Main Course
8665 recipes found
Linguine With Asparagus Pesto
Asparagus dresses this spring pasta in pastel green. Use the stems to make a finely ground pestolike mixture with garlic, olive oil and cheese; reserve the tips for quickly cooking and then tossing into the skillet with the linguine and sauce just before serving.
Spicy Tomato-Coconut Bisque With Shrimp and Mushrooms
A full-bodied, mildly spiced tomato soup with sweetness and depth from roasted red peppers, this is a tasty base for lightly poached shrimp or pieces of any firm white fish. The gingery, herbed mushroom gets with a citrusy lift from makrut lime leaves, ensuring this dish is packed with flavor. As a substitute, lime zest will work in a pinch. Serve over steamed rice or dig in with torn pieces from a crusty loaf of bread.
Caramelized Corn and Asparagus Pasta With Ricotta
This summery pasta features caramelized corn, crisp-tender asparagus and earthy turmeric, which provides the dish’s sunny hue. It’s not easy to cook corn to the point of browning without losing all its moisture, but a pinch of sugar helps speed up the caramelization process. Vermouth lends acidity to the light, glossy garlicky sauce, but you could use wine, or even a tablespoon of lemon juice or champagne vinegar for lift. Fresh ricotta provides richness.
Fast Tomato Sauce With Anchovies
Despite their reputation, anchovies are not overpowering, at least once cooked. Used with garlic as the start of a fast pasta sauce, they dissolve almost instantly and add a mysteriously meaty complexity that makes the sauce seem as if it had simmered for hours. Tossed with linguine and arugula, they make a simple dish sophisticated. If you're feeding a crowd, it doubles or triples beautifully.
Roasted Salmon With Asparagus, Lemon and Brown Butter
Ready in just 15 minutes, this fast dinner combines silky salmon with a vibrant green medley of asparagus and peas. While the fish roasts, the vegetables and sauce come together in one pan on the stovetop. Thinly slicing the asparagus is the trick to maintaining a crisp texture that complements the tender salmon, while bright lemon juice and zingy capers balance the nutty brown butter sauce. Parsley is used here to finish, but dill or tarragon would also be lovely. Leftover vegetables make a fantastic omelet filling the next day.
Pan-Fried Tofu With Red Curry Paste
Raghavan Iyer says Thailand is the only country outside of India that worships curries with as much devotion. In the way Indian cooks use a blend of herbs and spices, Thai cooks use an array of curry pastes to create regional curries. He created three for his 2023 book “On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced The World” (Workman Publishing). His red curry paste is a version of the most common curry. When frying the tofu, add a little more oil if the pan seems dry and be aware that when the chile paste is added to the pan, the capsaicin can produce a head-clearing whiff of heat.
Folami’s BBQ Tofu
Kwanzaa gatherings continue to go strong in community centers and at home in dining rooms, as they have since 1966. The seven-day holiday of self-reflection, often an extension of Christmas or the winter solstice, culminates with the karamu, or feast. The spread leans heavily vegetarian. In Atlanta, Folami Prescott-Adams dries, seasons, fries and broils pounds of tofu. Store-bought, tomato-based barbecue sauce provides the comfort factor. She is a 40-year veteran of Kwanzaa and maintains a spreadsheet of potluck logistics for her family and guests. Alongside this vegetarian barbecue, Dr. Prescott-Adams’s buffet feeds more than 100 people, and the greatest hits include macaroni and cheese, red punch and black-eyed peas.
Asparagus and Chicken Salad With Ginger Dressing
Asparagus takes easily to many kinds of seasonings, so after you’ve tired of having it plain with butter or homemade mayonnaise, try this spicy dressing laced with ginger and chiles. Adding smoked chicken is a nice way to make a more substantial first course or light lunch. You can purchase smoked chicken at better butcher shops or online, but equally good is grilled chicken at room temperature, or cold poached chicken. I sometimes substitute lightly smoked ham or smoked slab bacon, simmered until tender.
Easy Spaghetti With Meat Sauce
The secret ingredient in this ultrafast sauce based on long-cooking Bolognese is Worcestershire sauce. The vinegar, molasses and anchovies in the condiment season the ground beef mixture with salt, acid, sweetness and funk in one shot. Once the sauce has simmered, use tongs to transfer the pasta directly from the pot to the skillet, then toss in some of the starchy pasta cooking liquid for a glossy, saucy finish.
Mapo Tofu Nachos
This twist on nachos doesn’t simply call for putting traditional mapo tofu atop tortilla chips. Instead, you’ll make a creamy, spicy, saucy version using blended silken tofu and all the usual mapo ingredients. Spoon the sauce atop layers of chips, add cheese, then bake it. You could certainly stop there, but finishing with some garnishes makes it especially festive. Save leftover sauce for another round of nachos or a half batch of mapo spaghetti. To double this recipe, bake on a large parchment or foil-lined sheet pan in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes. You can also make the sauce with lamb, turkey thigh or a plant-based meat alternative, in place of the ground beef or pork, if you like.
Tomato Alphabet Soup
A taste of nostalgia can be comforting. Inspired by the childhood favorite, canned tomato soup, this homemade version yields a lush and satisfying meal culled from kitchen staples. The process of separating your canned tomatoes from their juices, cooking them until caramelized and enhancing their strength with concentrated tomato paste helps develop deep roasted tomato flavor. If you can’t find alphabet pasta, any other small pasta will be delicious.
Fettuccine With Asparagus and Smoked Salmon
Fresh pasta, asparagus and smoked salmon are tossed with shallot cream sauce in this elegant weeknight dinner that can be prepared in well under an hour.
Tofu Makhani (Indian Butter Tofu)
This recipe is a vegetarian riff on butter chicken, or murgh makhani, a classic Indian dish in which chicken simmers in a rich, dairy-laden tomato sauce that’s seasoned with heady spices like turmeric, cumin, garam masala and cardamom. This weeknight-friendly version has a toned-down ingredient list, and the tofu doesn’t require hours of marinating, which means you can get everything on the table in under an hour if you start the rice as the tomatoes are cooking down. Heavy cream gives this dish a rich finish, but full-fat coconut milk makes a fine substitute. Whatever you do, don’t substitute anything for the butter or ghee (sorry, vegans) — it’s the signature ingredient.
Crispy Tofu With Balsamic Tomatoes
You don’t need to fry tofu to get it crisp-edged and golden brown. Drizzling it with a mix of cornstarch and oil, then roasting it will deliver a closely crunchy approximation that won’t splatter oil across your countertop. Here, the tofu is roasted alongside balsamic-glazed cherry tomatoes, sliced garlic and red onions, all of which caramelize as they cook. Top everything with a handful of fresh herbs, then serve it over rice, quinoa or another grain for an easy, plant-based meal. Note that the recipe serves only two to three. To double it, use two sheet pans and add a few extra minutes to the cook time.
Herb-Marinated Seared Tofu
Pan-seared tofu, torn into chunks then soaked in a bright, herby sauce, makes a great addition to many meals: Pile it on top of grains, salad greens, noodles or yogurt; tuck it into a pita; or toss it with chunks of roasted squash. The herbs and seasonings used in this sauce can shift, depending on what you have on hand and what sounds good. Add capers, anchovies or olives for brininess; or harissa, fresh chile or ginger for spice. You can even use wilted herbs and hearty greens. For additional texture, add nuts and seeds, or tomatoes, thinly sliced celery or avocado. Eat it right away or refrigerate for another day. It’s a practical yet vibrant dish that you’ll make on repeat.
FOOD’s Amazing Cilantro Tofu Sandwich
My friend Judy Ornstein has a popular neighborhood cafe on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles called FOOD. I love all of the meals I’ve had there, but my absolute favorite signature dish that they make is a cilantro tofu sandwich. The tofu is dipped in a delicious cilantro-spiked marinade, briefly baked, then topped with a to-die-for roasted corn relish. Alayne Berman, FOOD’s chef, shared the recipe with me. I’ve scaled the recipe down from 10 pounds of tofu to 1 pound, which will make four sandwiches. They are hearty, and I usually make a meal of half a sandwich, but the nutritional information is for a whole one.
Saag Tofu (Tofu With Spinach, Ginger, Coriander and Turmeric)
Raghavan Iyer, author of “660 Curries,” describes the Indian cheese paneer as “fresh, firm and chewy” and “not unlike a block of extra-firm tofu,” which you could substitute for paneer in a pinch. Tofu takes the place of paneer in this lighter version of saag paneer, a classic Indian dish made with fresh spinach sautéed in plenty of ginger, cumin, fennel seeds, chiles, coriander and turmeric. Here, seared tofu and yogurt are stirred in at the end, making it a creamy, satisfying, almost-vegan meal that's wonderful served with naan or over rice.
Sweet-and-Spicy Roasted Tofu and Squash
This is a meal with complex flavors and a variety of textures: velvety from the honey-roasted squash, tender and juicy from the tofu, with the occasional crunch from the sesame-seed garnish and a slight chew from the squash peel. I like to serve this dish with more hot sauce on the side, preferably over brown rice or lightly dressed baby spinach, though it’s also good served all alone. As long as the squash and the tofu have each other, that’s all they really need.
Quick Tomato Soup With Grilled Cheese
When done well, this age-old combination can be exactly what you want. Here, the cooking is as easy as the eating: While you get the soup started in a pot with a can of tomatoes and little more than onion and butter (in the style of Marcella Hazan’s famous tomato sauce), you assemble and pan-fry the sandwiches. The particular joy of these lies in their soft, quiet flavors: A thin layer of mayonnaise spread on the inside of the bread heats with the mozzarella, a mild cheese that lets you taste the bread and butter as they are. With a filling this rich and gooey, you want a delicate sweet enriched loaf like brioche or milk bread.
Rqaq w Adas (Lentils With Pasta)
In Arabic, adas are lentils, and rqaq is a flatbread as thin and nearly as sheer as paper. The two come together in this stew, which was traditionally a way to use dough left over from baking bread, as the Palestinian artist and chef Mirna Bamieh explains. The lentils are simmered with cumin, bringing its stealthy warmth, along with bronzed onions, tamarind and sweet-sour pomegranate molasses. Meanwhile, scraps of dough are rolled out, then up into cylinders and slashed into long, skinny strands that look like tagliatelle. But you don’t have to wait for baking day: Instead, just knead together the quick dough below or swap in dried pasta. The noodles are dropped right in the pot, to cook among the lentils, leaching starch and making the stew even richer.
Warm Tofu and Fresh Soybeans Cooked in Salted French Butter and Celery-Seed Gastrique
There are three pretty joyful projects here that reward not only the pleasure-driven eater but the scientifically curious mind as well. Making soy milk, making soft tofu, and making a savory caramel sauce (not sweet like the one you're probably accustomed to, but vinegary and spicy) are all as easy as those beginner science projects we remember from grade school (growing marigolds or sprouting avocado pits) and equally as wondrous. As always, ingredients matter. The better the soy, the richer the milk, the richer the milk, the more compelling the tofu. The better the butter, the more expert the finished dish. Each component is quite easy but requires your full attention. Over-soaking the beans can give the curd a pitted texture; over-stirring the coagulant can break up the quickly setting curd and give you cottage cheese texture. And adding the vinegar to the burning sugar can be little hazardous – that step maybe closer resembles tenth grade chemistry than 1st grade marigold planting, I admit!
Confit Leeks With Lentils, Lemon and Cream
Leeks slow-cooked in olive oil star in this hearty vegetarian main of lentils, lemon and herbs. These confit leeks are roasted and softened without browning, slowly releasing their flavor into the oil. The mixture could be spooned over baked potatoes or roasted chicken, but the lentils give the dish heft and bite, and the leek cream makes it extra special. If you can’t find French lentils, you can easily substitute other green or beluga lentils, or pearl barley or other grains. Serve this dish warm or at room temperature, and eat alongside some roasted potatoes for a complete meal, if you like.
Green Tomato Frittata
This is an adaptation of a recipe I came across in “The Savory Way,” by Deborah Madison. The acidic green tomatoes are nicely balanced by the neutral flavor of the eggs.
Sesame Tofu With Coconut-Lime Dressing and Spinach
Coated in panko and sesame seeds, tofu takes on a splendid crunchiness that contrasts with sautéed spinach in this 30-minute dish. It comes together under a fragrant coconut-lime dressing — which you can double, then toss with salad. Swap out the spinach to your taste: Try this with mustard greens or chopped collard greens, adjusting the cooking time accordingly. Be careful when handling the uncooked tofu once it is breaded, as the breading is delicate. Using a pair of kitchen tongs or two forks to grab the tofu from the sides will help prevent its crumbling or falling apart. Serve this satisfying main by itself, or alongside a bowl of rice.