Main Course
8665 recipes found
Creamy Asparagus Pasta With Peas and Mint
Sautéing asparagus in butter mellows it, bringing out its sweetness. Mixed with peas, mint, Parmesan and cream, it makes the foundation of a rich pasta dish with primavera vibes, but easier, faster and brighter, thanks to some grated lemon zest folded in at the end. If you can’t get good asparagus, feel free to substitute other quick cooking vegetables, like zucchini, corn or mushrooms. This delightful cream sauce is highly adaptable.
Lentil Tomato Soup
This tomato soup recipe elevates the beloved classic with the use of brown butter and protein-packed lentils, which make this soup even more satiating than other versions. The nutty brown butter brings depth and highlights the sweetness of the tomatoes. The milk solids present in the butter caramelize as the butter cooks, resulting in its characteristic taste. By introducing heavy cream — therefore more milk solids — to the butter browning process, the final result is a fortified brown butter that will bring more richness and depth to the tomato soup. Serve with crusty sourdough toast or grilled cheese, tomato soup’s soulmate.
Miso-Chile Asparagus With Tofu
Broiling asparagus gives it a charred exterior but still keeps the vegetables soft and sweet within. Here, the stalks share a pan with cubed tofu, and everything is glazed with a pungent miso sauce spiked with mirin, rice vinegar and a good hit of chile. Served over rice or noodles, it makes a salty, spicy and deeply flavored meal that’s ready in less than half an hour.
Pan-Seared Asparagus With Cashews
In this speedy, springy dish, a crunchy mix of nuts, seeds and coconut flakes gives seared asparagus plenty of texture, while a squeeze of lime and handful of fresh herbs add brightness right at the end. This makes a hearty side dish for simple roasted fish or chicken, or it can be a light meal when served over rice or alongside a fried or soft-cooked egg, the yolk turning into a glossy sauce that coats the stalks.
Garlicky Alfredo Beans
This five-ingredient recipe transforms canned beans into a no-fuss, comforting meal that’s easy to whip together at the end of a long day. The beans are doused in a creamy, garlic-infused sauce that’s inspired by Alfredo, and topped with crunchy garlic chips. Choosing the right beans for this recipe might feel intimidating, but the most important thing to remember is texture. Beans that hold their shape and won’t immediately disappear in the sauce are ideal: butter (or lima), Great Northern or garbanzo beans will make great contenders for this recipe. When pan-frying the sliced garlic into chips, you’ll want to mix attentively for the best results, since the delicate garlic chips can burn very easily. Crunchy and flavorful, they’re worth the effort.
Honey-Garlic Chicken
These sweet and salty honey-garlic chicken breasts are perfect for when you want big flavor, but you’re short on time. To ensure golden-brown chicken breasts that stay plump and moist, start with a hot pan and pat the chicken dry to avoid adding extra moisture, then allow the chicken to sear properly. Once your chicken has taken on color, set it aside and create a simple pan sauce of honey, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and butter. When the sauce is glossy, return the chicken to the pan and turn it until coated in the satiny honey-garlic sauce. Serve with roasted potatoes, rice or bread to soak it all up.
Spicy Shrimp and Mushroom Stir-Fry
This assertively spicy and savory stir-fry comes together quickly because each ingredient brings so much to the skillet. (And if you use pre-sliced mushrooms, you won’t even need a knife and cutting board.) Meaty mushrooms provide an earthy base, while the shrimp offers a sweet, saline snap. But the key ingredient is a considerable amount of kimchi: The fermented cabbage is cooked until just warm so it stays effervescent, spicy, crunchy and juicy. Kimchi’s heat varies jar by jar, so if you find the dish a bit too punchy, stir in a tablespoon of butter at the end. If you want a green vegetable, toss in a handful of spinach. Serve with rice, lettuce cups, rice cakes or ramen noodles.
Mushroom Smash Burgers
Instead of mixing together a bunch of ingredients to make a just-okay veggie burger, smash portobello mushroom caps with a heavy skillet while cooking until they’re thin but dense with savoriness, then dress them with melted cheese, tuck them into a bun and top them with classic fixings. Cooking mushrooms this way forces the water out of their spongy bodies, turning them into something meaty and satisfying. Because they’re so thin, you’ll want to stack two mushrooms per bun. You can also use other large mushrooms, like oyster or maitake.
Creamy, Spicy Tomato Beans and Greens
This weeknight wonder is for those who delight in turning a modest can of beans into a spectacular dinner. Inspired by the flavors of red pesto, this recipe calls for simmering cannellini beans with staple ingredients like onion, garlic, crushed red pepper, tomato paste and heavy cream, as well as sun-dried tomatoes and salty Pecorino, until the results taste complex and rich. Top the beans with a lemony arugula salad that is peppered with fried bread crumbs for a dish that is crunchy, chewy, crispy and creamy in every bite.
One-Pot Lamb Meatballs With Tomato, Fennel and Orzo
Tangy tomato sauce, hearty lamb meatballs and comforting orzo come together in one pot to create a perfectly balanced weeknight meal in just 45 minutes. Fennel stalks and fronds are often discarded, but with the right methods, they can elevate a dish. This recipe showcases the versatility of fennel in three different ways: fronds, as a garnish, for their fresh pepperiness; sautéed fennel bulbs in the tomato sauce, for their texture and sweetness; and stalks in the meatballs, for their herbaceous notes. Though this recipe benefits from the use of fennel fronds and stalks, if your grocery store only carries stalkless fennel bulbs, this recipe will still be a success.
Tuna Puttanesca
Canned tuna is a complementary addition to the punchy, briny flavors of puttanesca. It’s also a logical way to add protein to the dish when you’re already reaching into the pantry for the majority of the other ingredients. Though shallots aren’t typically included in puttanesca, thinly sliced shallot deepens the flavor of the garlic and adds a note of sweetness to balance the acidic flavors of the sauce. You can use canned tuna or tuna jarred in olive oil here; canned tuna will break apart and become distributed throughout the sauce, whereas jarred tuna will remain in larger pieces. Serve the pasta with a generous sprinkle of parsley and crushed red pepper on top, and a glass of chilled red wine on the side.
Jalapeño-Orange Pork Tenderloin With Snap Peas
This lively sheet-pan dinner is inspired by the punchy and bright flavors of mojo and ceviche. First, pork tenderloin is coated in a combination of brown sugar, garlic, jalapeños and orange zest before it’s baked. (To save time, use a mini food processor to chop, and marinate the pork, covered and refrigerated, for up to 1 day.) While the pork’s resting, snap peas cook on the sheet pan until crisp-tender. To finish, top the surprisingly juicy pork and snap peas with orange segments that have been dressed in more of the jalapeño-garlic mixture, then serve with roasted potatoes or rice to soak up all of the citrusy sauce. (Jalapeños lose a lot of their kick when cooked, but if you have especially spicy peppers or are sensitive to heat, remove the seeds before chopping.)
Miso Roasted Salmon
With this fish, less is more: The salty, umami balm of a miso marinade is lightened with lemon zest, which lends floral bittersweetness, and with lemon juice, which brings electric tang and tenderness. Salmon fillets cut into smaller, thinner portions — as they are for a Japanese breakfast spread — end up more evenly cooked and allow the marinade to flavor the fish more intensely (see Tip). If you can find it, yuzu would be fabulous here in place of the lemon. Serve with white rice, miso soup and goma-ae.
Brown Butter Bucatini With Charred Cabbage
Charred cabbage brings a complex combination of flavors, from savory to bitter to sweet, to this simple but satisfying weeknight pasta. As it cooks, the cabbage also turns silky, clinging to the bucatini like the most delicious of frills. The pecans play off the natural nutty notes of the charred cabbage and brown butter. Like cacio e pepe or other pastas that fuse melted cheese with pasta water, this dish tightens up quickly, so make sure to have plenty of pasta water on hand to loosen it as needed.
Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sandwich
A sausage, egg and cheese is the ideal belly-filling, on-the-go breakfast popular at bodegas, food carts and coffee shops. It’s impossible to replicate the deliciousness that comes from making it on a well-seasoned griddle — and by a cook who’s made thousands — but making an SEC (or a BEC) at home has its own perks. For starters, instead of pre-made sausage pucks, smashing patties of fresh sausage creates juicier meat with caramelized, crisp edges. You can also fry the egg just right, until the broken yolk is barely set (or for scrambled eggs, follow the directions here). The best part is, you can have an SEC anytime you want, even if there isn’t a deli on your corner.
Creamy Fish With Mushrooms and Bacon
This delightful fish recipe is inspired by a recipe from the chef Hugue Dufour of M. Wells restaurant in Long Island City, Queens. It’s based on the classic French preparation called bonne femme, which refers to simple, homey dishes often containing wine, mushrooms and cream. Here, bacon and tomatoes are added to the sauce, giving it brawny depth and brightness. You can use any kind of mild, white-fleshed fish you like. Just watch it carefully so the fillets don’t overcook under the broiler.
Matzo Pizza
A staple during Passover, this easy snack combines a crunchy, cracker-like crust and gooey, cheesy topping spiked with optional red-pepper flakes for a fiery bite. Feel free to add your favorite pizza toppings: Olives, anchovies, dried oregano and sliced garlic and onions can all be layered on top of the cheese before baking.
Shrimp and Corn Chowder
Creamy and a little sweet with a hint of salty smoke from bacon, this classic chowder makes use of canned corn for its tenderness and ease, but you could go all in with fresh corn. If you have the time, buy shell-on shrimp and save the shells to enhance boxed stock. Even a quick simmer of five minutes will give the finished chowder more flavor. Using medium or large shrimp instead of jumbo cuts down on cooking time—plus there will be more to enjoy, especially for leftovers.
Merguez and Kale Pasta
To replicate the fragrant and earthy flavors of merguez, a traditional North African sausage, this recipe calls for browning ground beef with plenty of fennel, cumin and coriander seeds, paprika and dried mint. Stirring in a jar of marinara results in a hearty, satisfying sauce much like classic Bolognese but with an added layer of warm, aromatic spices. If using store-bought merguez (which is often made with lamb and can be spicy depending on your tolerance), remember to remove the casing. Ribbon-like pasta shapes like linguine, spaghetti or tagliatelle work best with the sauce, but feel free to use what’s on hand.
Bhaji Sliders
These spicy, hearty sandwiches are a simplified, quick take on pav bhaji, a popular Mumbai street food that is a celebration of humble vegetables — pav means bread in Hindi and bhaji means vegetables. Potatoes and cauliflower make the backbone of this hefty, generously spiced vegetarian main. Peas balance with sweetness. And although 4 tablespoons may seem like a lot of butter, in the end it’s vital to the characteristic texture of the dish: rich, glorious sloppiness. Served on a mini bun, the basic ingredients rise to the occasion and make for a fun and satisfying, albeit messy, slider.
Quick Smoked Salmon Tart
Reminiscent of a classic bagel with lox, this quick and convenient tart is made with buttery, flaky store-bought puff pastry for a no-rolling-necessary appetizer or light yet satisfying meal. A schmear of sour cream is added after the pastry is baked, followed by smoked salmon and toppings boasting of nothing but freshness: crisp cucumbers, pickled onion, briny capers and fragrant dill. Altogether, this smoky, creamy tart is a surefire hit for any gathering.
Roasted Broccoli and Chickpeas With Mole Verde
Mole verde is one of the seven famous moles from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. There are an almost infinite number of variations on this classic mole — the type of ingredients, the method of preparation, the length of time cooked and what is served with it. But what they have in common is their shade of green, from raw moles that are bright emerald green to the long simmered, charred vegetable mole that has a deep olive hue. This version gets its bright color from the spinach and cilantro, and its tang from the tomatillos with a little heat from the poblanos. It’s served topped with roasted broccoli and chickpeas for a vibrant vegan dinner but would complement a roasted chicken just as easily.
Aloo Chicken
This version of a traditional Punjabi chicken and potato stew uses some shortcuts — boneless chicken and chicken stock instead of whole chicken thighs, and cashew butter in place of ground cashews — to produce a quick, one-pot meal with complex flavors. The quality of the stock heavily influences the end result, so reach for the best. Onion, ginger, garlic, chile powder and garam masala layer on sweetness and heat while cashew butter adds a rich nuttiness. Serve with lemon wedges for a final hit of brightness.
Quick Chicken Paprikas
If you’re curious about cooking Hungarian food at home, chicken paprikas, or paprikás csirke, is a great place to start, delivering the bold flavor you expect from the country’s cuisine. An old-world classic with deep paprika flavor and a creamy finish, it has been a staple in Hungarian-American families for generations. Traditionally made with whole chicken legs, boneless chicken breasts are used in this easy version, making a classic comfort food dish doable any day of the week. Sour cream, used by Hungarians the way the French use heavy cream, gives the sauce a tangy richness that’s hard to beat. When sweating the onions, ghee (though not traditional) is used for its rich flavor and high smoke point, but if you don’t keep ghee at home, use equal parts canola or vegetable oil and butter.