Lunch
2804 recipes found
Onion Quiche
Tender, sweet bits of onion suffuse this classic, savory tart, which gets its brawny, salty tang from browned chunks of cured pork (lardons, pancetta or bacon), all bound with a nutmeg-flecked custard. It’s a dish that feels both delicate and rich, and makes a lovely lunch or brunch dish. You can make the dough up to 3 days ahead, and prebake the crust a day ahead. But the quiche is best served warm or at room temperature on the day you assembled and baked it. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Broiled Soft-Shell Crabs
Seared Salmon With Citrus and Arugula Salad
Bursting with color and bright, bold flavors, this simple recipe makes an elegant main course for a dinner party, or a welcome diversion from your go-to weeknight salmon. The technique of cooking salmon in a cast-iron skillet creates a beautifully golden-brown sear and crispy skin. For best results, make this recipe during the cold weather months, when citrus fruit is at its best.
Vegan Mushroom and Leek Rolls
Classic sausage rolls are filled with a meat-based sausage mixture, but this hearty vegan version substitutes mushrooms, fennel and plenty of leeks, along with almond butter for creaminess and farro for a delightfully chewy texture. These are best served warm from the oven, or reheated if they cool down. Ketchup is a traditional sausage roll accompaniment, but these are so flavorful on their own they don't need it.
Spinach and Endive Salad With Kasha and Mushrooms
Kasha is not the main ingredient here, so I wouldn’t call this a grain salad, but rather a substantial leafy green salad with grain. I love pairing this nutty grain with both cooked and raw spinach, and with walnuts and walnut oil. Kasha also goes well with foods that have a bitter edge, like endive, so I included some in the salad.
Potato Hot Cakes With Cheddar Cream and Salsa Verde
As comforting and substantial as these potato cakes are when served plain, they also support the theorem that most dishes are improved by the addition of a fried egg. The peppery cream and tangy salsa round out all the flavors and textures for a perfect weekend breakfast. Start with (1 1/4 cups/230 grams) leftover mashed potatoes should you happen to have some.
Ratatouille Pie
In this buttery, rustic pie, chunks of eggplant, zucchini and tomato are roasted with olive oil until velvety soft, then covered in a cheesy, mayonnaise-spiked custard. Chopped olives scattered on top cut through the richness and give the whole thing a salty tang. It's the perfect next-day use for ratatouille, should you have some. Use it here instead of roasting the vegetables. You’ll need about 3 to 4 cups (enough to fill the pie crust two-thirds of the way up). You can parbake the crust, roast the vegetables and make the custard the day before, but don’t bake everything together until the day of serving.
Fennel and Celery Salad With Lemon and Parmesan
This crisp, lemony salad of raw fennel and celery (you could add thinly sliced celery root to the salad as well) makes a refreshing start to a meal, garnished with radishes and slightly bitter Treviso or radicchio leaves. It could also be a light meal on its own. Don’t slice the vegetables paper-thin; you want the salad to have some crunch. You may prepare the vegetables up to an hour in advance and keep refrigerated, but don’t dress the salad more than 10 minutes before serving.
Arugula Salad With La Tur Dressing
Update the standard, ubiquitous blue cheese salad dressing to give it a more luscious consistency and a softer, milkier flavor, just the thing for drizzling over a bed of baby arugula, fresh figs and crisped prosciutto.
Farro Salad With Corn and Crispy Chickpeas
This nubby, gently spiced grain salad is filled with tender corn kernels, crunchy roasted chickpeas and plenty of thinly sliced fennel, scallions and herbs. Drying the chickpeas before roasting gives them the deepest crunch, so don't skip that step. All together, the salad walks the line between hearty and light, a substantial side to grilled meats or fish, or a summery main course all on its own.
Millet With Corn, Mango and Shrimp
Halibut Niçoise
What if salade niçoise wasn't a salad at all, but a warmer, heftier dish with a beautiful piece of butter-browned halibut right at its center? Erin French, the chef at the Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Me., does just that with her Maine halibut niçoise, in which the main components of a classic niçoise are accounted for, but totally reconfigured. Beans and new potatoes are in a simple shallot dressing; eggs are poached so the yolks are still soft and runny; garlic and anchovies season a quick tapenade. If your cast-iron pan fits only two fillets comfortably, cook the fish in two batches to avoid overcrowding.
Indian Lamb-And-Eggplant Napoleon
Turkey Salad With Fried Shallots and Herbs
This recipe is adapted from Naomi Duguid's chicken salad in "Burma: Rivers of Flavor." It incorporates shallots two ways, raw and fried, as well as the deeply savory oil used to fry them. Bright with lime juice, the raw heat of a green chile and plenty of fresh herbs, it's excellent plain, or with some chopped cucumber and lettuce beneath it, for crunch. As Ms. Duguid points out in the book, it's a dressing that can be applied to refresh all manner of leftovers, from the roasted turkey you're left with the day after Thanksgiving, to the roasted vegetables.
Spelt and Lamb Meatballs
Fragrant with cinnamon and allspice and imbued with parsley and dill, these meatballs are like a cross between a falafel and lamb kibbe, with a crunchy crust. Starchy spelt helps the balls hold their shape and adds a pleasing chewy texture, while a small amount of lamb contributes its brawny, mineral flavor. Feel free to try these meatballs with other ground meats —turkey, chicken, beef or pork should all work nicely. Other whole grain berries (wheat, rye, barley) can be substituted for the spelt. Just make sure to cook the grains until they are quite tender and the bran splits.
Wild Salmon With Chive Oil and Lime Crème Fraîche
The wild king salmon season opens in late spring in Alaska and all the way down the West Coast. The season continues through summer, but is at its best in June. The year’s first wild salmon has brilliant red flesh, a mild sweet flavor and a velvety texture. Farmed salmon doesn’t compare. You pay a high price for wild salmon, but the splurge is worth it. Paired with bright green chive oil and limey crème fraîche, it will make you swoon.
Chicken With Apricots, Lemon and Saffron
Here is a spice-perfumed braised chicken dish that is greater than the sum of its parts, with complex flavor that belies the ease of preparation. As a bonus, you can prepare it up to 2 days in advance, since it reheats beautifully.
Chickpea and Herb Fatteh
Fatteh is a popular Middle Eastern dish made with stale bread and accompanied by a host of hearty ingredients. Serve it for brunch, with eggs, or as a vegetarian main course with cooked seasonal vegetables — simply be sure to plan ahead and soak the chickpeas the night before. You can cook the chickpeas and prepare all the toppings in advance, but you'll want to assemble the herb paste and toss everything together just before serving to ensure that it all stays green and vibrant, and that the fatteh is the right consistency.
Wild Mushroom Tart
This savory tart features a quickly made puff pastry. (You can use store-bought, if you wish, but this dough is easy and fun.) There’s enough for two tarts, so store half in the freezer, rolled out, for later use. Make the dough up to a day or two in advance, and use chanterelles or other pale wild mushrooms, if possible. If using cultivated mushrooms, a combination of sliced shiitake, white button, oyster or king trumpet would be nice, as portobellos or cremini make a dark, somber-looking tart. Serve as a first course or as a light lunch, accompanied by a simple green salad.
Slow-Cooked Red Chile Turkey
Anyone who has spent time in New Mexico knows that fiery red chile sauce, made with local dried chiles, finds its way into most meals there, enhancing plates of huevos rancheros or enchiladas. But just as often, it is the base for a meat stew, usually beef, pork or lamb. The dish is known as carne adovada, and it is insanely good. Yes, there probably is a roasted turkey in most homes for Thanksgiving, and maybe a steaming pot of tamales. But the thought occurred to me that turkey thighs (the tastiest part of the bird) simmered in red chile would be a welcome substitute. It turns out I was right. Slowly braised for 2 hours, this spicy turkey is succulent and tender.
Turkey Pitas With Cucumbers, Chickpeas and Tahini
These vibrant, crunchy, creamy turkey sandwiches have all the flavors of falafel, but without the frying. They’ve got a lemony tahini dressing, soft chickpeas, and a cumin-scented tomato and cucumber salad, all packed into pitas with leftover turkey (use dark or white meat). The pickled red onions give these a wonderful brightness, and they’re well worth the 10 extra minutes they take to make.
White Wine-Braised Rabbit With Mustard
This is a version of lapin à la moutarde, a homey, traditional French dish still popular in old-fashioned Parisian bistros at lunchtime. Yes, there are quite a few steps required to put this dish on the table, but probably no more than 30 minutes of active work. It is essentially a one-pot meal, with a little fiddling. The pleasingly sharp, succulent, saucy result is worth the extra effort. Get your rabbit in a butcher shop if possible, and ask to have it cut up; if your only option is a whole rabbit, it’s not much more difficult than cutting up a chicken. Serve with noodles if you'd like, or rice, mashed potatoes or steamed new potatoes.
Black Cherry-Pistachio Salad With Charred Scallion Vinaigrette
The experience of biting into a juicy black cherry embodies summer. For cherry recipes, dessert may come to mind first, but how about something savory? Bursting bites of cherry star in this five-ingredient salad, with scallions, pistachios, oil and vinegar. The recipe puts scallions to work in two ways: Their raw greens bring bright, grassy notes, while the charred bottoms bring sweetness and bitterness when pulverized into paste. Raw, coarse chopped pistachio lends an interesting chew that develops into a complex fat for the salad. This salad is elegant and simple — and deserves to be among your new summer classics. Use your best extra-virgin olive oil, and try adding fresh, organic rose petals to the dish for a delicate strawberry-rose flavor, and a Baroque, sensual layering of flavors.
Broccoli Stem and Red Pepper Slaw
I never throw out broccoli stems. If I don’t use them for pickles or stir-fries, I’ll shred them and use them in a delicious slaw like this one.