Lunch
2804 recipes found
Okonomi-Latke
This hybrid of the Japanese okonomiyaki pancake and the traditional Jewish latke is from Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel, the chefs and owners of Shalom Japan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It works beautifully in any setting where you might ordinarily serve latkes and is a fine base for caviars of any hue.
Mofongo Stuffing
Mofongo, which in its most traditional form is a fried-and-mashed fusion of plantains, pork rinds, garlic and peppers, is essential Puerto Rican food. For this recipe we went to the chef Jose Enrique and asked for a mofongo for the Thanksgiving table, standing at the ready to soak up gravy and meet your turkey on the tip of a fork.
West Indian Pepper Pot Soup
Cassoulet With Lots of Vegetables
Cassoulet is one of the best of the myriad of traditional European dishes that combine beans and meat to produce wonderful rich, robust stews. This recipe maintains that spirit, but is much faster, easier, less expensive, and more contemporary, emphasizing the beans and vegetables over meat. (That probably makes it more, not less, traditional, since meat was always hard to come by before the mid-20th century.)
Potato and Sorrel Gratin
When a friend offered me sorrel from her garden I accepted gladly. I love the tangy flavor of this green leafy vegetable and will always buy it if I see it in my farmers’ market. You don’t need much to contribute lots of lemony flavor and vitamins C, A, iron, calcium and magnesium. The gratin is not a typical creamy sliced potato gratin; it’s more like a potato pie. I cook the potatoes first, then slice or dice and toss with the wilted sorrel, eggs, milk and cheese.
Hot Shoppes' Mighty Mo Burger
Salade Juive (Moroccan Confit of Tomatoes and Peppers With Coriander)
Puréed Mushroom Soup
Thick and creamy, with no cream, this tastes so much richer than it is. I use a small amount of milk to thin out the soup, but you can also use stock to thin it, if you don’t want to include any dairy.
Black Bean-Chorizo Stew
This chili-like stew relies on spicy, fresh green chorizo for its bright, zesty flavor. It only takes half an hour to make your own green chorizo, but you can substitute any kind of fresh (uncured) store-bought sausage, as long as it’s got a kick. Then add some chopped garlic, along with minced parsley and roasted poblano pepper for the green factor. Serve it over rice, or with corn or flour tortillas on the side. Here are several other dishes you can make with chorizo.
Roy Choi’s Braised Short-Rib Stew
Here is an adaptation of the Korean braised-short-rib stew known as galbijjim, a staple of neighborhood potlucks and church suppers and, in the words of the Los Angeles chef Roy Choi, “that meal from home that every Korean kid says his or her mom does best.” His recipe (well, my version of his recipe, which is his version of his mom’s) is rich and deeply flavored, thickly sauced and pungent with sugar, spice, soy and garlic. It is the sort of meal you could put together on a weekend afternoon and serve for nights to come. It is the best sort of family food.
Tuna Salad Sandwiches
Inspired by Iranians’ love affair with pickles and fresh herbs, this tuna salad combines the crunch and tang of dill pickles with a mix of herbs. The cheerful addition of potato chips celebrates relaxed summer lunches — and tastes great any time of year. Ciabatta rolls and classic salted chips are especially good here, but you can use your favorite loaves and chips, or skip the bread and just serve the tuna salad with chips for scooping.
Baked-Potato-Style Red Beets
It’s fun to treat beets like baked potatoes sometimes, roasting them skin-on, and serving them with “all the fixings.” For simplicity’s sake, arrange little bowls of the usual suspects — crème fraîche or sour cream, chives, dill, butter and salt and pepper — and let the diners do the work. For special occasions, you can upgrade the presentation with a dab of caviar or trout roe.
Tacos With Roasted Vegetables and Chickpeas in Chipotle Ranchera Salsa
These winter vegetables sweeten with roasting and contrast beautifully with the chipotle-spiked cooked tomato salsa. It’s another easy do-ahead dish that can be reheated when the crowds are hungry.
Cucumbers With Labneh and Cherries
This recipe comes from Kismet, the chef Sara Kramer's restaurant in Los Angeles. There, the labneh is made in-house, providing an advantage that can never quite be overcome at home. Still, buy the best labneh you can find. This recipe calls for cherries, but any stone fruit can work: apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines. The slight pickle intensifies the fresh fruit, the taste of summer. The Persian cucumbers can be cut on the bias, as specified here, or sliced thinly on a mandoline.
Caramelized Beets With Orange-Saffron Yogurt
This astonishingly pretty platter is equally delicious, a signature of the British chef Yotam Ottolenghi, who provided the recipe: soft, sweet beets against the tart astringency of the orange-tinctured yogurt, its coolness threaded with saffron. It is also an ace make-ahead dish: You can prepare the yogurt and the beets the night before serving, or in the morning. Look for a good variety of beets if you can, for reasons of color and taste alike: golden ones to offset the red, say, with a mixture of candy canes between the two.
Catalan Stew With Lobster and Clams
Romesco, the delicious rust-colored sauce from the Catalan region of Spain, is justly popular, served alongside grilled fish or as dip for vegetables. It is typically made with fresh and dried red peppers, roasted almonds and hazelnuts, a fair amount of garlic, and day-old bread fried in olive oil. Sometimes, however, instead of being used as a sauce, it is added to a fish stew. Known as romesco de peix or simply romescada, it may contain several kinds of fish and shellfish. In this version, which features lobster and clams, rather than stirring in the romesco at the end, the ingredients are added in stages from the beginning, for depth of flavor.
Yellow Beet Salad With Mustard Seed Dressing
If you are beet-phobic because you fear the inevitable crimson stains, try golden yellow beets instead. Yellow beets, nearing orange on the color spectrum, are slightly milder than red ones. They make a beautiful assertive salad, dressed with horseradish, mustard and mustard seeds.
Stewed Chicken and Rice
This dish is rich and clean, but still lively and interesting — all things to all tastes — in one single pot. We brown and then braise the chicken, toast and grind the rice before steaming, “chicharron” the skin, parbake the meatballs, julienne the lemon peel, thinly slice the shallots and, at the very end, soften tender spinach in the hot broth. It’s deeply satisfying, the workhorse of family meals.
Beef Barley Soup With Lemon
With a higher ratio of broth to barley than one usually sees, and the addition of plenty of fresh baby spinach, this beef barley soup is a little lighter than most of its kind. However, it’s still a substantial, satisfying meal that gets a heady aroma from spices (coriander, cumin and paprika) and a brightness from lemon. If you like your meals with a kick, top this with thinly sliced jalapeño, which will wilt slightly from the heat of the soup. Leftovers freeze perfectly for at least three months, though if using the jalapeño, don’t add it until serving time.
Beet and Tomato Salad With Scallions and Dill
A little bistro in Normandy, France, inspired this salad that’s so satisfying in its simplicity. Bright and fresh, the beets and tomatoes are dressed in a tart vinaigrette and served side by side, rather than mixed together. Though the combination may seem unusual, it’s delicious. For the best flavor, choose ripe tomatoes and cook your own beets (don’t be tempted to use the precooked vacuum packed type). Feel free to cook the beets and day or two in advance.
Chilled Golden Beet and Buttermilk Soup
The beauty of this quick, simple soup recipe is in its layers of bright and carefully balanced acidity. Golden beets, puréed with buttermilk and lemon juice, have a sweet, gentle twang; Erin French, a chef from Freedom, Me., takes things even further, garnishing each bowl with fresh herbs, finely chopped shallots macerated in rice wine vinegar, and dollops of sour cream. Serve this soup as a side or with crusty, garlic-rubbed grilled bread to make it a meal.
Fennel ‘Quick Kimchi’
This is not a traditional kimchi, but it approximates the flavor profile, bypassing a lengthier fermentation and instead relying on vinegar. In Korea, this dish would be considered a muchim, which can refer to any number of “seasoned” or “dressed” salads or other preparations. That also means you can eat it right away, though this fennel kimchi will keep up to two or three days before losing its crunch. Admittedly, fennel is not a traditional ingredient in kimchi, but its gentle aniseed flavor provides a clean landing pad for the spicy dressing, which leans on pantry stalwarts like gochugaru, sesame oil and fish sauce. Enjoy this as a hearty salad alongside fish, pork chops or any main dish that could use a fresh accompaniment. For a vegetarian option, you can swap out the fish sauce for soy sauce.
Smoky Beef and Vegetable Sliders
Sliders are a great way to stretch out a small amount of ground meat. I made this dish, which is reminiscent of a sloppy Joe (though a lot tidier), to use up the half-pound of left-over ground beef, and added vegetables to bulk it out and lighten it up.
Dandelion Salad With Beets, Bacon and Goat Cheese Toasts
Tender dandelion leaves make a sensational salad. This one is modeled after a classic Paris bistro salad, but the vinaigrette has fresh ginger and lime juice to stand up to dandelions' faintly bitter flavor. It still tastes very French, as do the goat cheese toasts.