Snack
995 recipes found
Chocolate Chip Cookies With Honey-Roasted Almonds and Chile
This is not your average chocolate chip cookie. Like the classic, it’s chewy and layered with milk chocolate chips, but it’s also packed with salty-sweet honey-roasted almonds and coated in a glimmering exterior. Drawing inspiration from the snack aisle, its generous dusting of cinnamon- and gochugaru-spiced sugar and a finishing of flaky sea salt mimic the coating used on the honey-roasted almonds. These cookies freeze incredibly well and bake up in just 10 minutes. The recipe is easy; the only challenge will be restraining yourself from not devouring too many at once.
Teff Polenta Croutons or Cakes
One of the things I like most about teff is the texture of the tiny grains. This is particularly nice when you cut up stiff teff polenta into rounds or squares and fry them in oil. The surface browns beautifully and the little round grains on the surface become toasty and crunchy while the centers remain soft. I serve thin slices with salads, or in place of a cracker, topped with something. The thicker cakes can be used the same way you would use the softer teff polenta, drizzled with oil, topped with a sauce or a vegetable dish, or sprinkled with Parmesan, feta or blue cheese. They can serve as a side dish or at the center of the plate or bowl.
Spiced Green Beans and Baby Broccoli Tempura
Deep-frying is not something I do often, but after I’ve eaten well-executed tempura at a restaurant and can’t shake the memory of delicious batter-fried vegetables, I get out my wok. I turn on the hood fan, open the window and start heating up oil. I like to play around with different batters and coatings. This spicy, delicate batter is somewhere between a puffy beignet-type coating and a simpler egg, flour and bread-crumb dusting. It’s mostly cornstarch, with a small amount of cornmeal and whole wheat flour — just enough to hold the batter together. I add dukkah, cilantro and cumin for flavor and texture. Ice-cold sparkling water helps keep the batter light; it fries up crispy rather than bready because there’s very little gluten to toughen it. You can use this batter with all sorts of vegetables, but I particularly love green beans and baby broccoli. The batter wraps itself nicely around the smooth beans and nestles in among the spindly flowers at the end of a baby broccoli stem, resulting in lacy, extra-crispy tempura. A wok is ideal for deep-frying. It can accommodate a lot of vegetables at one time without crowding, and it holds heat well. The oil should hover between 350 and 375 degrees so that the vegetables cook quickly and crisp up without absorbing too much oil. Be sure to let the oil come back up to temperature between batches, and use a thermometer. You will be amazed to find a green bean tender and hot inside its crispy coating in two minutes or less.
Taralli
Taralli are delicious ring shaped rusk-like Italian snacks from Apulia and Campania. Now that I know how easy they are to make I could be in big trouble, as whenever I’ve bought them from one of my favorite Italian delis I have a hard time resisting them. It’s the olive oil, I now know, that makes them special and different from other twice-baked breads. They are crisp but not hard, and this whole wheat version is as good as any traditional taralli I’ve tasted. I particularly like the version with black pepper. But I like them plain, without any embellishment, as well. The olive oil gives them so much flavor on its own. This recipe is based on a recipe in Carol Field’s “Italy In Small Bites.”
Smoky Eggplant Salad With Yogurt and Mint
This tart Turkish-style salad is meant to be served with triangles of warm pita or other flatbread for dipping. At the market, choose eggplants that are firm and shiny; they will taste sweeter and have fewer seeds. Make the salad several hours or up to a day in advance. Pomegranate molasses can be found at Middle Eastern groceries.
Peter Reinhart’s Whole Wheat Bagels
When I order a whole wheat bagel in a coffee shop what I get is a white bagel with a little bit of whole wheat flour thrown in. These bagels are different; they are truly whole grain. I’ve been enthralled lately with Peter Reinhart’s new cookbook, Bread Revolution. Reinhart, a baking teacher and cookbook author whom I have long admired, has discovered the magic of sprouted whole grain flours, which he uses in the recipes in this book (you can get sprouted whole wheat flour in whole foods stores and from several online sources). He also illuminates many of the mysteries of baking with whole grain flours in general. The recipes that I have tried work with regular whole wheat flour as well; I have Community Grains whole wheat flour on hand but did not have sprouted whole wheat flour when I was developing this week’s Recipes for Health, so that is what I used. One of the important things I learned – relearned really – from Peter is that when you make dough with whole wheat flour, which absorbs liquid more readily than white flour, it is important to give the dough a little time to absorb the water so that it will be workable. So there is a rest after you add the liquid to the flour; you’ll think the dough is going to be way too wet, then it miraculously firms up, in very little time. Reinhart has two methods for bagels in his cookbook; one requires an overnight rest in the refrigerator after shaping (that is the method I have used in the past), the other, made with sprouted wheat flour, can be boiled and baked after rising and shaping. If you use sprouted whole wheat flour Reinhart says the overnight rise isn’t required because the sprouted wheat allows the bagels to develop optimum flavor in a shorter time. I couldn’t discern much of a difference between the flavor of my overnight regular whole wheat bagels and those I made with the shorter rise; and the ones I made with the shorter rise were prettier. Barley malt is the traditional sweetener used in bagel dough and in the water bath, but either honey or agave syrup can be substituted.
Manaqeesh (Za’atar Flatbreads)
Manaqeesh are one of the most popular breakfast foods for Arabs, particularly Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and Jordanians — but they’re excellent any time of day. Most often topped with a za’atar and olive oil mixture as they are here, these simple flatbreads are now often found coated with varied ingredients, such as cheese, labneh, pepper paste, eggs and even sweet spreads. But the traditional za’atar still reigns supreme. You can roll the dough out with a pin, but, for the fluffiest and softest version of this flatbread, stretch the dough by hand.
Savory Dutch Baby
This savory Dutch baby is like Yorkshire pudding meets a popover meets a gougère, flavored with browned butter, Parmesan and thyme. You can serve it for brunch, pancake style. Or try it as an hors d’oeuvre. Bring the whole thing out to your guests and let them tear it apart with their hands. Salty, cheesy and delicious.
Mosa (Plantain Fritters)
The best qualities of very ripe plantains are revealed under high heat — their sugars caramelize, making each bite sweet and creating contrasting crisp and tender textures. In these fritters, mashed ripe plantains, from fruit with all-black peels, are folded into an aromatic batter with cornmeal for a thrilling crunch and sour cream for a pillowy tenderness. A great snack or addition to any meal, they’re also delicious on their own, but can be served with a garlicky fry sauce for dipping if you’d like.
Mushroom and Dried Porcini Soup
This has such an intense flavor for such a simple soup. With virtually no fat in the soup, it has a tonic quality, and not only makes a great starter or light supper, but a delicious and effective between meal pick-me-up.
Collard Greens Stuffed With Quinoa and Turkey
It takes some time, but I love filling collard greens. Bigger than grape leaves (so you don’t have to make as many), the large flat leaves are great stuffers. I used a combination of quinoa and leftover turkey for this slightly sweet Middle Eastern filling spiced with cinnamon and allspice; rice would work just as well.
Milk Chocolate-Banana Pudding
With layers of milk chocolate pudding, chocolate wafer cookies and bananas, this nostalgic dessert beats all grandmotherly versions by a landslide.
Beef Empanadas
Filipinos take snacking seriously, so much so that we devote an entire meal to it: merienda, which may take place midmorning or midafternoon, if not both. Empanadas are a great treat for this in-between time, but also keep well at room temperature — the grace of food built for a warm climate — so you can graze all day. (My family used to buy these by the tray for parties, but it’s nice to make your own and store them in the freezer for later.) In these, a ground-beef filling is tucked inside sturdy but flaky dough, with raisins added early in the cooking to plump with the beef juices. There are variations on empanadas all over Latin America; ours rely on the potency of onion and garlic, and exploit it to the hilt.
Edamame Tofu Dip
Dairy-free, tahini-free, and rich in protein, this zesty, kid-pleasing dip is a lively, pale green alternative to hummus. Serve it with rice crackers, sliced daikon and/or carrot sticks as a dip, but it’s also thick enough to spread on bread or a pita as a sandwich filling. It will keep for three days in the fridge.
Lumpia Shanghai
Lumpia are cousins to spring rolls, a tradition that most likely goes back to the Chinese traders who first visited the Philippines in the ninth century. As kids, we’d crowd around the kitchen counter to make them, spooning out the filling and rolling up the skins before sliding them into hot oil. They come in different incarnations and may be served unfried and even unwrapped, but the classic is lumpia Shanghai, skinny cigarillos with supercrunchy skins, packed with meat, juices seething. I like dipping them in banana ketchup, which you can buy or improvise by cooking overripe bananas and tomato paste into a sweet-and-sour jam.
Roasted Corn and Edamame Salad
A late-summer side with lots of crunch, spice and herbs, this is great with anything grilled. Hugh Mangum, the New York chef of Texas lineage who started the Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque chain, has brightened up the traditional Texas plate of meat, meat, meat and white bread with fresh sides like this one. It holds up well overnight, too.
Broccolini and Edamame Salad With Coconut
Sprouting broccoli (or broccolini) mixed with edamame and coconut is typical of the inventive combinations favored by the British chef Yotam Ottolenghi. After blanching, the vegetables are seasoned with black mustard seeds and curry leaves, which makes for an extremely aromatic and compelling dish that’s good warm or at room temperature. As for the fresh coconut, you can buy frozen freshly grated coconut at many international grocery stores. Otherwise, to use a fresh coconut, use a screwdriver to poke two or three holes, preferably in the eyes of the coconut. Drain any water, then use a hammer to bang along the equator of coconut until it splits open, and scoop out the flesh. Place flesh in a food processor fitted with a grating disc and grate. One coconut yields more flesh than you’ll need for this recipe; freeze the extra for up to three months.
Charred Tangerines on Toast
For an unexpectedly good hors d’oeuvre, char tangerines. Yes, tangerines. Letting the blackened citrus steep in an herby oil yields a sweet, silky and pleasantly bitter result. They’re delicious on baguette toasts with just a spoonful of the oil, flaky salt and cracked black pepper. Or serve them with rich crème fraîche, ricotta, prosciutto or leftover ham, which offsets the sourness of the citrus.
Bolitas de Yuca y Queso (Fried Yuca Balls Stuffed With Cheese)
Yuca, also known as cassava, is a root vegetable used around the world to make many beloved regional dishes as well as flour, tapioca and even laundry starch. It is similar to the potato, but it is harder, has a thicker brown skin and has a tough fiber running through its center. It often has a subtly floral, lightly sweet taste. Here, yuca is boiled, mixed with loads of mozzarella, then fried until golden brown to make bolitas de yuca y queso, a popular dish in Latin America that is also known as yuquitas rellenas or bollitos de yuca. The crunchy panko coating complements the creamy, melty center. For this particular recipe, fresh yuca works best. Frozen yuca retains too much water and could make the bolitas too mushy to hold their shape.
Hot Honey Nut Mix
Almond, cashew, almond, cashew. Oh, a Brazil nut! There’s a kind of pattern to every nut mix, but in this one, each bite is a little different, pushing you to keep scooping for more surprises. It’s a roasted jumble of nuts (whichever you choose) and flavorful pops — a seed, a honey-crystallized cluster, a pebble of coarse sugar, a bite with swelling heat, then a salty one. Serve them next to olives and cheese at a party, keep a stash in your tote or office snack drawer, or tie a bag of them up with a bow.
Peppermint Bark
You have two choices when it comes to peppermint bark: If you’d like your bark to be shiny and snappy at room temperature, you must temper the chocolate. The process isn’t complicated, but you’ll need an instant-read thermometer and a bit of patience. But you can also leave tempering to the professionals and make the bark without tempering: Simply microwave both chocolates until melted, assemble the bark as instructed then transfer it to the fridge to harden. You may encounter a bit of condensation and melting when you serve it, but it will still taste great. Be sure to use good-quality bar chocolate instead of chips for more reliable results and better flavor. Look for oil-based peppermint extract, as the water in alcohol-based extracts can cause the chocolate to seize.
Cheddar-Walnut Gougères
Gougères, small cheese puffs made from the same neither-sweet-nor-savory dough you’d use for cream puffs or éclairs, are my favorite pre-dinner nibble with wine. They’re slightly crusty on the outside, custardy on the inside and, because I add mustard and chopped nuts, surprising. The traditional cheese for these is French Comté or Swiss Gruyère, but lately I’ve been using shredded sharp American Cheddar, which makes them a tad more tender and gives them a little edge, nice in a morsel that’s meant to whet your appetite. I like these a few minutes out of the oven, but room temperature puffs have legions of fans as well. It’s good to know that raw puffs freeze perfectly (pack them into an airtight container as soon as they’re solidly frozen) and bake perfectly from the freezer. Arrange them on a lined baking sheet and leave them on the counter while you preheat the oven.
Kringle
A classic pastry that originated in Racine, Wis., the American kringle has a flaky, buttery crust and a sweet, tender filling. This one, which is adapted from “Midwest Made: Big, Bold Baking from the Heartland” by Shauna Sever, is rich with almond paste. While kringles are best served within a day or two of baking, they can also be frozen. Just wait to ice them after defrosting, otherwise the icing gets a little sticky.
Crispy Yam Fries
Not to be confused with American sweet potatoes, West African yams are large, starchy root vegetables found at most West African, Caribbean or Latin American markets. Check the yams for freshness by pressing down on their skin before purchasing; the root should be firm with no soft spots. The brown skin peels off easily with a sharp knife or vegetable peeler to reveal a stark white flesh. These yams are larger, much starchier, denser and less fibrous than American yams or sweet potatoes. Crispy yam fries are a well-known Nigerian snack and side dish. They can be shallow-fried in oil or baked in the oven for a slightly healthier variation (see Tip). Serve fries warm with some obe ata or your favorite condiment on the side.