Stovetop
658 recipes found
Buttery Shrimp With Garlic and Paprika
For this flavorful, richly aromatic shrimp dinner, use large shrimp if possible (preferably from the Gulf of Mexico or the Mid-Atlantic). They are hefty at 16 to 20 pieces per pound, enough for a main course for four. Use fresh or frozen shrimp, extra points for peeling and de-veining your own. They are to be sizzled in a generous amount of spicy butter sauce. If you don’t have hot paprika, use 1 tablespoon sweet paprika plus ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne, or more to taste. Or use Spanish pimentón picante. Serve the shrimp with plain polenta, little roasted potatoes, or steamed rice. Or just have a warm baguette for sopping.
Easy Cooked Grains
If you can boil pasta, you can cook most any grain. While grains come in all shapes, sizes, hues and textures, they can all be cooked using the same straightforward method. For evenly cooked grains, just let them tumble in a saucepan of simmering, salted water until tender, then drain them of excess water. For a warm side, rest them in a covered pot. For separated grains to add to salads or bowls or refrigerate for the future, cool and dry them on a sheet pan before using. With such a simple, multipurpose method, the bouncy chew of barley, the springy pouf of quinoa, the bitter edge of buckwheat and the sour tang of rye berries can all easily be incorporated into your cooking routine.
Spicy Turkey Burgers
The turkey burger doesn’t always get the respect (and love) it deserves, because turkey’s leanness can create a dry, crumbly burger. But those worries disappear when you add a dollop of mayonnaise to the burger mix, which ensures a juicy bite and encourages a caramelized coating. Using a mix of ground cayenne and paprika gives the patties a smoky heat that amplifies their meaty flavor. The garlicky iceberg slaw tames the burger’s spiciness and should spill out of the sides like a happy mess.
Chocolate Pudding Cups
This grown-up chocolate pudding, which uses dark chocolate and a luxurious custard base rooted in European techniques, is served in small individual portions and nods to childhood indulgence. Perfect for a dinner party, you can prepare this the morning or day before your guests are to arrive, chill it and you’ll have a perfectly set dessert just waiting to be garnished and served. (Crème fraîche is a perfect accompaniment.)
Honey Garlic Shrimp
This speedy dinner comes together in less than 30 minutes and relies on pantry staples like honey and soy sauce for easy weeknight flavor. The honey-garlic sauce works double-time, serving as a sweet-and-savory marinade and as a pan sauce for the crustaceans. While large shrimp work best for this recipe (and are the most forgiving when it comes to cooking time), smaller shrimp will work, too. If your shrimp cook through before it’s time to add the sauce to the skillet, transfer them to a serving dish and reduce the sauce on its own before pouring it over the shrimp. Serve with steamed rice, and a simply cooked green vegetable or cucumber salad.
Vegetable Beef Soup
A lighter version of beef stew, this soup has all the makings of a cold-weather comfort meal: hunks of potatoes, a mix of hearty vegetables, and tender, fall-apart beef that’s been slowly cooked in a tomatoey broth. Stew meat, a diced mix of various cuts of beef, is the easiest and most economical option, but that can be swapped with singular cuts, including chuck, round or brisket. If you have a bottle of wine already open or are planning to drink it with the meal, pour in a little here to release the browned bits from the bottom of the pot and add a depth of flavor; if not, water or more beef stock works, too. Sprinkle each serving with crushed butter crackers or serve with a wedge of cornbread.
Blackened Salmon
Coating fish fillets in a flavorful spice mixture and cooking them in a searing-hot pan until blackened is a technique popularized by legendary Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme. In this version, center-cut salmon fillets gain a crisp, deeply seasoned crust while remaining tender and flaky on the inside. For the telltale blackened crust, you’ll need to start with a hot pan (cast-iron works best). Be sure to crack a window and turn on the exhaust fan, if possible, as there will be some smoke. Serve blackened salmon with any combination of side salad, rice and grilled or roasted vegetables; or use as a filling for tacos or fish sandwiches.
Spicy, Creamy Weeknight Bolognese
This pasta sauce captures the soul-soothing essence of a long-simmering Bolognese even though it cooks quickly. Searing ground beef gives it a caramelized taste that mimics the depth of slow-cooked meat. Adding a few spoonfuls of red curry paste doesn’t make it taste like curry, but gives it instant nuance and depth. Some rich cream at the end rounds the sharp heat to an enveloping warmth. To save even more time, you can chop the vegetables while the meat is cooking. The sauce tastes great on any type of pasta, but it’s especially nice with varieties that can capture it in their curves.
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.
Kimchi, Egg and Cheese Sandwich
For heat, crunch and a jolt of brightness, add kimchi to your breakfast sandwich. Most classic egg sandwiches, like sausage or bacon, lack the necessary acidity to balance out the richness of the other ingredients, which is why we often slather on ketchup — it’s sweet, but also tart. By replacing the meat with kimchi, the flavors in the sandwich are awakened. If your fridge isn’t always stocked with kimchi, you can also use another pickled vegetable, like sauerkraut or chopped pickled peppers or dill pickles.
Miso-Parmesan Noodle Soup for One
This speedy, veggie-rich, solo bowl of soup uses a combination of water, miso paste and Parmesan to create a creamy, savory broth. Leeks, peas, kale and pasta add sweetness and heft, while ginger and black pepper (or chile oil) bring a little heat. For more protein, add a handful of cubed tofu or white beans, or swirl in a beaten egg like stracciatella. The recipe is also easily doubled.
Skillet Gnocchi Alla Vodka
Penne pasta might be the most common canvas for creamy, dreamy vodka sauce, but consider branching out: Toss plump, pan-fried gnocchi with the Italian-American favorite and the result is possibly even more cozy. To keep this dinner weeknight-friendly, everything comes together in a single pan. While the recipe is quick-moving, don’t skimp on the few minutes it takes to caramelize the tomato paste: Cooking an entire can of tomato paste until it’s rusty red in color and almost burnished in spots is the secret to a deeply savory sauce without hours of simmering on the stovetop.
Chicken Lo Mein
Chinese lo mein (“stirred noodles”) is beloved for its fun combination of egg noodles, veggies and protein tossed in a sweet and savory sauce. Making this popular takeout dish at home is a fantastic way to use up leftovers, as this dish is completely customizable depending on what’s available in the fridge. (No napa cabbage? Use green or purple!) Here, skinless boneless chicken thighs are thinly sliced for quick-cooking meat that remains juicy and tender. The rich sauce comes together in a flash and can easily be doubled for another stir-fry later on in the week. Go light on seasoning the veggies, since the sauce does bring a good amount of salt to the final dish.
Broccoli-Quinoa Soup With Turmeric and Ginger
Turmeric and ginger are generous ingredients: You need only a little of each to deliver plenty of complex, comforting flavors. They work together in this recipe to bring warmth, earthiness, smokiness and spice to this hearty soup. Often a salad ingredient, quinoa proves its versatility here, providing a substantial and protein-packed foundation. The quinoa will continue to absorb the broth once the cooking is complete, so serve immediately for the ideal broth-to-quinoa ratio. (However, if you plan to prepare this soup ahead of time, you can simply thin it out with a little water or stock once you’ve reheated it.) There’s a lovely finishing touch: The chile oil cuts through the richness of the coconut milk and adds to the vibrant colors of this dish.
Smoky Tomato Soup
A grown-up version of grilled cheese’s best friend, this tomato soup is subtly complex thanks to the addition of ancho chile and smoked paprika, but it still has all of the nostalgic qualities of a really good tomato soup: It’s silky, robust and wonderfully tomato-y. Taking a cue from this classic tomato soup, this recipe calls for sweating the onion and garlic with a little flour to thicken the soup, which creates a velvety texture that doesn’t hide the pure tomato flavor. Simmering a whole ancho chile in the soup produces an undercurrent of heat; but if you prefer more spice, pluck off the stem and blend the chile into your finished soup rather than discarding it. Adjust the amount of cream and the level of heat as you like and the soup will taste just right to you.
Pollo a la Piña (Pineapple Chicken)
Pineapples are grown all along the Pacific Mexican coast and are used in raw salsas as a condiment and in cooked salsas to give a sweet and tart counterpoint to spicy chiles and roasted meats and veggies. Pollo a la piña is a bright and savory dish with a smoky spicy kick from canned chipotle chiles in adobo and tropical sweetness from chopped pineapple and orange juice. This tender and juicy chicken makes a great taco filling. Or pile it on a bun with pickled jalapeños and shredded cabbage for a sweet, spicy and smoky sandwich reminiscent of the best BBQ but without firing up the grill.
Gukbap (Beef and Bean Sprout Soup With Rice)
Gukbap means “soup rice”: a rich category of Korean dishes where a scoop of steamed white rice is served inside a warming bowl of brothy soup. This variation of a classic Korean gukbap from Jeonju, South Korea, leads with beef and radish, bolstered by a hearty handful of kongnamul, or bean sprouts, which lend both protein and aroma. Many soups can be gukbap, so long as you serve it with the rice. The key to a good gukbap is the homemade broth, threaded with quiet umami: the kind of flavor you can’t get from a box.
Chicken and Vermicelli Soup With Lime
A soothing bowl of broth and wheat vermicelli is popular among many cuisines, and often the go-to soup at the first signs of a cold or ailment. Available at many grocery stores and at Middle Eastern and Latin markets, the vermicelli noodles are packaged already broken or sold in nests which you can break by hand. (Note: These are not rice vermicelli noodles.) The finely chopped vegetables and chicken, along with a bit of tomato paste and turmeric, make for a satisfying and savory broth. The soup will thicken as it sits; you can adjust the consistency to your liking by adding more water when reheating.
Smashed Beef Kebab With Cucumber Yogurt
This quick skillet dinner of spiced, seared ground beef over cooling yogurt combines elements of two Persian classics: kebab koobideh (grilled kebabs) and mast-o-khiar (cucumber yogurt). The creamy yogurt base keeps close to the original, while the ground beef is hard-seared on one side like a scallop for a crisp texture. Walnuts and raisins, traditionally toppings for mast-o-khiar, get toasted in the beef fat, adding crunch and sweetness to balance the savory meat and tangy yogurt.
Pepper Steak and Celery Stir-Fry With Lemon
Lemon is the star of this quick weeknight stir-fry. Using both the peel and juice of the lemons gives this dish a wonderful scent and tangy finish. As with any stir-fry, you’ll want to have all your ingredients sliced and measured before you start cooking, since the meal comes together quickly once you start cooking. The celery softens just slightly, so it retains its herbal brightness plus a crisp-tender bite. Though you can opt for a leaner cut of meat like sirloin for the beef, fattier cuts like skirt or hanger will be more tender and boast richer beef flavor.
Camarones al Ajillo (Shrimp in Garlic and Guajillo Sauce)
A classic from the Pacific Mexican coast, ajillo is the combination of the words ajo and guajillo — garlic and guajillo chile. This dish makes cooking with dried chiles easy: There is no toasting or soaking, and the chiles go from dry to softened in garlicky oil in just one minute. Guajillo chiles are barely spicy, which makes them a great entry-level option for the hesitant but chile-curious. The fresh lime juice and butter at the end makes a silky and punchy sauce that goes perfectly with arroz rojo, but is also good enough for dipping. Usually, this dish is served with crackers for swiping through the sauce.
Lemony Hummus Pasta
Hummus, with its nutty and garlicky flavor, makes a fantastic dip, spread or even a salad dressing, but it can also be a great base for a pasta sauce. A little garlic and shallot sizzled in olive oil, along with fresh lemon juice and zest, help amp up premade hummus. With a little water, the hummus thins out enough to become a creamy sauce to fully coat noodles. You can add chickpeas, fresh herbs, za’atar or almost any roasted or fresh vegetable to this pasta and it will feel like your own.
Creamy Butternut Squash and Coconut Noodle Soup
Sweet, savory, and full of flavor, this easy weeknight noodle soup takes a cue from the warmly comforting northern Thai dish khao soi, with a curry-spiced coconut broth and toppings that offer crunch and contrast. First, the butternut squash is simmered in the fragrant broth until very tender. Then the squash is mashed, becoming one with the coconut milk before stock and sweet and savory seasonings are added (to keep the soup vegetarian, use soy sauce instead of fish sauce). You can use any type of egg noodles here, from wide dried egg noodles to flat fresh egg noodles (sometimes labeled as wonton noodles). Ladle the flavorful squash broth over the noodles and garnish with as much garnish as your heart and stomach desires. Those toppings can be — but are not limited to — a lot of lime juice to cut the richness, cilantro, sliced fresh shallots, crispy shallots, fried noodles, chile oil or pickled mustard greens.
Chukandar Chicken (Tangy Chicken Curry With Beets)
Typically prepared with beef and sometimes chicken, this version of the traditional Pakistani dish uses canned beets instead of fresh ones. That cuts down on both cooking time and cleanup while achieving the same results: a comforting earthy, sweet and spicy curry with a dramatically deep purple appearance. Sourness from yogurt and lime juice balances the sweetness of the beets, while ginger and garlic add layers of flavor and complexity. Riff on the recipe by adding leafy greens like spinach a few minutes before adding the spices. Serve with rice or roti.