Main Course
8665 recipes found
Extra-Crispy BLT
Using wavy, thin-cut bacon in a BLT is kind of like putting potato chips in your sandwich: It adds salt and a satisfying crunch when you take a bite. Cook the bacon in the oven (the fastest way to evenly cook a batch), then layer the slices irregularly for more air and optimal texture. Use equal portions of bacon and tomato for a nice balance of crisp and soft, salty and sweet. Thinly sliced iceberg lettuce goes in between the two for freshness and even more crunch, and it helps keep the tomatoes from dampening the bacon. While these steps seem small, together they are the keys to the BLT of your summertime dreams.
Australian Zucchini Slice
A beloved Australian staple, a zucchini slice is an eggy, frittatalike lunchbox staple that’s baked until it’s firm enough to slice and eat out of hand. Most versions include bacon, but in his book, “Snacks for Dinner” (Harper Wave, 2022), Lukas Volger substitutes a combination of olives and pickled peppers for a deeply salty bite without any meat. You can serve this hot, warm or at room temperature. Or make it a day or two ahead, store it covered in the fridge, then let it come to room temperature before serving so the texture is supple and soft.
Fuul (Somali-Style Fava Bean Stew)
Fuul is a beloved fava bean stew that has long been woven into the culinary fabric of East Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. It’s also known as ful medames or foul mudammas. This comforting stew is served in a variety of ways: slow-simmered whole beans topped with juicy tomatoes and olive oil, or simply crushed and spritzed with lemon juice. This recipe is for Somali-style fuul, which consists of smashed fava beans and receives its intoxicating smell from the xawaash mix. Fuul is eaten for breakfast alongside eggs and fresh anjero, and is perfect for suhoor or iftar.
Tomato-Parmesan Soup
What if you could have a tomato soup that was as plush as a cream of tomato but tasted like pure tomato? Enter Parmesan. Simmering tomatoes with a Parmesan rind is like seasoning a bowl of soup with a shaving of cheese 100 times over. It gives the soup an undercurrent of savory fat and salt that only bring out tomato's best sides. Many specialty groceries sell containers of rinds, but if you can’t find any, stir ½ cup grated Parmesan into the final soup (or cut off the rind of a wedge you’re working through). Rinds will keep in the freezer for forever, so start saving. Pair the soup with Parmesan toast, for dunking, though it’s in no way needed.
Sardines on Buttered Brown Bread
In addition to celebrating the star, sardines, these open-faced sandwiches should be a celebration of good bread and butter. Choose a dense, dark European-style rye, thinly sliced, or a rustic whole-wheat bread. They look nice open-faced, but they could, of course, be made in a two-slice format.
Sardine Salad
For a vivid take on lunchtime tuna salad, use oil-rich sardines and skip the mayonnaise. Emulsifying the deeply seasoned oil from the sardine tin with lemon juice and mustard makes the salad creamy like mayonnaise does but with flavors that are more intense and pronounced. Add any of the sharp, crunchy, fresh pops you like in your tuna or whitefish salad, such as capers, cornichons, pickled peppers or herbs, and eat this sardine salad over greens, on a bagel or English muffin, or between two slices of toast.
Best Chicken Salad
The secret to this chicken salad recipe isn’t in the seasonings (though the tarragon and sour cream make it pretty wonderful) but in the texture of the chicken, described as “plush” by the chef Barbara Tropp in her “China Moon” cookbook. She incorporated Chinese methods and flavors to her cooking, including this foolproof method for poaching chicken breasts without overcooking. It makes a chicken salad that’s perfect for sandwiches (especially on dark rye or sourdough breads) or scooped onto a lettuce-lined plate with sliced radishes, tomatoes, crackers, grapes or all of the above. The chicken breasts used here must be bone-in, but you can remove the skin if you prefer. The skin and bones flavor the cooking liquid, providing a bonus of several pints of chicken stock.
Huevos Rotos (Broken Eggs)
Variations of this hearty fried egg-and-potato dish can be found throughout Spain, including the Canary Islands, where it’s said to have originated. There’s always a runny egg, but whether it sits atop fried potato rounds, French fries or crunchy chips varies by region and personal preference. The potatoes are often served with chorizo sausage or Serrano ham, but in this vegetarian version, smoked paprika and red-pepper flakes mimic chorizo’s flavor and heat. Pierce the eggs just before serving so the golden yolks coat the potatoes with a glossy sauce. Serve with sautéed greens or a crisp salad dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. This one-pan meal is good with a cup of coffee or a beer — it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner material.
Eli Zabar’s Egg Salad Sandwich
In 1975, Eli Zabar, the owner of E.A.T., Eli's at the Vinegar Factory and numerous restaurants and markets throughout the city, invented what he calls the platonic ideal of an egg salad sandwich. He did it by eliminating half the egg whites. During this period, he was into simplicity, he said, and he wanted to get to the essential “egginess” of egg salad. The recipe remains unchanged more than 40 years later. But what of all the leftover hard-cooked egg whites? E.A.T. sells them as chopped egg white salad in two versions: plain, and dressed with mayonnaise and dill. Waste not, want not.
Ham Omelet Sandwich
This breakfast sandwich is sold in bakeries, convenience stores and train stations in Japan, Hong Kong and throughout Asia. A thin, flat omelet layered with even thinner slices of ham is stacked between slices of buttered soft white bread, then cut into triangles. You can, of course, add cheese, but its beauty is in its simplicity. And, besides, going without cheese makes the sandwich as tasty at room temperature as it is when warm.
Kimchi Grilled Cheese
Spicy heat plays well with melty cheese (think: queso dip, stuffed jalapeños, Buffalo wings and blue cheese). Here, kimchi and mozzarella cheese come together for a twist on the classic grilled cheese. Mildly flavored mozzarella is an especially good choice in this recipe because it lets the kimchi shine, but you could also add 1/4 cup of grated Cheddar, Monterey Jack or even pepper Jack for more kick. If you have grilled steak, roasted vegetables or practically any other savory leftover in your fridge, chop it up and add about 1/4 cup to your sandwich along with the kimchi. Smearing mayonnaise on the bread, instead of butter, might sound weird, but it won’t burn as quickly as butter, allowing the cheese ample time to melt, and the bread to toast up to golden perfection. (Watch the video of Ali Slagle making kimchi grilled cheese here.)
Chickpea Salad With Gim
The salty, nutty and gloriously savory flavors of gim — the Korean roasted and seasoned seaweed — anchor this easy chickpea salad. Packed with umami, sheets of crisp gim are finely chopped into onyx-black confetti, speckling the sesame oil and mayonnaise-bound chickpeas. (Note that Japanese nori, the unseasoned sheets of seaweed used for sushi, are too dry and will not work in this recipe.) As it sits, the salad absorbs the dressing and the raw red onion mellows out beautifully, which means this is an ideal contender for making ahead and lugging to picnics whenever.
Fried Rice
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Start with some cooked rice, white or brown, a cup or so per person, made fresh or pulled from the freezer where you keep some in a plastic bag against the promise of just such an exercise. (The chill helps separate the grains.) Also helpful, also in the freezer: bags of diced organic vegetables you can get at the market (the mixed corn, carrots and peas number, for instance). For the rest: meat if you eat meat, a couple eggs, lots of chopped garlic and ginger, some scallions. You can make a sauce from soy sauce and sesame oil (about a 3:1 ratio) and fire it up with a teaspoon or two of gochujang. You’ll need a little less than a quarter cup of sauce to feed four. To the wok! Crank the heat, add a little neutral oil, then toss in your meat. I like chopped brisket from the barbecue joint, or pastrami from the deli, or ground pork, or bacon, or leftover roast chicken — whatever you decide on, you’ll need far less than you think. After the meat crisps, fish it from the pan and add about a tablespoon each of minced garlic and ginger, a handful of chopped scallions. Stir-fry for 30 seconds or so, then add those frozen vegetables. More stir-frying. Return the meat to the wok. Stir-fry. Clear a space in the center of the wok and add the eggs, cooking them quickly to softness. Throw in the sauce, then the rice, and mix it all together until it’s steaming hot. Finish with more chopped scallions. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Peanut Butter Sandwich With Sriracha and Pickles
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Here’s a spin on a great old sandwich of the American South: peanut butter and pickle sandwiches with a spray of sriracha or sambal oelek, and a tiny drizzle of soy sauce. Toasting the bread before spreading it with peanut butter adds crunch and warmth, and the result is a sandwich of remarkable intensity, sweet and salty, sour and soft and crisp. Trust me on this one! Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Hummus Wrap
Hummus is a great filling for a vegetarian wrap. You can buy hummus in many grocery stores, but nothing can beat hummus you make at home. It takes no time at all to make this version with canned chickpeas.
Classic Bean Salad
You can use any kind or combination of canned beans to make this classic picnic salad, but a mix of white beans, chickpeas and red kidney beans makes it especially colorful. Although this is delicious when freshly made, it gets even better as it sits. If you have time, make it at least an hour or two before serving; it can rest at room temperature for up to 4 hours — but after that, slip it into the fridge. If you want to make this the day before, add the celery and parsley just before serving, so they stay crisp and green.
Creamy White Bean Soup With Spicy Paprika Oil
As easy as it is fast, this simple blended white bean soup relies upon cheap staples like canned beans, stock, garlic, olive oil, shallots and dried herbs. An artful drizzle of paprika oil enlivens it. While the soup simmers, toast red-pepper flakes and smoked paprika in olive oil to make a vibrant red sauce inspired by Chinese chile oil. The soup is great before blending — it’s more like a stew — but purées to a creamy white. You could top the soup with sautéed quartered button mushrooms, roasted vegetables or toasted croutons, but the paprika oil provides deep flavor, and is the only garnish you truly need.
Roasted Tomato and White Bean Stew
This hearty, flexible stew comes together with pantry ingredients and delivers layers of flavors. Cherry tomatoes, roasted in a generous glug of olive oil to amplify their sweetness, lend a welcome brightness to this otherwise rich dish. Onion, garlic and red-pepper flakes form the backbone of this dish, to which white beans and broth are added, then simmered until thick. While this stew is lovely on its own, you could also add wilt-able greens such as kale, escarole or Swiss chard at the end, and toasted bread crumbs on top. The dish is vegan as written, but should you choose to top your bowl with a showering of grated pecorino or Parmesan, it would most likely work well in your favor.
Fried Egg Quesadilla
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. This simple fried egg quesadilla makes as fine a light supper as it does a breakfast repast. Easy work: Melt some butter in a pan and gently cook a corn tortilla in it. Top the tortilla with grated Cheddar, a slice of deli ham or some cooked bacon if you want them, a little chopped cilantro or salsa or hot sauce, and another tortilla. Cook, flipping the quesadilla a few times, until it is crisp and golden and the cheese has melted into lace at the sides. Use a spatula to pull it out of the pan, and place it onto a cutting board to rest. Fry an egg in the now-empty pan with a little more butter, then cut the quesadilla into quarters, placing the egg on top. Top with cilantro and hot sauce or salsa. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Grilled Cheese Sandwich
The trick to making the best grilled cheese sandwich isn't just in the ingredients (mayonnaise and butter, together at last). It's also on the stove. Achieving a golden, crusty outside and oozy inside takes a little patience: if the heat is too high, the outside will scorch before the cheese melts. Cooking the slices separately at first gives the cheese a good head start. There’s no need to search out artisanal loaves or local cheese (though they won’t hurt), but definitely do not use homemade mayonnaise. Mustard, chutney or even strawberry jam (believe it) can be dabbed on the cheese as it melts, or add ham, prosciutto or slices of apple or tomato (drain on paper towels first). You can use any melting cheese, such as American, Muenster or Swiss, but not too much: part of the perfection here is in the proportion of bread to cheese.
Cold Udon Noodles With Carrot and Egg
This simple udon dish is a perfect to-go lunch or easy dinner. Catherine Eng, a website designer in Los Angeles, makes this for her son. "I've got it down to a science, so it only takes me 10 or 15 minutes," she said. "And I can be sure he gets his carbs and protein." For the bonito-flavored soy soup base, like Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu, check your local Asian market or order it online.
Easy Lentil Soup
This earthy, simple-to-make lentil soup can be embellished however you please. Leave it plain, and it’s warming and velvety. Or dress it up as you like, either with one or two of the suggested garnishes listed in the recipe (see Tip), or with anything else in your pantry or fridge. If you’d like to make this in a pressure cooker, reduce the stock to 3 1/2 cups, and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes, allowing the pressure to release naturally.
Grilled Cheese With Apples and Apple Butter
If Cheddar on a slice of apple pie sounds good to you, you will love this twist on a grilled cheese sandwich, which marries salty and sweet elements between two caramelized pieces of buttery bread. Look for dark apple butter, with no added sugar, since it will have the richest flavor. Unlike most grilled cheese recipes, which call for building the sandwiches, cooking them on one side, then flipping, this one calls for cooking the sandwiches open-faced, then assembling them.The cheese melts more quickly and reliably if cooked this way. Depending on the size of your bread slices and your skillet, you may be able to cook two sandwiches at a time. You could also have two pans going, or just serve them as they are finished. To serve all four at once, just transfer the cooked sandwiches to a baking sheet in a 200-degree oven while you crisp up the remaining sandwiches on the stovetop.
Vegetables-and-Dip Pita Pocket
Children can enjoy the fun combination in these pita pocket sandwiches. Each bite delivers the crunch of vegetables and the creaminess of dip. Sweet pickles add a little excitement to each bite. You can swap the standard pairing of carrots and celery for other crunchy vegetables you enjoy raw, like fennel, cucumber or peppers.