Nut-Free
1679 recipes found
Chicken Jalfrezi
Originally created as a way to add flavor to roasted meats, chicken jalfrezi is a tangy, spicy stir-fried curry with origins in Bengal. “Jalfrezi” translates to "hot fry," and the dish typically features meat coated in a thick tomato-based gravy — a defining characteristic of the Anglo-Indian version that became popular through British curry houses in the mid-20th century. This recipe uses both Kashmiri chile powder and fresh serrano chiles to deliver its signature spicy kick.
Chocolate Irish Cream Cake
In this rich but balanced dessert, two layers of moist and soft chocolate cake are sandwiched together with a ribbon of rich, creamy dark chocolate ganache infused with Irish cream, then frosted with a light, fluffy Irish cream buttercream. This cake keeps well at room temperature for a few days, so feel free to make it in advance of your next celebration. It’s worth noting that the Irish cream liqueur does not get cooked, so it will retain its alcohol content.
Sheveed Polo (Dill Rice)
This dish is a simple way to make use of a whole bunch of dill and transform an ordinary pot of plain rice. Naz Deravian, the author of “Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories” (Flatiron Books, 2018), uses a mix of fresh and dried dill here. The dried dill enhances the fragrance and also draws out the humidity from the fresh dill so the rice doesn’t turn mushy when steaming. This recipe uses a traditional Persian technique for cooking rice in which you boil the rice for several minutes over high heat, wrap the lid in a kitchen towel to catch the condensation, then steam the rice over low heat for several minutes more. Don't worry; it won't be overcooked. It will be fluffy perfection. Serve it with chicken or seafood, like this roasted dill salmon.
Spiced Pumpkin Pie
Most pumpkin pies rely entirely on ground spices for their heady flavor. In this one, whole spices (star anise, clove, cinnamon and black peppercorns) are infused into cream, which gives it a more interesting, nuanced character, while a hit of ground ginger added at the end makes it particularly intense. You can make the filling and par-bake the crust the day before, but this pie is best assembled and baked on the day you plan to serve it. If you can, use a high-fat, European-style butter for the crust. It really makes a difference.
Classic Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
Full of nubby oats and plenty of sweet raisins, these lightly spiced cookies are pleasingly chewy in the center and crisp around the edges, with a hint of butterscotch from the dark brown sugar. They keep really well, so you can make them up to a week in advance and store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They’re also great for mailing when a package of cookies is in order. Why You Should Trust This Recipe Melissa Clark, a food writer for more than 25 years, creates her fresh takes on classic recipes by trying at least half a dozen different approaches. A professional recipe tester then makes her recipe a minimum of three times (and sometimes more than 12) to ensure it’ll come out perfectly for all home cooks. For these cookies, Melissa achieved the ideal balance of chewy center and dark, crinkly edges by glossing the oats with brown sugar.
Coconut Bread Pudding
Laurent Torondel, the chef of BLT Steak and BLT Fish, developed this recipe for tropical bread pudding. It's rich and luxurious, but quite easy to assemble. Thin challah slices are layered on top of one another then drenched with a boozy mix of eggs, sugar, cream and coconut milk. It's baked in a bain-marie, then slid under the broiler for a few minutes to achieve a crackly-brown top.
Beet, Mushroom and Beef Burgers
I incorporated a roasted beet into the beef and roasted mushroom mix, allowing me to shave another couple of ounces of beef off the formula, and the resulting burger is a winner. The beet contributes moisture, texture and great color – almost a rare meaty look – to these almost-veggie burgers (I tried the grated roasted beets and mushrooms as a mix without the meat and it didn’t hold together; I plan to work on a vegetarian version at a later date.) Meanwhile I love the texture of this patty and the herbal flavors of the mint and chives. If you want to splurge a little (after all there are only 2 ounces of beef in each patty), melt a little blue cheese or gorgonzola on top. I like to serve this with a spicy green, like baby arugula or mizuna.
Tortilla Soup With Roasted Cauliflower 'Rice'
This is not exactly authentic, but I wanted to add a vegetable to my tortilla soup, to make it more of a dinner in a bowl, so I decided to shave cauliflower, toss the ricelike pieces with oil and chili powder, and roast it. I loved the addition of the spicy roasted cauliflower to each bowl of soup, along with the tortilla crisps that I toasted in the microwave rather than frying. You can make this soup even more substantial by adding eggs (see the variation that follows the recipe).
Minestrone With Giant White Beans and Winter Squash
The inspiration for this minestrone was a bag of Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans that I have had in my pantry for a while. Royal Coronas are large white European runner beans that are similar to Greek gigandes but bigger, richer and sturdier. They are about twice the size of a lima bean and, unlike many other large white beans, the skin doesn’t slip off when you soak them. If you substitute limas I would not soak the beans, but if you use the Royal Coronas, do soak them to shorten the cooking time. The beans are downright meaty and the soup is a hearty one. I didn’t even feel the need to add pasta or rice to this substantial minestrone.
Chard Stalk, Celeriac and Leek Soup
Hold onto your chard stalks! Recently I came upon a recipe in a Provençal cookbook for a gratin made with chard stalks and celeriac. I used the combination for a purée, which I served at Thanksgiving dinner to great acclaim. I took the same idea and made it into a blended soup, this time adding a potato and a bunch of leeks for added flavor and body. The soup is incredibly satisfying, but quite light.
Mushroom Risotto With Peas
If you are ever at a loss for what to make for an impromptu dinner party, especially if there will be vegetarians at the table, consider this luxurious mushroom risotto. I added peas because I wanted to introduce some color, and also because the sweetness of the peas fits right in with the flavors of this dish. But this satisfying, elegant dish is fine without peas, too. You’ll get a vibrant dash of green from the parsley added at the end of cooking.
Summer Tacos with Corn, Green Beans and Tomatillo Salsa
Another way to use the versatile green bean in summer cooking. Cut into one-inch lengths and add to a mix of corn, chiles and green tomatillo salsa. Green beans are such a reliable and versatile summer vegetable. I serve them on their own, of course, but I also throw them into various pasta dishes and salads, and here I’ve used them in a taco filling. Cook the beans first, just until tender, then cut them into one-inch lengths and add to this sweet and spicy mix of corn, chiles and green tomatillo salsa.
Yogurt With Mixed Seeds, Toasted Oatmeal and Ginger Syrup
The inspiration for this breakfast yogurt comes mainly from an amazing breakfast yogurt and fruit bowl I had at the Elizabeth Street Café, a Vietnamese-French bakery and restaurant in Austin, Tex. Its baker, Jennifer Tucker, is exceptionally talented: Anyone who can pull off croissants that incorporate whole-wheat flour and seeds while remaining flaky, light, and small has my immediate attention. The cafe’s morning yogurt bowl includes an unusual granola made with steel-cut oats, macadamia nuts, and ginger; fresh fruit; and a delicious ginger-palm sugar syrup. Jennifer was kind enough to share her recipes for the granola and the ginger palm sugar syrup (I’m using only the syrup recipe here, but I’m sure you’ll see the granola in a future Recipes for Health). The seed mix you should make in quantity and keep on hand for adding not just to your morning yogurt, but to salads, baked goods, just about anything. I soak the seeds, then dry them for a day in a very low oven. The ginger syrup keeps well and it too is great to have on hand.
Chunky Avocado-Papaya Salsa
This is based on a recipe in Kim Sunée’s wonderful new book, “A Mouthful of Stars” (Andrews McMeel). Her recipe is more of a salad, a fusion of Thai and Mexican flavors. I loved the idea of combining avocado and papaya, two subtle, creamy fruits, with crunchy, bright-tasting Asian pears and spicy chiles. The first time I saw the recipe I wanted to test it right away, but I didn’t have Asian pears. So I used an apple, and loved it. It’s the sweet, crunchy fruit that does the trick, and apples and Asian pears both work. There are onions in the original recipe but I’ve made them optional.
Black Rice and Lentil Salad on Spinach
Black rice is inky, as black as squid ink, and glistens against a bed of spinach. The pigments provide anthocyanins, flavonoids that are high in antioxidants. I was inspired to cook the rice with lentils by a pilaf that I ate recently at the “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives” conference at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. In addition to the familiar green or black lentils, I’ve thrown in uncooked split red lentils, which contribute their own soft salmon color and crunch; they are soaked for a few hours to soften them, and that’s all they need. Prepare the ingredients for the salad while the rice and lentils are cooking. The cooked rice and lentils will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator.
Bulgur and Chickpea Salad With Roasted Artichokes
Quartering and roasting the artichokes instead of steaming them whole intensifies flavor and cuts down on preparation time for this salad. My initial idea here was to stuff the artichokes with the salad and steam them. But that took a lot of time, and diminished the flavor of the salad. So I trimmed and cut the artichokes into wedges, tossed them with olive oil and roasted them. The roasted artichokes tasted so wonderful that I’ll be inclined to cook them this way from now onhereon in. They are perfect served atop or on the side of this lemony grain, chickpea and herb salad. The bulgur will keep for 4 or 5 days in the refrigerator, and can be frozen. The artichokes can be roasted several hours or even a day ahead but are best when freshly roasted.
Barley and Herb Salad With Roasted Asparagus
When fat stalks of asparagus come into the markets, what better thing to do with them than roast or grill them? What’s more, the California chef and teacher John Ash, demonstrating a recipe at the recent “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives” conference at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley – an event that bridges health care, nutrition science and cooking – insists that not only does asparagus taste better when it’s not cooked in or near water, but also that it doesn’t cause that distinctive odor in urine many people experience after eating it. I can’t vouch for the latter claim, but asparagus is intensely delicious when you roast it And it’s a beautiful addition to this lemony mix of barley and herbs. For the herbs, I like to mix sweet (tarragon, chives) with bitter (parsley, marjoram, thyme). Cooked barley will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen. The dressed grains will be good for 2 to 3 days.
Lemon and Garlic Chicken With Cherry Tomatoes
This is a summery dish you can make any time of year since decent cherry tomatoes are available in the markets all year long. Boneless chicken breasts are marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and rosemary before pounding them. This makes them very flavorful, and a great savory contrast to the sweet tomato topping.
Black Quinoa, Fennel and Celery Salad
This salad was a big surprise. It is so simple. I began with a bulb of fennel and some celery that I had on hand in the refrigerator, the remains of a bag of black quinoa, and fresh herbs from my garden, thinking that I would need to add some unexpected ingredients to achieve something interesting. But the contrasts of textures and the crisp, clean flavors of the fennel and celery in a lemony dressing made for a salad that I can’t resist. Slice the fennel and celery as thin as you can.
3-Bean Good Luck Salad With Cumin Vinaigrette
This is a colorful variation of the black-eyed peas salad I always serve at my New Year’s Day open house. You can cook the black beans and red beans together or separately. The black-eyed peas cook more quickly so should be cooked separately.
Dark Chocolate and Pomegranate Bark
Chocolate bark is the workhorse of homemade holiday gifts, and in Tom Faglon's version, he scatters fresh pomegranate seeds over the surface, where they glisten like rubies. Chewy bits of candied ginger are hidden inside the bittersweet chocolate, lying in wait to surprise you with their spiciness. Then, to make things even more interesting, Mr. Faglon strews the top with crunchy sea salt. This bark is as sweet and juicy as a box of chocolate-covered cherries, but a lot more sophisticated.
Cod in Sweet and Sour Pepper Sauce
Vinegary sauce in which fish is marinated after cooking is sometimes referred to as escabeche. This one is inspired by a recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook “Jerusalem.” It is at once a sauce and vegetable side dish. Instead of frying the fish like Ottolenghi does, I oven-steam it, then bury it in the sauce.
Imam Bayildi
There are many recipes for the iconic Turkish eggplant dish, imam bayildi. Most call for much more olive oil than this recipe does. There’s quite a bit in this one, but it’s a much lighter dish than the classic. Make sure to simmer this over very low heat as it cooks for a long time.
Quick Fresh Tomatillo Salsa
Tomatillos, which are closer botanically to the gooseberry than to the tomato, have a wonderful acidic tang. To get the best out of them they should be simmered or grilled for about 10 minutes, until they’re soft and the color has gone from pale green to olive. You can use them for a quick, blended salsa (like the one in this recipe) and also for a cooked salsa, which has a rounder, seared flavor. Use on tacos, or as chip or vegetable dip, or alongside grilled chicken or pork.