Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Wild Mushroom Stuffing
Crisp Raw Apple Pie
Instead of an oven, use a food processor to create this crisp, fresh apple pie. It was created for raw-food dieters, but it also gives home cooks a fast and refreshing dessert option that takes a fraction of the time of a traditional fruit pie. Well reader, Marie Delcioppo, who submitted this recipe, says “It’s incredibly fresh. You can really taste the flavors.”
Cranberry Sauce With Pinot Noir
Some of the best wine on the planet comes from Oregon, and with this recipe Jenn Louis, the chef behind Lincoln Restaurant and Sunshine Tavern in Portland, has found a way to weave it into the Thanksgiving feast: as a boon companion to cranberries. “Many deep red wines, or port, can overwhelm the punchy berry,” said Ms. Louis. “Instead, Oregon pinot noir keeps the cranberry sauce bright and clean.” The recipe here doesn’t hold back; it is shot through with allspice, cloves, peppercorns, rosemary, cinnamon, vanilla and honey, in a mix that calls to mind the rusticity and abundance of the Pacific Northwest.
Fried Oysters With Tartar Sauce
Getting fried oysters from your summer seafood shack is fun, but making them yourself yields something crispy, light and, most significantly, tender. Shuck carefully, bread delicately and fry to golden perfection, then serve with this bright, lively tartar sauce, which gets its spark from cornichons, capers and lemon juice. Eat while hot — whether you’re wearing flip flops or polished oxfords, that’s up to you.
Winter Squash and Sage Blini
Pancakes are a great vehicle for many vegetables. These are simple buttermilk/buckwheat blini with puréed butternut squash and sage whisked into the batter. I make them small and serve them as hors d’oeuvres. For vegetarian blini I top them with drained yogurt and a small spoonful of the sautéed winter squash with anchovies, capers and olives in this week’s recipes. You can also go the more traditional blini route and top with smoked salmon.
Savory Baked Apples
Pomegranate Salad
This colorful salad of red pomegranate seeds, Romaine lettuce and roasted sesame seeds, dressed with a fresh pomegranate juice and honey dressing, sets a festive tone for any holiday table. Sadhna Sheli, a reader from Los Angeles, sent us this recipe which is popular with both adults and kids. “Kids will like it because it has that sweet element to it,” said Ms. Sheli.
English Pea and Onion Salad
Jonathon Sawyer is no snob. Although he runs the kitchens in a slew of acclaimed restaurants in the Cleveland area, including The Greenhouse Tavern, the chef decided to honor Thanksgiving and his home state, Ohio, by sending along a personal recipe that calls to mind the processed-food delights that, for decades, characterized the cooking of the Midwest. “Think of this salad as a little slice of nostalgia from the canned-and-frozen households of the mid-20th century,” he wrote in an email. Mr. Sawyer recommends frozen peas (“I think frozen peas are magical,” he said) and organic eggs, but over the years he has seen the dish made with Miracle Whip, cubes of cheese from the deli, powdered Ranch dressing, French’s fried onions. “The real goal of having a salad like this on the holiday table is it’s a tart, sweet and delicious break from the overindulgence of roasted birds, velvety gravy and buttery potatoes,” he said. And hey, that break from the overindulgence happens to have bacon in it.
Marilyn Monroe’s Stuffing
In the 1950s, a Hollywood star was not expected to squander her talents (or risk her manicure) chopping onions. But this recipe, scrawled by Marilyn Monroe on letterhead from an insurance company, suggested that she not only cooked, but cooked confidently and with flair. It bears the mark of the Bay Area and influences of Italian cooking, possibly picked up from her marriage to Joe DiMaggio at San Francisco City Hall in 1954. It is also a fussy, complicated affair -- but do not let that stop you. The result (almost 20 cups' worth!) is handsome, balanced and delicious.
Roast Lamb
If you haven't cooked a whole leg of lamb before, here is the place to start. This is not a revolutionary recipe, but slathering on butter and (take our word for it) anchovies makes this version truly essential. It is excellent for the Easter feast — lamb has ancient associations with springtime, and it pairs well with sharp spring vegetables like asparagus, dandelion greens and artichokes. Lamb is also popular for Passover, but the leg is not considered kosher unless the sciatic nerve is removed. Some kosher butchers offer that, but we also give options for other cuts like shoulder and double loin. The butter can be replaced by duck or goose fat, or olive oil, but the gravy (made from pan drippings) will need to be adjusted. For roasting, meaty American lamb is preferable to cuts from Australia and New Zealand. Most American lambs are fed both grass and grain, yielding meat that is fine-grained, earthy and mild. More Easter lamb recipes and how to carve a leg of lamb.
Pulled Turkey With Jus
This stripped-down, built-for-flavor recipe, adapted from “Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling” by Meathead Goldwyn, is for people who don’t brine, forgot to brine or didn’t leave enough time to salt a bird and leave it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. It keeps the white meat moist and boosts its flavor with a rich, simple jus of stock fortified with soy sauce and deglazed pan drippings. The idea comes from Southern barbecue pit masters who shred or chop the meat from a pork shoulder and wet it with vinegar, black pepper and maybe a little tomato. The turkey is roasted slowly to keep the meat fibers from seizing up, and the breast meat is shredded or sliced so thin it falls apart. The meat is then dunked in the jus and served in a dish deep enough to hold both meat and liquid. The thigh meat and legs can be served alongside on a separate platter. The next day, the jus-soaked meat and a little cup of extra jus make for a perfect turkey French dip.
Cilantro-Date Chutney
Inspired by two classic Parsi recipes from the chef and anthropologist Niloufer Ichaporia King, this sauce introduces the toasted cumin and medjool dates from her date and tamarind chutney into her classic green chutney, full of fresh ginger, jalapeño and lime. The ginger and the sweetness of the dates echo many of the flavors already present on the Thanksgiving table, and the cilantro, chiles and lime bring a much welcome vividness. It’s a delight! This sauce is also fantastic on leftover turkey sandwiches, and, other times of year, it makes for a great condiment on rice, fish, chicken and vegetable dishes alike.
Roasted Cauliflower With Ras el Hanout
The Argentine chef Tomás Kalika serves this delicious whole roasted cauliflower family-style at Mishiguene, his Buenos Aires restaurant Mr. Kalika adapted the idea from the chef Eyal Shani, whom he worked for in Israel, and who helped propel the whole roasted cauliflower to international fame. Poaching the cauliflower in advance ensures that it is tender and moist all the way through. You could easily substitute water for milk, particularly if the idea of discarding the milk bothers you. But Mr. Kalika says milk helps flavor the vegetable and encourage browning. (And the cauliflower-infused milk can be reused to make a béchamel sauce, for instance.)
Edna Lewis’s Spiced Pears
These sweet, sour and aromatic pears are terrific served with ice cream or yogurt, or they can be canned for preserving after cooking. Edna Lewis calls for Seckel pears, but this recipe works for Bosc or other varieties that will keep their shape when cooked. If you have to substitute, try to find smaller fruit, and halve them lengthwise if needed to fit in the pan. The leftover syrup is delicious in drinks.
Wild Rice, Almond and Mushroom Stuffing
Wild rice can be the base of a satisfying and refined Thanksgiving stuffing, particularly when it is combined with mushrooms, almonds, sherry and herbs, as it is here. Use this savory mixture to stuff a turkey to serve to the omnivores at your table, or bake it separately and serve it as a side dish, one that is especially good for vegetarians and vegans.
Rosemary and Citrus Turkey for a Crowd
This recipe makes things easier on you if you’re feeding a crowd at Thanksgiving. Instead of roasting two birds, or a giant, hard-to-maneuver 22-pounder, borrow a trick that caterers use at large weddings. There’s the official wedding cake for show, while in the kitchen there are sheet pans full of the same cake recipe, baked into flat, easily sliceable pieces. Using the same logic, here you’ll find a recipe for one whole turkey roasted for that Norman Rockwell moment. Then, pans of easy-to-carve turkey parts are cooked in the same oven at the same time. Monitor everything carefully: The whole bird takes the longest to roast, while the parts roast in about half the time, the white meat often finishing before the dark. You will need a large roasting pan with a rack, and two 9-by-13-inch baking pans.
Roast Turkey With Berry-Mint Sauce and Black Walnuts
The flavor of heritage turkey breeds is richer and more pronounced than that of commercial turkeys sold at supermarkets nationwide. Put plainly, heritage breeds taste more like turkey. Heritage birds are raised outside, pecking at a varied diet. They tend to have meatier thighs and smaller breasts, and a higher ratio of dark meat to white meat. The Onondaga tribe, among others from the Northeastern United States, would have been able to serve them with forest berries, perking up the rich, dark meat with color and flavor. Sparked with mint, this berry sauce is bright and fruity, with just enough acid to complement the richness of the turkey.
Chicories With Pears, Blue Cheese and Secret Anchovy Dressing
Gently bitter, yet fresh and crunchy, chicories are the perfect canvas on which to create a Thanksgiving salad. With a single anchovy fillet, mustard, vinegar and lemon juice at its base, this light, vibrant dressing is surprisingly refreshing and flavored with a faint rumor of umami that will make you reach — over the stuffing — for seconds. If you don’t have, or don’t like, pears, substitute Fuyu persimmons or a crisp, tart apple variety such as Fuji or Honeycrisp. If you don’t like pecans, use walnuts. If you can’t find Roquefort, use another sheep’s milk blue, such as Oregon Blue or Ewe’s Blue, both of which are American-made in the Roquefort-style.
Cheese Crackers
Cheddar crackers. Cheese wafers. Coins, biscuits, straws and crisps. Known by many names and claimed by many grandmothers, they are all the same, delicious thing: a savory, addictive, shortbread cookie. The key to any short dough — that distinctive tender sandy crumbly texture — is the high fat-to-flour ratio, and this version not only relies on butter but also counts on the delicious fats that come from sesame seeds, block Cheddar and even the oil from the pecans. For a remarkable distinction among the many, many versions of these to be found, toast them until just passing golden into brown, and see how that in itself sets these apart.
Stuffing With Mushrooms, Leeks and Bacon
Discord swarms around the issue of stuffing. Should it be cooked in the bird or baked alongside, as dressing? White or corn bread? Firm enough to slice or soft as pudding? Call this recipe the peacemaker, because it’s adaptable enough to make everyone happy. You can use white or corn bread (and gluten-free corn bread works perfectly). The mushrooms allow vegetarians to nix the bacon without sacrificing all the flavor. We advocate baking it separately (which technically makes it dressing), but if you want to stuff the turkey, you can do that, too.
Caramelized Onion and Fennel Risotto
A hearty risotto flavored with a taste of fall by caramelized onions and fennel. “Being vegetarian or vegan around the holidays is incredibly difficult,” says Joe DiMaria of Somerville, who sent us this recipe. “It’s even more difficult when you don’t like squash, root vegetables or sweet potatoes.”
Cornbread Madeleines With Jalapeño
The inspiration for these madeleines came from a jalapeño-studded cornbread served at Gloria restaurant in New York. While the restaurant serves them in four-inch disks, that is too large for a holiday gathering. So I made them in madeleine pans (a corn-stick mold would work equally well, though it will make only about 15). In place of the jalapeños, you could add bits of Cheddar, ham, or minced olives or sun-dried tomatoes. The madeleines freeze beautifully. (Reheat them on a baking sheet covered in foil at 275 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.)
Tamale Pie
To accommodate the time constraints of modern life, more and more Thanksgiving dinner hosts are proposing potluck. The change has caused a subtle shift in the conversations about the approaching holidays. The traditional complaints -- "Aaugh! My mother-in-law's cooking!" -- have been updated: "She's asked everybody to bring something. Well, at least there'll be one thing we can eat."
Baked Risotto With Winter Squash
This is not a classic stirred risotto, in which broth is added little by little, requiring the cook to stir and stir. Instead, the rice is tossed with squash and cheese then baked under a layer of bread crumbs until fragrant and browned on top. Welcome as a hearty meatless main course, it may also be served alongside a roasted chicken. Use any kind of hard winter squash, such as butternut, kabocha or Hubbard. Here are more great risotto recipes.