends that cooks master a good minestrone. It’s communal and seasonal, two pillars on which she has built her cooking career. This summer recipe came from the cookbook that is her top seller: "The Art of Simple Food." It uses the best of the season’s green beans, tomatoes and squash. In the spring, fresh peas, asparagus and spinach would make a good vegetable trio, with some fennel standing in for the carrot in the sofrito. In the fall, cubes of butternut squash, a small can of tomatoes and a bunch of kale would star, with rosemary and a little chopped sage instead of thyme for seasoning. Winter might bring a soup built from turnips, potatoes and cabbage. If the turnips have greens, add them, too. Start with a large pot that has a heavy bottom. Always cook the vegetables through, about 10 minutes. They should look good enough to eat on their own. Add the beans about 10 minutes before serving. A cup or two of cooked pasta can be stirred in at the last minute. Don’t overcook the pasta. The olive oil and cheese garnish should be added once the soup is in the bowls. Ms. Waters likes to pass those at the table, once everyone is served. Pesto makes a lovely garnish, too, and gives a garlicky, herbal punch to the soup.
Miso Soup
In the United States, especially in Japanese American restaurants, the standard version of miso soup usually involves little more than soft tofu, seaweed and a lily-pad suspension of scallions. Think of this recipe as your blank canvas: You could add thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms at the end, or replace the katsuobushi entirely with dried shiitakes for a vegan version. Fried tofu, clams and even chicken are all fair game when cooking miso soup at home. The chef Seiji Ando, of Benkay restaurant in Portland, Maine, adds sake and mirin for balance, and says even a tiny bit of butter can be delicious.
Black-Eyed Peas With Ham Hock and Collards
For the New Year’s good fortune, a plate of black-eyed peas or other beans is considered auspicious, auguring wealth and prosperity. In the American South, they are traditionally eaten on the first day of the year. Adding cooked greens (the color of money) is said to make them even luckier. Simmered with onion and a meaty ham bone (other options are salt pork, bacon, pig’s feet, hog jowl and ham hock), black-eyed peas are often seasoned quite simply, with just salt and pepper. They may also be made highly seasoned with hot pepper and spices. Freshly baked cornbread is the perfect accompaniment.
Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad With Pear and Halloumi
Salty, fried halloumi cubes are the star of this bright, lemony kale and brussels sprouts salad. Crispy, melty and squidgy all at once, they are delightfully textural. Though the kale and brussels sprouts mix can sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving, for best results, you should fry the halloumi just before you plan to eat.
Charlie Bird’s Farro Salad
There are two essential steps to a stellar farro salad. The first is cooking the farro with enough salt and aromatics so that it delicious before you combine it with the rest of the ingredients. The second is to use very good olive oil in the dressing. This farro salad, from the restaurant Charlie Bird in SoHo, hits both these marks. The chef Ryan Hardy cooks the farro in apple cider seasoned with bay leaves and plenty of salt, which renders it good enough to eat on its own. But it’s even better after he adds loads of olive oil, plus pistachio nuts and Parmesan cheese to make it even richer. Then, before serving, he folds in fresh vegetables to brighten it up: juicy tomatoes, radishes, arugula and plenty of herbs. There are many farro salads of this ilk out there. This is one of the best.
Torta Ahogada
Torta ahogada, which translates to drowned sandwich, is a staple across Guadalajara, Mexico. Birote salado is the bread typically used for this stuffed, smothered sandwich, partly because its salty sourdough flavor complements the fillings, but mostly because its crunchy exterior stands up well to ladles of hot salsa. If you’re not able to get your hands on birote salado, you can substitute bolillo or a French baguette. The options for fillings are endless, and this version with creamy puréed pinto beans is ideal for a meatless meal. If you happen to have mushrooms, you can sauté them and add them to this torta for an extra-filling dish.
Grilled Tofu
Pouring hot marinade over tofu slices encourages faster absorption of flavors, eliminating the need to marinate overnight. In a pinch, this method yields tasty results in three hours, but the recommended six hours deliver a much more complex, richer flavored tofu. Grilled, it makes a versatile side dish and is delicious warm or at room temperature. Pair it with steamed rice and a simple green salad, or turn the tofu into satisfying vegetarian sandwiches by tucking it into pita bread with lettuce and avocado.
Creamed Tomatoes on Toast
Juicy canned tomatoes melted into fragrant cream mimic an instant cream of tomato soup. Served over toast, they make for a simple yet indulgent breakfast, or anytime snack. This dish is inspired by a recipe in "Roast Chicken and Other Stories." In the book, Simon Hopkinson writes that his version was inspired by Edouard de Pomiane’s "Cooking in 10 Minutes." Hopkinson bakes fresh tomatoes in garlicky, minty cream for half an hour. The version below, with canned tomatoes, woody herbs and a hint of cinnamon, is there for you when fresh tomatoes aren’t — and, like de Pomiane's approach, takes closer to 10 minutes.
Enfrijoladas Pintos
In this take on enfrijoladas, chipotle makes the pinto bean sauce slightly smoky and spicy, perfect for dipping pan-fried blistered corn tortillas. If you don’t have pinto beans on hand, use black or mayocoba beans for equally delicious results. Top this dish with quick-pickled red onion, which tastes even better if you make it the day before. For a perfect weeknight meal, garnish with a dollop of sour cream, avocado slices, and a sprinkle of toasted pepitas and cilantro leaves. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Sizzling Pork Tacos
Heavily spiced strips of pork shoulder fried crisp in a pan. Warm corn tortillas. Tomatillo salsa and hot sauce. Pair the tacos with a pot of garlicky black beans, an avocado salad and mangoes for dessert, and you’ve got an incredible dinner for about an hour’s work. Go to.
Chiles Rellenos
This recipe for chiles rellenos comes from Andrea Serrato, who sells an exquisite version of the dish out of her home in East Los Angeles. Ms. Serrato learned to make it from her mother, Rose Serrato, who fills big chile poblanos simply with queso ranchero, fries them in a cloudlike batter and simmers them in a garlicky salsa roja. Be sure to take your time charring the chiles on the flame to make sure they get evenly tender. The dish is time-consuming and labor-intensive, but extremely worthwhile — delicious, comforting and beautiful, too.
Vegan Cacio e Pepe
This speedy vegan take on cacio e pepe utilizes a classic technique: Cook the pasta just short of al dente, reserve some of the starchy pasta water to add body to the sauce, then simmer the pasta in its sauce with a splash of pasta water, stirring vigorously until the sauce is emulsified. While many dairy-free pasta recipes look to puréed, soaked cashews for their creaminess, this one cuts corners by using store-bought cashew butter. A spoonful of miso adds depth, and tangy nutritional yeast adds umami. Toasting the peppercorns boosts their flavor and softens them.
Radicchio Salad With Crunchy Shiitake Mushrooms and Barley
A colorful grain salad is the perfect light meal. Here, barley adds heft and texture to a bitter leaf salad that’s balanced with a sweet-tart dressing. The sleeper hit of this recipe are the crispy shiitake mushrooms, which impart deep flavor in two ways: They are pan-seared, and the caramelization left in the pan adds extra umami to the dressing. For gluten-free diets, you could substitute buckwheat groats or brown rice in place of the pearled barley.
Shrimp Bathed in Olive Oil and Lemon
A simple but lavish bath of olive oil and lemon juice is the Italian way of showing off superfresh seafood. The key, according to Marcella Hazan, is that the dish should never see the inside of a refrigerator, which changes the texture of the seafood and the flavor of the olive oil. She calls for shrimp in this recipe, but the formula also works with squid, clams and meaty fish fillets.
Quesabirria Tacos
The little puddle of fat floating on top of a pot of birria is pure gold, stained red from chiles, and rich with all the concentrated flavors of the original stew. In other words: Don’t waste it! Instead, spoon the fat off the top of the broth and reserve it for crisping tortillas to make quesabirria tacos, pan-fried until crisp, with cheese smushing out of the edges and browning in the pan. You can enjoy the tacos with salsas or hot sauce, but the birria meat and cooking oil are so flavorful that a little cilantro and onion are all you really need.
Spicy Rice Noodles With Crispy Tofu and Spinach
Herby noodles, chile oil and crisp tofu come together in this spicy, filling bowl that will disappear before you know it. But the component parts are just as valuable on their own: Make crisp baked tofu once, and you may never pan-fry cubes again. Make a scallion-basil paste on your cutting board, and forget about pesto from the food processor. And make a little extra spicy sesame oil, so that you can swirl it into scrambled eggs and smashed cucumber salads.
Focaccia
Seasoned with little more than olive oil and crunchy sea salt, focaccia is an ancient bread that is unexpectedly easy to make. Once a staple at Caroline Fidanza’s now-closed sandwich shop, Saltie, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this recipe from the “Saltie: A Cookbook” is perfect on its own, but also serves as a base upon which you can experiment. If you want to alter its flavor, sprinkling some aromatic dry herbs on top of the dough provides deep savory notes. Or decorate it vibrantly with the vegetables and fresh herbs of your choosing for an Instagram-worthy focaccia garden (see Tip).
Five Vegetables and 15-Grain Rice Pot
Stone-Ground Grits
Stone-ground grits are dried corn kernels that have been coarsely ground. Unlike instant and quick-cooking grits, their coarse nature requires a longer cooking time, but the resulting dish is more flavorful and, when cooked long enough, smells like popcorn. Don’t skimp on the cook time, and add more water if needed. You can find white and yellow stone-ground grits at many grocery stores, or purchase them online. This recipe is for cheesy grits, though some people prefer their grits sweet and add sugar. Extra-sharp Cheddar works wonderfully here, but feel free to use a smoked Cheddar or even smoked Gouda for even more flavor.
Conchas
Conchas, the faintly sweet buns that are made fresh every morning at bakeries in Mexico, are perfect with hot, milky coffee. Their name, meaning “shells,” comes from the pretty, sugary scalloped topping that covers each bun. The chef Gabriela Cámara, of Contramar in Mexico City, says that cooks in Mexico rarely bake conchas at home, but she developed a recipe out of necessity when cooking at Cala, her restaurant in San Francisco. At lunchtime, she splits leftover conchas to make sandwiches, which she says are especially good with spicy fillings.
Bánh Cuốn
Bánh cuốn, or Vietnamese steamed rice rolls, pack platefuls of flavor into every bite. The dish originated in northern Vietnam, utilizing a batter that forms a delicate rice sheet, which gets rolled around a mixture of pork and wood ear mushrooms. Bánh cuốn’s accompaniments generally include bean sprouts, fried shallots, herbs and chả lụa (Vietnamese pork sausage), along with a dipping sauce of nước chấm. Though the dish has a number of ingredients, its preparation consists of simple steps; give yourself ample time to prepare and the cooking process will be seamless. This meal is best eaten immediately, but it can hold in the refrigerator for a day or two.
Farro e Pepe
While cacio e pepe, the classic Roman dish, is simple — made with only pasta and its cooking water; cacio, or Pecorino Romano; and abundant freshly ground black pepper — it’s not always easy to make. The trick to getting a thick, creamy sauce lies in combining the cheese and pepper with starchy pasta water in just the right way; this usually requires a lot of erratic stirring and sweat. This version bucks tradition in favor of simplicity and, well, farro. The technique for the cheese paste comes from Flavio de Maio, a master of cucina Romana and producer of one of Rome’s most beloved bowls of cacio e pepe. Simply blend grated cheese and a little cold water with freshly ground pepper until they come together into a creamy paste. Then toss a spoonful or two into just-cooked farro and watch it melt like butter to coat the grains in a layer of salt, pepper, richness and tang. The farro’s chewy, satisfying texture is a perfect foil for the creaminess of the sauce. Keep the leftover paste in the fridge — stir a spoonful into grits, toss it with boiled green beans and, of course, use it for a bowl of cacio e pepe. Use the technique with other hard cheeses: Asiago, Parmesan and even clothbound Cheddar make for fantastic versions.
Boxty (Irish Potato Pancakes)
Boxty, breadlike potato pancakes that originated in Ireland as early as the late 18th century, were created as a resourceful way to transform less-than-stellar potatoes into a hearty side dish. Variations of these crisp, chewy potato pancakes abound, but most involve some combination of mashed potatoes, grated potatoes, flour, baking soda or baking powder; buttermilk or eggs are sometimes added for richness. Popular in pubs but also made at home, they’re typically served as an accompaniment to stews and rich meat dishes. This recipe is adapted from “The Irish Cookbook” by Jp McMahon (Phaidon, 2020), who serves them in a more modern fashion, with smoked salmon, sour cream and pickled onions, which balance and brighten.