Side Dish
4106 recipes found
Simple Pinto Beans
Pinto beans are emblematic of the Old West — good cheap hearty fare. These plain ones are good with just about anything or as a meal in a tin plate, cowboy-style, with a chunk of cornbread. For the best tasting beans, cook at a bare simmer, and keep the liquid level just 1 inch above the beans’ surface as they cook.
Rice With Roasted Peppers And Beans
Parmesan Broth
Parmesan broth boosts the flavor of everything it touches. More robust than meat- or vegetable-based stocks, this kitchen staple summons the complex essence of aged cheese to serve as a liquid foundation for simmered beans, brothy soups and braised vegetables. This recipe relies on leftover Parmesan rinds, which can be collected over time and stored in the freezer, or bought at some supermarket cheese counters and most specialty cheese shops. If refrigerating the broth for later use, break up the solidified fats with the back of a spoon, or warm to redistribute before using.
Marinated Mushrooms with Worcestershire Sauce
Pierogi Ruskie (Potato and Cheese Pierogi)
Pierogi are always on the menu at milk bars, historic Polish restaurants that were once socialist canteens. This recipe for pierogi ruskie, stuffed with potatoes and cheese, comes from the Bar Prasowy, which is one of the most famous milk bars in Warsaw, and a place where fist-size dumplings can be filled with mushrooms and meat, spinach and cheese, or any number of combinations. These pierogi can be made from kitchen staples, though you’d be doing yourself a favor if you sought out the salty quark cheese that would be used in Poland. Be patient with your first few pierogi: Sealing the filling inside the dumpling takes some practice, but the practice itself is enjoyable. You can snack on the pierogi straight after boiling, or pan-fry them with butter until crisp and serve with barszcz, a light Polish borscht.
Arroz con Habichuelas (Beans and Rice)
Queso Gravy
This is a slightly looser version of a traditional Tex-Mex chile-cheese dip, appropriate for use on chicken-fried steak (or plain old fried chicken), as a topping for enchiladas or simply as something into which to dip chips or crisp vegetables. It scales up nicely if you'd like to double it for use at a party -- just keep it warm in a low slow cooker, set up on a sideboard. Increase the number of jalapeños to taste.
Hard-Cooked Eggs in Tomato-Onion Sauce
This is the eggs-as-meat-style main course of hard-cooked eggs simmered in tomato sauce. Though the main recipe here is Mediterranean, and you often see this preparation in southern Italy (it’s good over pasta), it is equally well known in India, where it is served with chapatti or other bread, and where the spicing is more assertive and the results even more surprising.
White Beans With Chicory
This is inspired by a classic dish from Apulia, the heel of the Italian boot. The authentic dish is a warm purée of skinned dried fava beans, served with cooked greens, usually chicory, a bitter green that is in the same family as escarole. If you are getting big heads of escarole or another hearty bitter lettuce called Batavia in your C.S.A. baskets, use the tough outer leaves for this and save the tender hearts for salads.
Fried Guacamole
The fried guacamole that Angelo Sosa serves at Abajo, his tequila bar, reminded me of the fried ice cream served at some Chinese restaurants. It’s creamy, crunchy and cool on the inside. It’s easier than you might think and it makes for a nice tidbit to enjoy with a drink, or as a first course with a salad. You can prepare the guacamole and freeze it early in the day, leaving only the frying for the last minute. The fritters can also be kept warm in a 150 degree oven for at least 30 minutes.
Thanksgiving Mixed Bean Chili With Corn and Pumpkin
A third riff on the Native American combination of beans, squash and corn for this week of vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish recipes. This is a straightforward vegetarian chili, one that is a favorite around my house throughout the year. You can turn up the heat if you wish, adding more chile, a chipotle, or fresh chopped chili peppers.
Light Guacamole
Kubbeh Pie
One of the most recognized foods across the Arab world and the Mediterranean, kubbeh has countless variations, and different pronunciations depending on country or even region. Usually made of a bulgur-based shell with a meat, onion and nut filling, the Levantine croquettes are a staple in any feast or spread and a prominent feature on Arab holiday tables across the U.S. The pie form is a substantially easier version that captures all the delicious flavors in a main dish, without requiring shaping individual parcels or deep frying. A garlicky spread like tzatziki or tahini sauce (recipe below) provides the perfect fresh contrast to the kubbeh’s warm, earthy flavors.
Smashed Potatoes With Eggs and Rosemary Vinaigrette
Feel free to double the eggs and add other brunch-worthy food alongside or as an underpinning for the potatoes, like smoked salmon, bacon or cured ham.
Smashed Potatoes With Thai-Style Chile and Herb Sauce
This recipe is inspired by suea rong hai, or “crying tiger,” a Thai dish of grilled beef served with a fiery sauce of crushed Thai chile, fish sauce, lime juice, toasted rice powder and cilantro. Here, the bright and punchy sauce is the perfect foil to crispy roasted potatoes, but it would be just as welcome spooned over fried brussels sprouts, sautéed shrimp or grilled steak. Finally, while the sauce in this recipe is equal parts acidic and spicy, feel free to add more chile — including the seeds and ribs — to take the heat up a notch.
Asparagus With Prosciutto and Egg
Boiled Potatoes With Dill
Cinnamon Roasted Potatoes
A cinnamon stick broken into pieces gives these potatoes a bit of Middle Eastern flavor. Roasting them first at 325 degrees, and then turning the heat up to 450, gives them a perfect crispness.
Green Mashed Potatoes
These addictive mashed potatoes are equal parts potatoes and greens, lending texture and fresh flavor to the classic side dish. The amount of oil here is significant, but we all know that what makes mashed potatoes really good is fat. Use the best olive oil you have. (For everything you need to know to make perfect potatoes, visit our potato guide.)
Pork and Beans with Garlic and Greens
Like other commonplace ingredients, beans too often fail to get their culinary due. Prepared with a little care, they can be as good in their own way as caviar, with subtly distinct, satisfyingly earthy flavors and a texture perfectly pitched between tenderness and chew. This recipe provides a classy twist on the typical view of pork and beans and even includes the use of that ubiquitous green, kale.
Creamy Avocado-Miso Dressing
Whip up this quick dressing when you want to use up any ripe or slightly overripe avocado that’s too soft for slicing. The miso gives the creamy dressing a delicately sweet complexity, and the lemon and vinegar cut through the buttery avocado. Use this protein-rich dressing to generously coat your hearty green salad, warm grain bowl or vegetables charred on the grill.
Potato Gratin
Simple Spicy Asparagus in a Wok
Asparagus doesn’t have to be treated as a delicate, fragile thing, napped only with butter or creamy sauces, or served plain with olive oil and salt. That’s fine for the first week or two of the season, but then it’s time to dial up the interest factor and add some spice. Asparagus actually stands up quite well to aggressive flavors. A quick toss in a hot wok with garlic, ginger and chiles doesn’t overwhelm it at all, at least if you don’t overcook the spears. Instead, the vegetable’s sweetness becomes accentuated by contrast.
