Side Dish
4106 recipes found
Roasted Broccoli and Whipped Tofu With Chile Crisp Crunch
The concept here is simple, but the results are truly spectacular: Broccoli florets are tossed with olive oil and soy sauce, steamed in the oven until softened, then crowned with crunchy chile crisp bread crumbs. The broccoli is bundled up in aluminum foil, then cooked, so that it tenderizes swiftly and retains moisture. Meanwhile, chile crisp, panko, cashews and olive oil are toasted in a skillet until seasoned and crunchy. (This mix would also be stellar over peanut noodles, roasted vegetables or salad greens.) The optional base of two-ingredient cashew cream (tofu and cashew butter) adds lusciousness and protein. This dish has got heat, but it’s more about texture.
Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli)
A member of the brassica family, gai lan (also known as Chinese broccoli) tastes like a cross between broccoli and broccoli rabe, with a nice balance of slightly sweet and bitter. Gai lan is typically boiled or steamed with aromatics, then enjoyed plain or drizzled with oyster sauce. Here, it’s simply pan-steamed with garlic, ginger and toasted sesame oil. White pepper, common in Chinese cookery, offers milder heat that pairs well with the gai lan, but black pepper is also fine. This quick side is wonderful with roasted chicken and fish; leftovers can be chopped and added to fried rice or pasta the next day.
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Spiced Potato Gratin
This cheesy spiced potato gratin is homey enough for a weeknight meal, but also impressive enough for a dinner party.
Japanese Sweet Potatoes With Maple-Tahini Crème Fraîche
Compared to garnet sweet potatoes and other types of sweet potatoes, the flesh of the Japanese variety is pale in color, sweeter and somewhat drier. This means that after cooking, they become pleasantly fluffy and creamy, as opposed to watery, and are ready to take on copious amounts of dairy and salt. Here they are topped with a super-simple tahini crème fraîche. Feel free to use sour cream as a substitute for the crème fraîche, but you may want to adjust the lemon juice as sour cream has a bit more tang. If you don’t have a steamer basket or colander that can accommodate 2½ pounds of potatoes, simply roast them.
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Simple Fluffy Couscous
Cooking couscous according to the packaging instructions is quick and easy, but it almost always results in sticky, unevenly cooked couscous. But this unique technique guarantees fluffy, perfectly cooked couscous every time.
Cabbage With Spiced Rum Butter and Scallions
Steamed cabbage is easily the unsung hero of any Jamaican takeout container. This recipe mimics the well-seasoned Caribbean side dish with a few additions and subtractions. Regardless of its edits, this particular steamed cabbage is a top choice to nestle next to rice and peas, brown stew chicken, fried plantains or all three. A spiced butter enriched with rum adds a few extra layers of flavor, and an entire bunch of scallions, along with onion and garlic, provide plenty of savory allium notes. Instead of including a more typical blend of carrots, bell peppers and other vegetables, the cabbage takes center stage as the star of the dish. Steaming the cabbage with the least amount of added moisture takes some attention and monitoring, but the concentrated flavors are worth the effort.
Beet Salad With Celery and Pomegranate
It’s nice to make this beet salad in winter when pomegranates are available. For the best result, cook your own beets — simply boil or roast them any time you have a free moment, even a day or two ahead. Then, slip off the skins while the beets are still slightly warm. Slice them just before you make the salad. Sumac, available in Middle Eastern grocery shops, adds tartness, as would a spoonful of pomegranate molasses. To serve, toss with chopped celery and mint, then garnish with pomegranate seeds. It’s a feast for the eyes.
Herbed Rice in Chard Leaves
This savory dish echoes the flavors of stuffed grape leaves, but this large-format version is easier. (Of course, if you prefer to make smaller dolma-like packages, that’s fine, too.) It’s best served warm with a good dollop of tart yogurt on top, but if your yogurt isn’t sufficiently sour, add a little lemon juice or sumac. Though this is a happy main course side by side with a beet salad, it could also be an accompaniment to roast chicken or grilled fish.
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Freekeh Pilaf
For a simple pilaf that accentuates freekeh's unique chew and smoky flavor, it’s critical to soak the grains before cooking and pair it with warm spices and aromatics.
Roasted Cauliflower With Nước Chấm Sauce
Hearty slabs of cauliflower are deeply caramelized in the oven on high heat then dressed with a riff on the traditional Vietnamese nước chấm sauce — an umami-rich mix of fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, garlic and chiles. Fish sauce and garlic add pungency, vinegar brings a touch of sourness (in place of more traditional citrus), sugar rounds out these strong flavors with some sweetness, and chiles bring the heat. Mild, subtly sweet cauliflower benefits a great deal from getting burnished in the oven, and again from the sauce, while crushed roasted nuts add texture and bring out the vegetable’s nuttiness. Serve this dish as a starter or side, or supplement with rice to make it a main.
Leafy Greens With Turmeric Dressing and Spicy Pistachios
If there’s going to be a salad at any celebration, it deserves to feel as festive as the rest of the menu — but it should also be simple. Golden turmeric dressing will add brightness to any greens you choose, but it works especially well with bitter ones. The quick candied nuts add crunch, plus a dose of heat that keeps guests coming back for another forkful. If you tend to snack on what you’re cooking as you go, make a double batch of nuts so there will be enough to go around.
Yamitsuki (Addictive Cabbage)
In Japanese, “yamitsuki” means addictive — a precise description of this seemingly humble side dish of cabbage, gently torn and simply anointed with sesame oil and seeds, garlic, black pepper and a fingerprint’s worth of salt. So few ingredients, so little time required, and you can’t stop eating it. Often served at izakayas, the Japanese equivalent of pubs, the cabbage is especially good for refreshing the palate and easing the stomach between bites of richer, fattier foods. Aiko Cascio, an instructor for the New York-based League of Kitchens cooking school, prefers tearing the leaves by hand rather than using a knife because the rougher edges absorb more of the sesame oil. This recipe, from “The League of Kitchens Cookbook” (Harvest, 2024) by Lisa Kyung Gross, Rachel Wharton and the women of the League of Kitchens cooking school, calls for flathead cabbage, also known as Taiwanese cabbage, which is soft and tender, with space between the ribs. If you can find only green, Ms. Cascio advises cutting it into smaller pieces and letting it rest a little longer in salt, for greater pliancy.
Pão de Queijo (Chewy Cheese Buns)
Brazil's pão de queijo stands out among Latin American cheese breads for its simplicity and irresistible chewiness. The secret lies in tapioca starch, extracted from cassava root (also known as manioc or yuca) native to Brazil, which gives these buns their distinctive texture. Pão de queijo is traditionally made with queijo minas, a cow’s milk cheese with a mild flavor, plus sweet or sour tapioca starch (or both), but this adapted version uses more readily available cheeses and omits the sour tapioca starch without compromising that addictive chewy texture. The straightforward nature of this recipe is a great way to highlight your favorite cheese's flavor. While pão de queijo is traditionally enjoyed on its own, the optional tangy, sweet-heat guava dipping sauce pairs perfectly with it, offering a Caribbean twist on that classic guava and cheese pairing. You can freeze the buns for future meals and bake them off as needed, as they are best eaten the same day they are baked.
Vegan Latkes
You don’t need to use an egg substitute like flax seeds or aquafaba to make excellent vegan latkes. The key is to use flour to bind the potato strands together, then leave the latkes alone in the pan as they cook thoroughly on the first side before flipping them. (Too much flipping can cause them to fall apart.) Once the latkes form a golden-brown crust on the first side, carefully turn them over to finish cooking. For the crispiest result, you can add the potato starch lost in squeezing back into the batter (see the Tip for details). It does add an extra step and 15 minutes to the process, but it’s easy and worth it for latkes lovers who live for the crunch.
Brussels Sprouts Gratin With Blue Cheese
Brussels sprouts are shredded and baked in a rich Gorgonzola cream topped with crushed, crispy fried onions in this lush casserole; its silky sauce is built in a blender to prevent clumps. To “shred” the brussel sprouts, discard any wilted or dark outer leaves, and using a sharp knife, trim off the ends, then thinly slice the sprouts across the core. But you can also slice them in a food processor equipped with a slicer blade or buy them pre-shredded.
Cheese Puff
Cheese puff is a scene-stealing side dish in which gooey grilled cheese meets cloudlike soufflé, defining itself as the ultimate comfort food. White bread, salted butter and cheese get bound together by a simple egg-and-milk mixture that coalesces these humble ingredients into a savory bread pudding. Stale bread works best for this recipe, as it absorbs the milk mixture better, but if you’re using fresh sandwich bread, simply dry it out in a low oven for about 10 minutes until stale to the touch (but not browned). Don’t be alarmed if your cheese puff deflates when you take it from the oven, as it’s normal and makes for a more custardy bite. While sharp Cheddar is a key component, any mix of firm, well-melting cheese, such as Gruyère, Gouda or provolone, will work nicely.
Olive-Oil Mashed Potatoes With Bay Leaves
These simple but profoundly delicious mashed potatoes, from the chef Nick Anderer of Anton’s in Manhattan’s West Village, highlight the power of fresh bay leaves and their woodsy bouquet. Milky, peppery and umami-accented, these spuds achieve the perfect balance of starch, liquid and fat, and are special enough for a holiday dinner but easy enough for Sunday supper. Mr. Anderer uses a gentle folding motion to distribute the milk, fat and cheese so that, in his words, “every bit of potato is moistened and seasoned.” Feel free to halve the amounts if you’re not cooking this for a holiday crowd, and yes, they can be made ahead of time (see Tip).
Hot Honey Baked Sweet Potatoes
Goat cheese and honey are a tried-and-true dream flavor pairing, but goat-cheese whipped cream and hot honey turn simple baked sweet potatoes into a veritable party. The combination of rosemary and nuts atop these plush orange babies is reminiscent of bar nuts.
Caramelized Kimchi Baked Potatoes
In this otherwise classic baked potato, kimchi is stepping in for bacon. It’s cooked down in a hot pan with butter and sesame oil to mellow its sharp, tangy edges while concentrating its salty savoriness. A pinch of sugar, though optional, helps the kimchi caramelize. Piled high on a fluffy baked potato, the umami-rich kimchi tastes fabulous with melted extra-sharp Cheddar and cooling sour cream. With such simple ingredients, it helps to really pile them on for maximum flavor impact.
Aglio e Olio Baked Potatoes
The classic Italian combination of aglio e olio (garlic and oil) finds a melodic expression in these Parmesan-festooned baked potatoes. Underneath the fluffy mounds of cheese is garlicky mayonnaise, which, when stirred into a hot pillowy spud, brings a comforting reminder of potato salad. In this recipe, it’s the little things that make a big flavor impact: Use fresh parsley or chives, crushed red pepper that smells fruity and looks jewel-bright, black peppercorns that you’ve toasted and cracked yourself (if you have the patience) and a flavorful extra-virgin olive oil that’s bold, bright or peppery. As in the simple but impactful pasta dish aglio e olio, these baked potatoes pack the biggest punch when each piece plays its part.
Kasha Varnishkes (Buckwheat, Bow Ties and Onions)
In the 1880s, this simple yet beloved dish of buckwheat (kasha), onion and bow tie noodles (varnishkes) came to New York’s Lower East Side with Eastern European Jewish immigrants. At the time, it was made with homemade egg noodles that were rolled out, cut into squares and painstakingly pinched into bow ties. Nowadays, store-bought bow tie egg noodles are traditional, but any hardy pasta, like gemelli or fusilli, will also work well. Lola Landa, chef and owner of Kafe Jerusalem in Lviv, Ukraine, suggests using European-style whole buckwheat groats for this dish. (The more broken-up varieties tend to get mushy unless toasted first with beaten egg.) What really makes this dish, however, are the onions. While Ms. Landa deep-fries thin slices of onion, I prefer to caramelize them in a skillet. To really gild the lily, add mushrooms before tossing everything together.
Green Beans Almondine
This classic French dish of green beans or haricots verts is an all-star holiday side. The French name for the preparation, “amandine,” means “cooked or served with almonds” and, going back to its Latin origins, also means “worthy of love”. Luckily, this recipe translates to both. It comes together fast and is easy to get on the table while cooking a big meal, plus the more time-consuming steps can be done in advance. Haricot verts are often preferred because of their crunchiness, but any green bean will shine just as bright when tossed in butter, shallots and garlic and topped with toasted slivered almonds.
Simple Boiled Greens
Greens, boiled in properly salted water, make an ideal companion to almost any dish. Served with spiced duck, or a similar saucy braise, they provide soft, nourishing relief to every eater and gallantly soak up what’s on the plate. Dinosaur kale (also known as lacinato or Tuscan kale), Savoy cabbage and brussels sprouts are particularly suitable during winter. Let the greens drain and steam dry fully before drizzling with olive oil or topping with a knob of butter.
Rice and Squash Bombe
This pita-crusted rice and squash bombe is a celebratory showstopper, capable of upstaging any roast or standing alone as the centerpiece of a vegetarian feast. The technique of encrusting pilaf in crisp bread is inspired by fruit-studded Azerbaijani shakh plov and Persian polo ba tahdig. It’s a bit fiddly, with three components to prepare — rice, cumin-roasted shallots and squash, and saffron butter — but none of them are complicated. Cook them in advance, but assemble the bombe when you’re ready to bake it off. Make sure to butter the baking bowl heavily and overlap your pitas without gaps. If in doubt, arm yourself with more pitas than the recipe calls for, in case yours are a bit dry when you take them out of the packet — you may need spares for patching.