Stovetop
653 recipes found
Coconut Saag
Saag paneer is a classic North Indian dish — but it’s also endlessly riffable. Swap out the paneer for feta or halloumi, the mustard greens for kale or spinach, and so on. This is a particularly stellar riff, in which coconut milk enriches an already aromatic and verdant sauce that can be paired with either the traditional paneer, or extra-firm tofu. The final hit of coconut oil infused with smoky cumin seeds and red chile powder adds loads of depth, making this dish quite possibly the most luxurious way to eat a pound of greens.
Hunan Chicken
The cuisine of the Hunan province is one of the eight traditional Chinese cuisines, but what sets it apart from the others is its use of bold hot and sour flavors. Chiles, vinegar and fermented black beans are staples in Hunan cuisine, and this recipe uses all three. Hunan chicken originated in China and made its way to the United States in the 1970s, where the flavor profile was adapted to please the American palate. Here, bite-size pieces of chicken are marinated in soy sauce, making them tender and juicy, while vegetables are flash-cooked in a wok alongside other staples of Chinese cooking, such as garlic, ginger and scallions, for a flavor-packed dish that hits all the tastebuds. Serve it right away, accompanied by fluffy jasmine rice.
Chili Mac
“Nothing induces a feeling of security and comfort better than the come-hither aroma of an honest pot of chili mac keeping warm on the stove.” Many would agree with what Jane and Michael Stern wrote in “The Lexicon of Real American Food” (Lyons Press, 2011), whether they’ve had the thrifty, hearty combination of macaroni and chili at a family dinner table, around a campfire, bellied up to a bar somewhere near Lake Michigan or even in an M.R.E. in a military dining room. This supersavory version is a cinch, requiring just one pot and minimal chopping. (For another common chili pasta, see this Cincinnati chili con carne.)
Caramelized Onions
Soft, caramelized onions can add sweetness and richness to any dish that calls for sautéed onions, but they are especially good in soups, curries, sandwiches, pastas and dips — which is to say, everywhere. (Keep a container on hand, refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for a couple months.) Typically a time-intensive process, this recipe speeds things up by starting the onions covered to help release their liquid and repeatedly pouring in water and scraping the bottom of the pan to incorporate the delicious browned bits. Be sure to stand by and stir the onions often to prevent burning, although you’ll want to anyway to soak up their smell.
Maple-Soy Pork Chops With Shichimi Togarashi
Shichimi togarashi is a citrusy, savory Japanese seven-spice blend featuring ground red chiles, roasted orange peel, black and white sesame seeds, sansho pepper, seaweed and often ginger. You can extend those sharp, multilayered flavors with lime juice, maple syrup and a touch of soy reduced to a sticky pan sauce that slicks quick-cooking pork chops in this easy recipe. Try to find bone-in loin chops with nice fat caps around the curved outer edges for richness and succulence. Serve with white rice and green beans, or alongside a big crunchy salad.
Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki
Meals seldom get more soulful than okonomiyaki — the Japanese cabbage pancake is soothing and filling, hearty with pork and savory with a topping of seaweed and bonito flakes. Its name stems from “okonomi,” which translates closely to “how you like,” and the recipe is an exercise in variation and flexibility. With a framework of shredded cabbage and its accompanying batter, any number of proteins, vegetables, cheeses and seasonings are fair game, yielding a meal that’s as personal as you’d like it to be. This iteration’s locality is commonly attributed to Hiroshima: the layered pancake’s noodles add texture while absorbing sauce and flavor from pork belly, a fried egg and whichever other toppings of yours are adorning the dish. If you’re cooking with a griddle, it’s possible to make multiple pancakes at once; but if you’re using a pan on your stovetop, it’s worth cooking them one at a time, then serving each immediately.
Marry Me Chicken
This cozy dish, which went viral on TikTok with claims that if you prepare it for someone, you will end up getting married, features boneless chicken breasts nestled in a creamy, tomato-y sauce. With wedding bells in mind or not, this dish comes together fairly quickly and is just as great for entertaining as it is for a family meal. In this version, the addition of tomato paste adds a bright acidity to the rich cream sauce and complements the sun-dried tomatoes. Serve with crusty bread to sop up all the juices as well as tangy green salad to balance out the sauce’s richness. Or, try it over pasta, rice or polenta.
Easy Couscous
Because the couscous in American grocery stores is already steamed and dried, it just requires hydrating in hot liquid for about 5 minutes to transform the North African semolina pasta into fluffy beads. This recipe makes 4 cups of cooked couscous, but you can follow a one-to-one ratio of couscous to liquid to make any quantity you like. Couscous is the ultimate blank canvas: Eat with tagine or grilled meat, or toss into a salad.
Baasto iyo Suugo Tuuna (Pasta and Spiced Tuna Sauce)
Thanks to Somalia’s exposure to the ocean — it has the longest coastline in mainland Africa — seafood is an abundant resource. Topped with a rich, spiced tuna suugo (tomato sauce), this pasta dish is a staple in many Somali households, and comes together easily thanks to canned tuna and store-bought marinara sauce. Pasta is a culinary relic of Italian colonialism in Somalia that Somalis have long reimagined into their own new thing. This dish also has different spellings throughout Somalia, including “tuuna” after the English word or “toonno” following the Italian word “tonno.” This pasta sauce gets its unique taste from the addition of fresh cilantro and warm spices, including xawaash, a seven-spice mix that incorporates bold flavors like turmeric, cardamom and cumin. Serve with a salad or enjoy the baasto on its own.
Skillet Chicken With Peppers and Tomatoes
This one-pan dinner is coated in a sauce anchored by onion and garlic and a summery mix of bell peppers. A splash of sherry vinegar and squeeze of honey balance the mild flavors of the peppers with a little acidity and sweetness, while cherry tomatoes simmered into the sauce at the end add bright, tangy pops to the meal. A shower of fresh herbs is optional, but go with basil if you’d like a more assertive aroma. Serve everything over steamed rice for soaking up the sauce or with crusty bread for dipping.
Cumin and Cashew Yogurt Rice
Yogurt rice is a nostalgic dish for many South Asians, and especially South Indians. It’s the ultimate comfort food, and a no-fuss dinner that’s easy to put together. Cool, creamy yogurt and crunchy, warm spices create a dreamy contrast that makes this dish feel more whole meal-worthy than snack-friendly (though it’ll serve you well for both). Traditional versions include mustard seeds, curry leaves and urad dal, but this variation includes a different set of pantry staples: cumin seeds, cashews and red chile powder. The trio, plus fresh green chiles, gets sizzled in ghee, enhancing all the rich, smoky, spicy flavors, then gets poured directly over the yogurt rice. Add grated carrots and zucchini to give the rice more heft, or try it with a different combination of spices.
Pasta With Corn, Mint and Red Onions
Practically a no-cook recipe, this celebration of corn, tomatoes and plenty of herbs is about as easy as summer pasta gets. A dollop or two of ricotta adds milky softness, enriching the tangy, garlicky tomatoes and plump kernels of corn, but you can leave it out if you prefer. Although this dish is best with seasonal tomatoes and freshly shucked corn, it’s also excellent made with frozen corn and year-round grape tomatoes, cut into cubes. You can serve this versatile salad warm, at room temperature or even cold as a pasta salad. And leftovers make a terrific lunch the next day.
Za’atar and Labneh Spaghetti
Creamy labneh produces a pasta dish with the texture of an Alfredo, but with a bright tang that brings levity. A Middle Eastern yogurt that is strained or hung until the texture of soft cheese, labneh provides a rich, luscious texture, but strained yogurts, like Greek yogurt or skyr, are suitable substitutes. Be sure to add the dairy at the end, and don’t let it come to a boil while you stir. Boiling will cause the yogurt to break, leaving you with a sauce that isn’t creamy or rich. If the pasta sauce tightens up and breaks from sitting for too long, there’s a simple solution: Add some reserved pasta water and stir vigorously over medium-low heat until the sauce comes back together, lusciously smooth, saucy and glossy.
Pizza Salad
For pizza in salad form, this recipe tosses a crisp and briny mix of romaine lettuce, pepperoncini, black olives and red onion in a fresh, grated tomato vinaigrette. Spicy pepperoni strips are sizzled until crisp; their zesty fat gets sopped up by toasty bread crumbs that are spiked with the classic New York slice flavors (oregano, garlic and red-pepper flakes). (You can make a big batch of these crumbs, store them in the fridge and use them to top pasta, eggs, roasted veggies and anything else you want to take to pizza town.) This salad is showered with the salty pepperoni crumbs, offset by mozzarella morsels running throughout.
Zaalouk (Eggplant and Tomato Salad)
Zaalouk is a Moroccan cooked salad, similar to baba ghanouj and moutabal, that highlights eggplant in all its glory. Just a few ingredients come together to create a lightly aromatic, herby and melt-in-your mouth dip. There are many ways to prepare zaalouk; what varies is the way in which the eggplant is cooked. It can be steamed, boiled, chargrilled, baked or, as in this recipe, simply cooked on the stovetop with the rest of the ingredients. Zaalouk is commonly served as a starter, however, feel free to enjoy it as a side or as a spread in a tasty sandwich with grilled meat or vegetables.
Salmon and Corn Cakes With Jalapeño Mayonnaise
Made with fresh corn, cilantro and lime juice, these summery salmon cakes are a great way to use leftover salmon. Canned pickled jalapeños are the magic ingredient here by adding heat and vinegary tang to both the cakes and the accompanying mayonnaise. (Any leftover sauce would be delicious as a dip for shrimp or with any simply cooked fish.) Canned salmon works well here, too, just be sure to buy the boneless, skinless variety. Finally, when you’re cooking the cakes, keep an eye on the heat level, hovering between medium and medium-low once the oil heats up. If the oil gets scorching hot, kernels of corn may start to pop and splatter. A quick dip in seasoned flour also helps prevent this, providing a barrier between the cakes and the oil and ensuring the cakes come out nice and crispy.
Creamy One-Pot Orzo With Corn and Bacon
In “Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook,” Joe Yonan suggests grating corn to take the kernels off and extract the delicious milky pulp from the cob. This method maximizes the amount of pure corn flavor that you can add to any dish. Here, most of the corn is grated to create a super creamy, one-pot pasta that tastes sweet and summery. Calabrian chile paste, which is usually made of chiles from the Calabria region of Italy, oil and vinegar add heat, acidity and a bit of smokiness to this dish. If you can’t find it, swap in some homemade red chile sauce or harissa.
Fish in Tomato-Basil Broth
Steamed in a savory tomato broth, the fish in this easy recipe remains exceptionally moist. For the best results, use a white-fleshed fish, like cod, striped bass or halibut. Any extra broth is great to have on hand: Make this dinner, and you'll also get about a quart of chilled soup for lunch.
Taco Soup
This cozy soup has very little to do with traditional Mexican tacos, but is inspired by the ingredients and flavors in the hard-shell ground beef variety. You can use a taco seasoning packet from the store, but it’s very easy to make your own blend to suit your taste (and whip up extra, if you like, to have on hand for other dishes). If using a packet, it will also include salt, so adjust accordingly when seasoning. You can easily make this soup vegetarian by omitting the meat and using an extra can of beans or subbing in a meat substitute. Set up a colorful toppings bar and be sure to squeeze on a little lime to brighten up all the flavors.
Refried Beans
Refried beans, a staple of Mexican cuisine, is a flavorful side dish that’s surprisingly easy to make at home. (They’re not really fried twice — “refried beans” is derived from their Spanish name, frjoles refritos, which means “well-fried beans.”) Throughout Mexico, the beans are cooked in freshly rendered lard, which adds a deep, caramelized pork flavor. In this quick recipe, smoked bacon stands in for the lard while chipotle pepper in adobo adds heat, sweetness and a long-simmered flavor that makes canned beans taste homemade. For a meatless version, replace the bacon with half a bell or poblano pepper, and swap the vegetable oil with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. You can easily make a double batch and freeze the leftovers. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Oatmeal
For a loving bowl of oatmeal you can pull off first thing in the morning, use a trick from Samantha Seneviratne: Cook the oatmeal in a skillet instead of a pot. The oatmeal will be creamier and more evenly cooked in under 10 minutes, ready to be topped to your heart’s desire. Plus, a skillet is easier to wash, making this recipe extra kind to your still-waking-up self.
Rosé Shrimp
This zippy, pink shrimp dish captures the crisp and flowery flavors of rosé wine in just 20 minutes. A dusting of herbes de Provence, bloomed in hot, shrimpy olive oil, amplifies the savoriness that crustaceans cooked in butter and wine tend to provide, like that of shrimp scampi. Piment d’Espelette — the fruity, moderately spiced pepper named after a commune in France and prevalent in Basque cooking — turbocharges the color and flavor of the shrimp. This chile can be swapped in a pinch (see Tip), but don’t skip the orange zest; it brings out the wine’s inherent fruitiness. Serve this dish as an appetizer with crusty bread, or as an entrée with pasta or white rice, whatever can sop up the rosy pan juices.
Goulash
Hungarian goulash, a stew of paprika-spiced braised meat and vegetables, likely arrived in the United States with a wave of immigrants in the late 1800s. The dish began a game of telephone, slowly evolving into something new entirely. While American-style goulash may not bear much resemblance to its Hungarian namesake, the hearty one-pot dish has endured as an easy and comforting family weeknight dinner. Made with ground beef, bell peppers, diced tomatoes and macaroni, it falls somewhere between a beef chili and a meaty pasta. A sprinkle of Cheddar, stirred in just before serving, thickens the sauce and adds richness. Serve the goulash on its own or with a green vegetable and cornbread on the side.
Lemon Pesto Pasta
While not as well known as pesto alla Genovese, lemon pesto is a delicious variation that adds a jolt of brightness. Used in Italy as both a pasta sauce or spread for crostini, its preparation is similar to classic pesto by combining basil with cheese, nuts and extra-virgin olive oil, but the addition of the lemon zest and juice gives it a unique flavor and color. This simple weeknight pasta sauce comes together quickly in the food processor and can be made ahead, as it keeps in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also drizzle the pesto over a Caprese salad or grilled zucchini, or smear it over crusty, toasted bread as a topping, as they do in Italy.