Side Dish
4106 recipes found
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.
Seared Broccoli and Potato Soup
This is not your average broccoli soup. Instead of merely boiling the broccoli to cook it, here, the florets are seared until deeply browned on one side while remaining bright green on the other. This gives the soup a layer of caramelized flavor while also preserving the fresh green taste of the broccoli itself. It’s a technique inspired by Andrew Feinberg of Franny’s restaurant in Brooklyn, who also uses it for zucchini soup. In this version, we’ve added potato for body, chile flakes for spice and lemon zest to heighten the citrus tang at the end.
Panzanella of Plenty
Panzanella is a Tuscan summer bread salad, often made to use up stale bread. The typical panzanella consists of chunks of stale bread and tomatoes, cucumbers, onion and basil, dressed with olive oil and vinegar. So why are we talking about a summer salad for Thanksgiving? Reader Jessica Benoit offers this fall version of panzanella, inspired by her first Thanksgiving abroad and thoughts of the traditional stuffing her family ate during holidays in New England with extended family.
Bacon and Gruyère Green Bean Casserole
This version pays tribute to the classic green bean casserole but upgrades its components. The cream of mushroom soup is replaced with crème fraîche and sautéed mushrooms; bacon and Gruyère are added to the mix; fresh green beans stand in for frozen (though you could use frozen in a pinch); and bread crumbs swap in for the Ritz crackers.
Aioli With Roasted Vegetables
In Provence, the garlic-infused mayonnaise called aioli is typically served with a platter of raw and boiled vegetables and sometimes fish. With its intense creamy texture and deep garlic flavor, it turns a humble meal into a spectacular one. In this recipe, an assortment of colorful roasted vegetables stand in for the raw and boiled ones. It makes a very elegant side dish to an entrée of roasted fish or meat, or can be the main event of a vegetable-focused meal. The aioli can be made up to three days ahead and stored in the refrigerator. The vegetables are best roasted right before serving.
Country-Style Risina Beans
The risina bean has taken considerable work to rescue, and it may take some effort to track down. But it’s well worth ordering the heirloom legume online. La Boutique del Gusto ships Cuore Verde risina beans to the United States and other locations, or you can purchase them online from other vendors. Once you order, most of your toil will be over because the beans lend themselves to a simple preparation. This recipe, from the Umbrian couple who produce the Cuore Verde risina, brings out the beans’ subtle, grassy flavor.
Roasted Okra and Onions
Buy the freshest, firmest okra you can find. Pick pods that are no bigger than your ring finger. Slicing them lengthwise just before you roast them will keep slime to a minimum. This basic technique is very accommodating. You can add quartered yellow squash or zucchini, or even a chopped up fresh tomato. The trick is to roast the vegetables until the edges of the onion begin to turn brown.
Green Beans With Lemon Vinaigrette
Grab-and-go offerings of picnicky food are almost universally mediocre and exasperatingly expensive. Resist the temptation to outsource and make your own. This recipe is built to last. You can make it a day or two ahead of time, or leave it out on the counter if you're going to eat these green beans within a few hours of making it.
Green Beans With Lemon Vinaigrette
Grab-and-go offerings of picnicky food are almost universally mediocre and exasperatingly expensive. Resist the temptation to outsource and make your own. This recipe is built to last. You can make it a day or two ahead of time, or leave it out on the counter if you're going to eat these green beans within a few hours of making it.
Sugar Snap Pea Salad
In this unusual summer salad, funky, creamy Camembert and crisp, juicy sugar snap peas unite make a texturally complex and very flavorful dish. You can use any washed rind cheese here as long as it’s ripe enough to be spread on a plate. If you can’t find a gooey-centered cheese, you can substitute a creamy goat cheese instead. Pea shoots make an ideal garnish, echoing the flavor of the sugar snaps, but if you can’t get them, use any baby green or micro green in its place. If you want to work ahead, you can blanch the peas and mix up the dressing several hours ahead. But don’t combine the salad ingredients until just before serving. In this dish, freshness is key.
Quinoa Salad With Roasted Carrots and Frizzled Leeks
This quinoa salad, filled with soft roasted carrots, currants and a pomegranate molasses-spiked dressing, makes enough to feed a crowd, though you can easily halve the recipe for a smaller group. You can make it with any color quinoa you come across – it comes in shades of tan (called white), rusty red and brownish black. Just don’t mix them together in one pot because they all have slightly different cooking times. As for the pomegranate molasses, it's available in specialty shops and online, but if you don’t have it, substitute a good quality balsamic vinegar spiked with a little honey if you like. You can toss together the quinoa, dressing and carrots the day before serving, but don’t add the arugula until the last minute to keep it as fresh and crisp as possible.
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.
Homemade Pita Bread
Is it worth making pita at home? Absolutely. Store-bought pita (like store-bought sandwich bread) is often several days old. Warm, fragrant home-baked pita is obviously superior, and there’s a bit of a thrill when the breads puff up in the oven. And once you get the hang of it, it’s not difficult. For the best flavor, try to get freshly milled whole-wheat flour. Even though only a little is called for in the recipe, it makes a difference.
Orange-Currant Scones
The orange zest and currants in these tender scones are an homage to the chef Judy Rodgers of the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, who made her storied scones until 1997. The dough and method here, though, are adapted from Heather Bertinetti, the pastry chef at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York. The genius of this particular scone recipe is in the geometry. Slicing a rolled-out slab of dough into squares or rectangles is infinitely simpler than cutting out rounds — and there's less chance of toughening the dough by re-rolling it and adding more flour. You can use any kind of chopped dried fruit in place of the currants.
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.
Pumpkin Soup Served in a Pumpkin (Potage au Potiron)
There was a little farm near where we lived, in Alsace, in a small town by the name of Thann, where we got our pumpkins. My mother would make soup just this way; she served it in the pumpkin, too. We kids looked forward to it every year. Along the way I’ve improved it a little bit. I added the croutons, which I sauté in butter and salt. She didn’t do that. I love soup, and this soup in particular. We usually have Thanksgiving up in the Catskills, at our friends’ house. I always say I’m not cooking, and I end up cooking. This is what I make.
Falafel
These tender and surprisingly light falafel are excellent tucked into a pita or served as an appetizer with a bowl of creamy tahini sauce. Deep-frying is called for here, but don't fret. Frying is thought of as messy, but this can be mitigated by the simplest of measures: Use a heavy, broad and deep pot, a fair amount of oil and don’t crowd (cook in batches if you need to). You’ll know when they’re done because the color will be evenly gorgeous. If you're still not convinced, you can bake the falafel on a parchment-lined sheet pan at 375 degrees until golden brown, about 20 minutes. The results won't be as crisp, but equally delicious.
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.
Zucchini With Fresh Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Basic Polenta
Polenta is basically cornmeal mush, and it can be made with any kind of cornmeal, ground coarse, medium or fine. (You don’t need bags marked “polenta.”) As with most ingredients, though, the better the cornmeal you start with, the better your result in the kitchen. The trick is cooking the polenta for a sufficient amount of time. You must allow the cornmeal to swell and become fully cooked. That way, you emphasize the sweet corn flavor and don’t end up with something bitter and lame. Yes, it takes a long time. But it’s worth it — and you can fry the leftovers tomorrow night in a snap.
Pan-Cooked Celery With Tomatoes and Parsley
You can serve this as a side dish or as a topping for grains or pasta. It is adapted from a recipe in “Cooking From an Italian Garden,” by Paola Scaravelli and Jon Cohen.
