Rice & Grains
2019 recipes found
Sheet-Pan Quesadillas
A single quesadilla thrown together on the stovetop takes mere moments, but when you want to make a larger batch all at once, a sheet pan comes in handy. Lightly greasing the pan results in the richness of a stovetop quesadilla, and the dry heat of the oven gives you crisp tortillas and bronzed, bubbling cheese in 10 minutes. A sprinkle of salt on the tortilla maximizes its inherent nutty flavor and all it needs is cheese to be a great quesadilla. But, a little extra filling in the form of vegetables — like corn kernels and onions, or leftover beans or shredded chicken — would be welcome. Serve with the usual accouterments: raw onion, cilantro and avocado, maybe sour cream and salsa or hot sauce, whatever you like to eat with your quesadillas. This recipe makes 6 quesadillas, but that amount can easily be scaled down.
Chewy Lemon Cookies
These cookies have an Italian-inspired taste and an American texture. The flavors of lemon, polenta and rosemary may remind you of biscotti, or a lemon-polenta cake, but the cookies are as crisp-edged and chewy-centered as they come. The recipe uses Sarah Kieffer’s pan-banging technique, which requires quite a specific dough-ball size and wide spacing on the sheet pan to work. Make sure each round of dough is 3 ounces, and don’t bake more than four balls on one pan. These giant cookies are even better when they’ve cooled slightly — they become chewier and the rosemary emerges.
One-Pot Tofu and Broccoli Rice
One pot is all you need to make custardy tofu, fluffy rice, crisp vegetables and a spicy sauce for dinner tonight. Toast rice with ginger and garlic for a fragrant base, then partway through steaming the rice, add broccoli florets. Once the rice is tender and the broccoli bright green, use the rice’s resting time to warm the tofu on top. The tofu’s marinade of peanut butter, soy sauce and chile crisp adds a punchy, creamy complement that completes the meal. If you want to use another vegetable instead of broccoli, you may need to adjust when it’s added to the pot: add sturdier vegetables like sliced carrots and winter squash with the rice, as they take longer to cook, and more delicate asparagus or spinach with the tofu.
Chicken Perloo
The supremely comforting one-pot rice dish, perloo (pronounced every which way, including PER-low, PER-la and per-LOO), is a Lowcountry staple with roots in West Africa. This Charleston version from “Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ” by Rodney Scott and Lolis Eric Elie (Clarkson Potter, 2021) calls for two key ingredients: Charleston Gold rice, an heirloom grain, and leftover smoked chicken. Feel free to use arborio rice or another short-grain variety if you can’t get Charleston Gold; and you can buy the smoked chicken from your local smoke shop or BBQ restaurant, or in a pinch, use grocery store rotisserie chicken. You’ll just want to compensate for the absence of smokiness by adding a pinch of smoked paprika, a whisper of fire.
Cilantro-Lime Salmon and Rice
Bright and vibrant cilantro and lime liven up this weeknight-friendly, one-pot meal. Start by toasting rice in butter in a skillet to create a flavorful base, then, when the rice is almost finished cooking, add green beans and briefly marinated salmon to steam. Like many one-pot meals, this one is carefully calibrated so that each of the ingredients finishes cooking at the same time. Give the beans a head start to ensure they tenderize in the short time it takes the delicate salmon to cook through. To serve, garnish the finished dish with more cilantro and lime juice.
Bacon and Egg Don
In the pantheon of comforting donburi (Japanese rice bowl dishes like katsudon, oyakodon and gyudon), bacon and eggs aren’t traditional toppings by any means, but they sure hit the spot. Eggs, soft-scrambled in the bacon fat with mirin and soy sauce, serve as a gently sweetened duvet for the rice and a counter to the salty bacon. Mirin, the Japanese rice wine, does a lot of work here to take ordinary eggs and rice to restaurant-flavor heights. To level up the rice, stir in 1 tablespoon rice vinegar and 1 teaspoon mirin while fluffing it. A sprinkle of furikake (rice seasoning) and shichimi togarashi (seven-spice blend) might feel like gilding the lily, but their nuanced savoriness completes this dish.
One-Pot Mushroom and Ginger Rice
Inspired by Cantonese one-bowl rice dishes like bo zai fan and sticky rice, this mushroom and ginger rice has clean yet robust flavors. The Chinese cooking technique of velveting — dusting protein in cornstarch to keep it tender and silky during cooking — is usually reserved for meat or seafood but here, the same method is used for the mushrooms, allowing them to stay juicy and plump as they cook in the rice. Crisping the rice at the bottom of the pot is optional, but if you choose to do it, stay close, listen to the sound of the sizzle, smell the aroma; if you detect any burning scents, take it off the heat immediately. At first, the rice will seem stuck to the pot, but it will release more easily once it has cooled. A dish like this would traditionally be cooked in a clay pot, so use that if you have one, but if not, a cast-iron Dutch oven will do the job.
Kotlet (Meat, Potato and Onion Patties)
Crisp on the outside and juicy in the middle, Iranian kotlets are made from mixing grated potatoes and onions with ground beef or lamb and spices, then forming them into patties before frying. Every Persian household has its own signature spice blend, or advieh, and it traditionally includes a variety of spices such as cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, rose petals and cloves. Typically eaten for lunch or taken along on picnics, kotlets are great hot or at room temperature; they can be served right away with steamed basmati rice or saved for later, tucked into a sandwich with tomatoes, pickles and herbs.
Adas Polo ba Khorma (Persian Lentil Rice With Dates)
Lentils and rice scented with warm spices and strewn with fried onions is a classic Persian dish with infinite variations. This minimalist take, from Nasim Alikhani, the owner of Sofreh restaurant in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, keeps things quick and simple, and uses just a few pantry-friendly ingredients. The lentils and rice are cooked together in the same pot, then layered with a mixture of caramelized onions and plump, sweet dates, as well as chopped fresh herbs for brightness. A dollop of yogurt on top adds a tart and creamy touch. Feel free to riff on this basic recipe, adding nuts for crunch, stirring in other spices like cardamom, ginger and saffron, and substituting the likes of raisins, dried apricots or dried cranberries for the dates. At Sofreh, the dish is finished with a dash of rosewater and melted butter for extra richness and perfume.
Kielbasa-Barley Soup
When the beef in beef and barley soup gets replaced with kielbasa, the soup becomes speedy enough for a weeknight. Full of smoke and spice, kielbasa sausage is wonderful in stews (just look at bigos, a national dish of Poland) and its bounciness is especially fun when contrasting with chewy barley. The barley thickens the broth into something velvety, while a substantial amount of dill brightens the cozy mix. If you’d like to incorporate a green vegetable, add thinly sliced collard greens or cabbage along with the broth in Step 2.
Roasted Kale and Sweet Potatoes With Eggs
This sheet-pan meal of buttery sweet potatoes, kale chips, jammy eggs and toasted coconut feels like it comes together by magic simply by staggering the times the ingredients are layered onto the pan. Because thick slices of sweet potato take longer to cook through, they roast first, before the more delicate kale, eggs and coconut are added. The eggs cook in a nest of curly kale leaves that hold them in place. Drizzle everything with a creamy, punchy sauce like the one here, made from just peanut butter and harissa — or, use mint chutney, green goddess dressing or miso-sesame vinaigrette. Serve over grains, quinoa or couscous for a complete, satisfying meal.
Breaded Halloumi With Cabbage Slaw
Watch out, chicken and pork; there is a new cutlet in town. Halloumi is more than a meat-free cutlet alternative; its signature salty, tangy chew is enhanced when encased in a layer of extracrispy bread crumbs. This recipe follows standard breading procedure (dredging the halloumi first in a flour mixture, then beaten eggs, then bread crumbs), with some tweaks: Adding a touch of cornstarch to the flour ensures maximum crunch. Whisking a dash of oil into the egg thins the liquid coating, encouraging the flour and bread crumbs to adhere to the halloumi while also promoting even browning. The quick cabbage slaw is purposefully tart to cut through the richness of the fried halloumi. This cutlet could also be served on a burger bun or with tonkatsu sauce.
Bibimbap
A Korean dish of marinated meat, colorful vegetables and runny eggs arranged over a bed of fluffy rice, bibimbap is an edible work of art. The banchan, or side dishes, that are piled on top can vary, but this version includes tender beef bulgogi, meaty shiitake mushrooms, crisp bean sprouts, tender spinach, crunchy carrots and cool cucumbers. A spicy-sweet gochujang sauce is drizzled over the top, then everything is mixed together (bibim means “to mix” and bap means “rice” in Korean), breaking open the egg yolk to lend a rich creaminess to the dish. Be sure to scrape up the crunchy grains from the bottom of the pan, and serve with a side of kimchi, if you’d like, for even more texture.
Red Lentil Barley Stew
Warm spices, fennel and leeks give this rib-sticking stew a deep, complex character. Feel free to adjust the liquid to taste. Adding a little more makes it brothier and more souplike, suitable for eating with a spoon. Or let it rest a bit. As it sits, the barley will absorb all of the liquid, making it easily forkable. Be sure to serve this with lemon wedges on the side, since the lentils and barley benefit greatly from a bright jolt right at the end.
Lemony Pearl Barley Soup
High in comfort, low in fuss, this pearl barley soup answers the question of what to cook when one doesn’t feel like cooking. Made with pantry staples, this simple soup beams with vibrancy. Lemon transforms this hearty soup into a dish that also feels light and restorative, while dill, used generously, reinforces the citrus flavor while bringing an assertive herbaceous edge. Other herbs could step in for dill; consider parsley, cilantro or chives. Spinach is added right at the end, after the heat is turned off, which ensures that the greens maintain a little bite and stay bright. The soup will thicken over time, so if you are making it ahead or have leftovers, simply loosen it up with more stock or water when reheating.
Hoecakes
Justin Cherry, a foodways historian, chef and resident baker at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, developed this recipe for hoecakes (cornmeal pancakes) using archival sources that describe the first president’s fondness for the dish. Corn was a cash crop at Mount Vernon, and the estate had a successful mill that could process up to 8,000 pounds of flour and cornmeal in one day. Hoecakes were so esteemed by Washington that Hercules Posey and the other enslaved chefs likely made them daily. Given the president’s dental issues and wealth, the cornmeal used for his hoecakes was probably a finer, higher-quality grind than the coarser meal given to his enslaved community as weekly rations. This recipe, created by Mr. Cherry, uses stone-ground cornmeal, and produces a pronounced corn flavor. It’s important to make sure your butter is hot so the hoecakes crisp nicely while their interiors remain moist, retaining an almost creamy texture. George Washington ate these cornmeal cakes “swimming” in butter and honey, but maple syrup works well, too.
Miso-Mushroom Barley Soup
This hearty vegan dish uses miso and soy to add a tremendous amount of depth and flavor to a relatively quick, one-pot mushroom barley soup. Quartering the mushrooms allows them to retain bite, but you can thinly slice them if you’d prefer everything to be soft and tender. Resist the urge to salt heavily during the bulk of the cooking, as the miso and soy — both sodium-heavy ingredients — will be added at the end to bring the soup together. This is a soup that will thicken, so add more water or broth when reheating. It’s as accommodating as it is comforting: You can empty your pantry or fridge by swapping the barley for farro and spinach for chopped bok choy or other greens.
Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings)
Filled with seasoned pork and savory broth, these delicately pleated dumplings are a labor of love. The trick to getting the soup inside the dumpling is using aspic, a gelatin that forms when meat broth (traditionally made with pork skin and feet) cools and hardens into a jelly. Here, powdered gelatin is dissolved in chicken stock, chilled to set, then cut into small cubes and added to the filling. The pork and aspic are bundled up in the dough, sealed, then steamed, melting the aspic and filling the area around the pork with a heavenly, slurpable broth. Assembling the soup dumplings requires patience and practice, so solicit family and friends to join in on the work. Serve immediately with black vinegar and sliced ginger, and some chile crisp for a little kick.
Detroit-Style Pizza
With charred and cheesy edges, a thick and chewy crust, and a reverse order of toppings, Detroit-style pizza has earned its place in the seemingly endless world of pizza. This hearty pie first appeared on the menu at Buddy’s Rendezvous Pizzeria in the Motor City, in 1946. Owner Gus Guerra baked his mother-in-law’s recipe for Sicilian-style pizza in the deep pans typically used to hold auto parts; the dark, industrial steel better distributed heat than traditional baking pans. Using plenty of sharp, aged Wisconsin brick cheese (see Tip) cut into cubes, with some touching the sides of the pan, helps create the pizza’s coveted burnished edges. You can find a Detroit-style pan online, but a 9-by-13-inch metal baking pan will also work. (You’ll just have to settle for slightly less crispy edges.) Inspired by J. Kenji López-Alt’s Detroit-style dough recipe, this version calls for bread flour, which creates a delightfully light and chewy crumb.
Hand-Pulled Noodles
The pleasantly chewy texture of these long Chinese noodles is part of the allure, as is the artful practice of delicately pulling the fresh wheat dough to create the strands. Hand-pulling noodles, or la mian, is a technique that has been passed from generation to generation, and the results cannot be replicated with a machine. With just bread flour, water and salt, a streamlined recipe, and a little patience, you really can make these fresh noodles at home. Using a high-gluten flour like bread flour, and allowing an ample amount of rest time, will make the dough easier to pull. Once cooked, these springy noodles can be served in a simple broth accompanied by fresh vegetables and topped with a tongue tingling chile crisp.
Hot and Sour Soup
Rich with pork, silky with tofu, punchy with rice vinegar, and spicy with both red and white pepper, this comforting soup is a Chinese classic. Hot and sour soup has been around for centuries in China, eventually making its way to the United States where it was tweaked for American palates (less sour and spicy) and became a popular staple at Chinese-American restaurants. Variations of the dish abound, mostly dependent upon the protein used: Pork is most common, but lamb, beef, chicken and vegetarian versions also exist. Cornstarch is essential to the recipe as it provides the soup’s velvety texture. (Just note that the soup can thicken as it cools.) Adjust the pepper and vinegar amounts to your preference.
Ginger Scallion Chicken and Rice
Hainanese chicken rice, most likely originating from the island of Hainan off the coast of southern China, is a beloved dish of silky poached whole chicken and gingery rice cooked with the bird’s cooking broth and rendered fat. This streamlined version simmers the two together in a single pot to make it a meal fast enough for weeknights. With endless variations throughout the world, most notably in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, one constant is dipping sauces for the meat. There’s often three: ginger-scallion or ginger-garlic sauce, sweetened dark soy and red chile sauce. Here, hot oil is poured over minced ginger and scallions to create an aromatic blend that brings a warming edge to the comforting rice and meat. The slick of oil that remains is used to quickly stir-fry vegetables to turn this into a complete meal. Any leftover sauce is great over fish, tofu, eggs and noodles.
Coconut Cornbread
This rich, tender cornbread has coconut milk mixed into the batter, giving it a gentle, nutty fragrance. Using all of the brown sugar called for makes this almost cakelike, but you can add less for a milder, savory-sweet loaf. The coconut flake topping gets crisp and golden in the oven, adding a pleasing, nubby contrast to the soft crumb. This is best served still warm, slathered with butter if you like. Store any leftovers in the fridge (it will keep for a few days), then toast it just before serving.
Mochi
Sticky, chewy and pleasantly sweet, these Japanese rice cakes are fairly simple to make at home, but getting the right dough texture and assembly requires a little time and attention. Mochiko, a glutinous sweet rice flour, is simply combined with sugar and water to make the dough. Some recipes call for steaming the dough on the stove but here, the microwave is used to speed up the process, transforming it from opaque to glossy and almost translucent. To ensure the dough doesn’t stick when rolling it out, don’t be shy with the cornstarch, and keep a bowl of water on hand for dipping any utensils. For a pop of color, add a few drops of food coloring, then fill the rounds of dough with your favorite ice cream. (They can also be filled with red bean paste; see alternative method.) Mochi is enjoyed year-round, but it’s traditionally eaten around Japanese New Year festivities.