Main Course
8665 recipes found
Vegetarian Swedish Meatballs
Cremini mushrooms, chickpeas and bulgur wheat mimic the texture of ground meat in this vegetarian version of the classic Swedish meatball dish. Seasoned generously with allspice and nutmeg and blanketed in a velvety mushroom gravy, they are excellent served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes — or spooned onto a toasted hero (add sliced tangy pickles to balance out the richness). Leftover cooked meatballs can be frozen and reheated in a 425-degree oven until warmed through, about 15 minutes.
Mattar Paneer (Peas and Paneer in Spiced Tomato Gravy)
Traditionally, roasted and crushed cashews are puréed with cooked onions and tomatoes to make the base for this comforting vegetarian dish. This version skips the hassle of puréeing and instead uses a hefty amount of cashew butter for the same nutty flavor and creamy texture. Red chile powder, ginger and garlic provide the perfect backbone for the sauce. Substitute tofu for paneer if you like; the mildness of either lends itself well to this unexpectedly luxurious dish that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
Artichoke and Olive Farro Salad
Farro, a nutty Italian grain with a chewy texture, is an excellent candidate for a savory, herb-flecked pantry salad that travels well. The grain is not intimidated by bold flavors: Tangy oil-marinated artichokes, briny kalamata olives, feta and crisp red onion take wholesome farro by the hand and lead it straight to the dance floor. Cook times vary depending on the type of farro. Quick-cooking, pearled or semi-pearled all work well, but hulled is not recommended here, as it would need soaking and takes a long time to cook. Don’t be shy with the oil and vinegar: The farro absorbs them the longer it sits. If farro is not available, you can use orzo (see Tip), or other hearty grains like barley, wheat berries or freekeh.
Pan-Seared Chicken With Harissa, Dates and Citrus
Juicy, pan-seared chicken thighs in a saucy mix of peppery harissa, sour citrus and sweet caramelized dates will make this dish the star of your weeknight meals. For even more flavor, marinate the chicken for as long as you can, anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. Dollops of creamy yogurt will mellow any heat, and a shower of fresh herbs will add a subtle fragrance. Serve with the pan drippings spooned generously over steamed rice or fluffy couscous, or alongside some warm crusty bread for dipping.
Spinach Lasagna
Equal parts indulgent and virtuous, this meatless lasagna from Mark Bittman will please everyone at the table. Serve it with a green salad on a weeknight, or alongside a platter of meatballs for Sunday dinner. And listen: We won't tell anyone if you use no-boil noodles or frozen spinach. It's all good either way.
Skillet Poached Eggs
There’s a little trick here that makes poaching eggs easy and prevents them from spreading into flat, floppy disks: rolling the eggs in the boiling water in their shells before cracking them into the pan. This technique helps them maintain their shape when they’re cracked into the boiling water. Because the whites don’t spread, six eggs can fit in a skillet comfortably without running into one another, and you can serve a crowd with little effort. You can use this move to poach fewer eggs, too, of course. No matter how many you cook, you’ll end up with silky eggs for toast, a breakfast sandwich or as an accompaniment to bacon, sausage, waffles or pancakes.
Muffuletta
Here is The Times’s take on a classic New Orleans sandwich, built between slices of light, airy sesame bread, and layered thick with olive salad and cold cuts. It is among the best picnic sandwiches on the planet.
Carne Asada Lorenza
For centuries, Sonoran carne asada tacos have traditionally been assembled in flour tortillas. However, the corn tortilla, salted and crisped on the same grill that cooks and seasons the meat, has been added to the mix, creating a crunchy open taco called the Carne Asada Lorenza. Not only is it a sight to behold, but it has become such a favorite that it’s starting to rival the flour tortilla taco. Once the corn tortilla is seasoned and grilled, it is slathered with refried beans, mounted with copious amounts of melty cheese, and placed back on the grill for the cheese to ooze all over. The taco base becomes a sumptuous bed for the carne asada. Finish it with fire-roasted salsa and guacamole, and you will see what the Lorenza hype is all about.
Individual Beef Wellingtons
Beef Wellington, the English dish of a large beef fillet wrapped in pastry, is a project, but the joy of this scaled-down version is that it’s significantly easier to prepare. Pâté de foie gras and prosciutto are common ingredients in a traditional Wellington, but they’re skipped here for a more balanced flavor profile. Just as common is a deeply caramelized mushroom and shallot mixture known as a duxelles, which lends a strong foundation of earthy umami; a little red wine and heavy cream add richness to it. These are excellent for making ahead: Just stop after Step 5, and store them covered in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours until you’re ready to bake. Serve with roasted potatoes, green salad or wonderfully bitter radicchio.
Tahini-Parmesan Pasta Salad
Many traditional pasta salad recipes call for a heavy mayonnaise-based dressing, but this one combines tahini and Parmesan for a lighter, umami-packed dressing that can be used on noodles, salad greens, asparagus, grilled chicken or grains. Tahini and Parmesan may be a surprising duo, but they naturally work well together because tahini, which is made from sesame seeds, amplifies the cheese’s rich, nutty flavor. To add even more complexity, cherry tomatoes are blistered in a skillet to concentrate their sweetness and acidity. As with any good pasta salad, this one benefits from adding fresh scallions and mint right before serving, plus toasted sesame seeds and shards of Parmesan.
Crab Cakes Baltimore-Style
This is a classic crab cake inspired by those that were served at Obrycki's Crab House, a rollicking fish restaurant in a former row house on East Pratt Street in Baltimore. They are simply delicious.
Berry-Jam Fried Chicken
The name sounds like a sweet-tooth parade, but this recipe makes sense when you pair it with a spicy scallion cornmeal waffle. Wells’ Restaurant, a popular 1930s Harlem supper club, cemented the chicken and waffle combination in American culinary history; Amy Ruth’s in Harlem, Beans & Cornbread in suburban Detroit and Hotville in Los Angeles continue that tradition. Almost any summer-fruit jam can be substituted in the marinade, and if you don't have peanut oil, use another oil with a high smoke point.
Spicy Crab Linguine with Mustard, Crème Fraîche and Herbs
This pasta dish is impressive, but it is barely any work at all, ideal for an impromptu gathering. The sauce is just warm crème fraîche, highly seasoned, along with a shower of herbs, and just enough green chile to cut the richness. (If you don’t want chile, increase the mustard and black pepper, and add lime zest.) Obviously, you’ll want the freshest sweetest crabmeat available. Substitute lobster if you can’t get crab, or use small shrimp, briefly cooked in butter, and feel free to vary the herbs — basil, mint, dill or chervil would be most welcome.
Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad
This simple salad makes a bright, tangy companion to grilled meat or fish. Marinating the red onions and garlic in the vinaigrette for 15 minutes not only diffuses their flavor but also softens their bite. This salad travels well and would be an excellent choice for a potluck or picnic. It’s also supremely versatile, and can be dressed up with any soft herb like basil, tarragon or mint, and chile, in almost any form.
Seared Scallops With Glazed Brussels Sprouts
The hidden gem in this meal for two is the bacon that starts it all off. It’s crisped in a little olive oil, creating a nice pool of fat to cook both the scallops and the brussels sprouts. When searing scallops, the trick to a great crust and tender insides is to cook them mostly on the first side. A tangy mix of lime juice, maple syrup and Dijon is then splashed in to deglaze the pan, making it easy to scrape up the tasty bits stuck on the bottom. Cold butter is vigorously stirred into the glaze to transform it into a pan sauce. But, draped in that sour-sweet lime butter, it’s the bacon that sings. Serve with a big green salad and crusty bread, or a light, brothy soup.
Greek Salad
While diner-style Greek salads made with chopped romaine, crumbled feta and often grilled chicken have become ubiquitous in American restaurants, a traditional Greek salad, or horiatiki salata, is a simpler affair. An assembled salad of large-diced vegetables with Kalamata olives and sometimes capers, this salad has no greens at all, and the feta is served sliced on top of the salad rather than crumbled and tossed into it. A traditional Greek salad dressing usually consists of olive oil and red wine vinegar; this recipe adds garlic and oregano. To make the salad into a satisfying vegetarian main course, throw in a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas.
Vegan Lasagna
This classic vegan lasagna replaces ricotta with a homemade cashew-tofu cream that is easy to prepare and strikes the right balance: Cashews provide richness while tofu keeps things light. This recipe can be modified to fit your schedule. If you’re in a hurry, forgo the sauce for three cups of your favorite store-bought marinara, and if you prefer no-boil noodles, they work, too. You could replace the cashew-tofu cream with purchased vegan ricotta, or get ahead on future dinners by doubling the cashew-tofu ricotta and freezing the extra batch. It keeps for up to six weeks in the freezer, and can also be used in stuffed shells and manicotti.
Coconut Chicken Curry
Curry powder is stirred into this braise only during the last minute of cooking, delivering a bright hit of spice on top of the paprika and turmeric mellowed into the slow-simmered chicken. This dish from “Burma Superstar” by Desmond Tan and Kate Leahy (Ten Speed Press, 2017), needs time on the stove but not much attention, and gets even better after resting in the fridge, making it an ideal weeknight meal that can last days. There’s plenty of coconut milk broth to spoon over rice or noodles. At his restaurant, Burma Superstar in Oakland, Calif., Mr. Tan also serves this with platha, a buttery, flaky Burmese flatbread, for dipping.
Orzo Salad With Peppers and Feta
Piperade, a classic Basque dish of stewed peppers, onions and tomatoes, becomes a flavorful sauce for this pasta. Colorful bell peppers simmer in olive oil and aromatics until meltingly soft, and juicy tomatoes simmer alongside until they burst, lending both tangy and sweet notes. Briny feta adds salty bites to complement the sweet pepper sauce, but tart aged goat cheese makes a good alternative. This side is even better at room temperature, making it the perfect make-ahead dish for summer picnics or potlucks.
Steak Marinade
Soy, coriander and cumin join ginger and garlic in this simple, umami-laden marinade. It’s a perfect match for any tender cut of beef, such as bavette, rib-eye or flank steak which have a loose, visible grain primed for soaking up marinades. This recipe imparts its flavor in as little as 30 minutes, though the meat benefits from any additional marinating time — and can sit for up to two days. The steak chars as it cooks, and the exterior caramelizes to create a crisp, powerfully savory crust.
Grand Green Aioli
“Le grand aioli” is a classic Provençal meal of vegetables and steamed seafood, centered on a rich and lemony garlic-laden aioli for dipping. Here, the sauce is vibrant with fresh parsley. This summery dish features a colorful mix of crunchy vegetables and crisp lettuces alongside steamed nutty edamame, to keep it vegetarian. But poached shrimp, rotisserie chicken, canned tuna and hard-boiled eggs would all be welcome for dipping. Very little cooking is required — just some quick boiling — making this perfect for a stress-free weeknight dinner or a celebratory get-together. Leftover aioli is a terrific sandwich spread, as well as a versatile dressing for roasted potatoes or pasta salad.
Beans, Bacon and Avocado Concha Sandwich
Conchas are the most well-known Mexican pan dulce. They are eaten for breakfast with hot chocolate, coffee or milk; as an anytime pick-me-up; as part of dinner or even as dessert. They can also be the base of a satisfying sandwich, creating a welcome clash between savory and sweet. Mexicans seem to be divided on the sandwich topic: Some can’t do without them; some can’t stand them. It is a dish you will not find in a cafeteria or restaurant, but in Mexican homes and lunch boxes. The most well-known versions involve refried beans; this one is filled with chipotle refried beans, bacon and avocado. A sunny-side-up egg can be a good addition.
Todd Richards’s Fried Catfish With Hot Sauce
The Atlanta chef Todd Richards says his mother made catfish on Fridays as part of her weekly rotation of dishes. She let the fish sit in cornmeal for about five minutes before frying, a technique that he said resulted in very crispy fish. He uses the same method in this recipe, adapted from his cookbook, “Soul: A Chef’s Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes” (Oxmoor House, 2018). If you’re using boneless catfish, this dish can be served as a sandwich.
Tangy Braised Short Ribs
This bright, sweet and salty recipe for braised short ribs will work with bone-in or boneless meat, as long as the short ribs are thick (at least 1 1/2 inch), and not the thinly sliced Korean style. Seasoning your meat with salt and pepper at least 24 hours in advance will greatly improve the flavor of the finished product. And, if you can spare an extra 24, making them a day ahead of serving will make them even better, with all that braising liquid flavoring the meat as it sits. Finishing with herbs and lemon are hardly a revelation in the braised meat department, but they are especially welcome here. The fresh lemon juice at the end transforms the braising liquid into a bright, brothy, spoonable sauce good enough to drink.