Vegetarian
6992 recipes found
Sweet Potato Layer Cake
Taking an old recipe and making it new, without compromising its comfort and nostalgia, can be a real joy. Howard Conyers Jr., a legacy sweet potato farmer in South Carolina, did what all good minds do: He got creative with what he had an abundance of. Using his mother Hallie’s carrot cake recipe, he replaced the grated carrots with sweet potatoes, introducing a deep and warm flavor to a classic recipe. The sweet potatoes play well with the spices, bringing in an appealing vegetal note that is a true delight with the cream cheese frosting. This is an easy cake to put together for a lazy Sunday, yet it feels regal and elegant enough for special occasions.
Crispy Tofu Shawarma
The flavors of shawarma come alive in this plant-based spin featuring crispy shaved spiced tofu, sumac pickled onions, lemony tahini and fresh vegetables. Super-firm tofu is ideal as it doesn’t require pressing and is sturdy enough to withstand being thinly sliced. Tossing the tofu with soy sauce, an admittedly unusual ingredient in shawarma, imbues it with a deep savoriness, and when the tofu is pan-fried, it gets remarkably crisp-chewy. Cooking in batches ensures maximal crispness, but doesn’t require much babysitting, so that time can be spent whipping up the tahini sauce and prepping the vegetables. Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes offer a mix of crunch and sweetness, but you can use whatever you have on hand. Scoop leftovers into pita pockets for lunch.
Sheet-Pan Feta With Corn and Shishito Peppers
It takes fewer than 10 minutes for the broiler to deliver a complete meal of molten, salty feta, sweet corn and smoky shishito peppers. While grilling cheese with vegetables is common in Mexican and Mediterranean traditions, this indoor, sheet pan rendition catches all the juices and oozing cheese as the feta slouches and chars and the vegetables plump and caramelize. Red onion quick-pickled in lime juice and a flurry of herbs cut through the richness. Serve it straight from the pan with warm pita, tortillas, quinoa, orzo, avocado, tzatziki or refried beans. For a kick, add thinly sliced jalapeños or serrano to the red onions, or top your plates with pico de gallo or hot sauce.
Broccoli Rice With Eggs
This simple one-pot broccoli rice is a cozy weeknight option that will delight both adults and children alike. When cooking a simple bowl of rice, adding oil and salt to the cooking water is an easy way to bring indulgence, and, in Cantonese home kitchens, this is often a way to repurpose oil previously used for deep-frying. Oil imparts a silky mouthfeel to the rice while preventing the rice from sticking, resulting in slick, pearly, separated grains. Finely chopped, crisp-tender broccoli adds a fresh, subtle sweetness and hearty texture to the rice. Complete the dish with a hearty fried egg, drizzled with an easy soy sauce and oil seasoning to add savoriness that is not overly salty. If you’re lucky enough to have any leftover broccoli rice, it can easily be repurposed into fried rice.
White Skillet Lasagna
From stovetop to oven, this vegetable lasagna comes together quickly compared to a classic meat and tomato version and serves a smaller, more intimate group. While the lasagna sheets are boiling, make the streamlined vegetable filling: Sauté leeks, garlic and thyme in butter before tossing the fragrant mixture with béchamel sauce and some smoked mozzarella. Layered together in a skillet, the lasagna bakes up creamy and smoky, with crisp golden edges. A comforting meal on its own, it doesn’t need any side dishes, but a simple green salad would pair with it well.
Spicy Curried Potatoes
This is more a stir-fry than a curry in spite of the name, which, like the recipe, comes from “Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking” by Julie Sahni (William Morrow, 1985). The potatoes get no sauce, just a coating of curry powder that adheres to their flesh as they crisp in the pan. Grinding your own curry powder is not strictly necessary, especially if you have a brand you like in your cupboard. But this is a very, very nice blend, unusually fragrant and nuanced. The quantities below will give you more than you need for the potatoes. Make half a batch if you wish, or make the whole amount and start thinking of things you’ll do with the rest.
Persimmon Salad With Glazed Walnuts and Feta
Here, firm Fuyu persimmons are used in a most satisfying seasonal salad that’s fairly easy to put together. First, you mix up a simple vinaigrette that gets a touch of sweetness from balsamic vinegar (a drop or two of honey wouldn’t be out of place). Then, it’s all tossed with chicories, like radicchio, curly endive or escarole, and homemade glazed walnuts and the result really feels like and looks like fall. Similar salads sometimes add blue cheese, but feta suits this one beautifully. And, if you can’t get persimmons, use pears.
Plum-Cardamom Upside-Down Cake
Turn this easy to make (and easy to love) cake right-side up, and it’s a rustic beauty, generously made with any kind of pear. It keeps well and actually improves the longer it sits. So don’t give big servings. Have a reasonable sliver at the table after dinner and save a nice fat slice for breakfast.
Pignoli Cookies
Pignoli cookies are the royalty of Italian cookies, not only because they’re encrusted in toasty pine nuts on the outside and feature next-level chewiness on the inside, but also because pignoli (pine nuts, for the unacquainted) and almond paste aren’t the cheapest ingredients on the shelf. They’re worth the investment, though, especially in a recipe as simple as this one, which is adapted from my cookbook “Let’s Party” (Union Square & Co., 2025).
Nonalcoholic Negroni
It can be difficult to find a nonalcoholic version of the classic Negroni that captures the complex flavor notes without involving the use of pricy nonalcoholic spirits. This recipe, adapted from my cookbook “Let’s Party” (Union Square & Co., 2025), cracks the code by using a common pantry ingredient: hibiscus tea. It features grapefruit juice for bitterness, tea for floral and tannic notes, a little sugar for sweetness and black peppercorns for that subtle, satisfying tingle.
Roast Squash With Crispy Chickpeas and Feta
When it comes to squash recipes, butternut tends to get most of the attention. This recipe, adapted from my cookbook “Let’s Party” (Union Square & Co., 2025), is an unabashed celebration of the lesser-used members of the squash family: delicata, acorn and kabocha. When roasted, all three have a dense and creamy texture, with stunning orange flesh that looks gorgeous stacked on a platter. Roasted chickpeas add a crispy crunch, and a mixture of lightly pickled shallots, cooling mint and salty feta will make you see squash in a whole new light.
Condimento alla Papalina (Creamy Cheese Sauce for the Pope)
Ask anyone in Italy if they know “The Talisman of Happiness” and odds are they’ll say yes. Ada Boni wrote the first edition of the essential cookbook in 1929 and updated it over the years as Italy’s culture and cooking changed. This recipe is adapted from the latest edition (Voracious, 2025). Condimento alla papalina, which loosely translates to “sauce for the pope,” was created in honor of Pope Pius XII, who became head of the Catholic Church in 1939. It’s a testament to how only a few ingredients you probably have on hand can create a delicious, incredibly satisfying dish in about 15 minutes. She calls it a lighter alternative to carbonara, although the amount of butter and cheese is quite generous. Ms. Boni says the sauce is best tossed with fettuccine.
Vegan Dan Dan Salad
Turns out, dan dan noodles work well as a salad, in this recipe adapted from my cookbook “Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor” (Knopf, 2025), as the signature punchy sauce made with sesame paste and chile oil transforms nicely into an assertive dressing. Curly and chewy ramen noodles cling perfectly to the sauce, but you could really use any noodle you like, including instant noodles, udon or thick rice noodles. Adapt this salad throughout the year by adding seasonal vegetables such as mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, snow peas, spinach or green beans.
Coronation Cauliflower and Chickpeas
Served at a luncheon for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, coronation chicken (or Poulet Reine Elizabeth, as it was written on the official menu) is a salad of cold chicken coated in a creamy curry sauce. In this regal vegan take, adapted from my cookbook “Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories” (Knopf, 2025), cauliflower and chickpeas step in for the chicken. While classic recipes typically feature cream and mayonnaise, coconut yogurt lightens things up and adds sweetness and a tropical tang that pairs well with the curry flavor. Dried fruit is a common addition to “coronation-style” dishes, with some recipes calling for dried apricots or raisins; this one opts for the former, along with optional mango chutney for liveliness and subtle spice. This salad tastes even better the next day — and any leftovers make a stellar sandwich — so feel free to prep ahead.
Turnips With Whipped Pistachio Feta
Tender and juicy hakurei turnips, sometimes known as Japanese turnips, always feel like a treat. With a crisp flesh that is reminiscent of apples, they can be eaten raw, sliced thinly and adding a nice crunch to salads, or cooked, which coaxes out a buttery flavor. That said, if you can’t find hakurei turnips, radishes will do, in this recipe adapted from my cookbook “Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories” (Knopf, 2025). Pan-frying turns turnips juicy, tender and extremely easy to eat. The whipped pistachio feta is joyous: creamy and nutty, a perfect base for not only these turnips, but also for just about any roasted vegetable. If you can find a vegan feta that you like, use it here, as it works just as well as dairy-based feta. If your turnips have tops, reserve them to use in this salad. Turnip greens are mild and crisp, similar in taste to bok choy, and can also be stir-fried, so never throw them away.
Dan Dan Noodle Salad
Turns out, dan dan noodles work well as a salad, in this recipe adapted from my cookbook “Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor” (Knopf, 2025), as the signature punchy sauce made with sesame paste and chile oil transforms nicely into an assertive dressing. Curly and chewy ramen noodles cling perfectly to the sauce, but you could really use any noodle you like, including instant noodles, udon or thick rice noodles. Adapt this salad throughout the year by adding seasonal vegetables such as mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, snow peas, spinach or green beans.
Sheet-Pan Ratatouille With Crispy Chickpeas
This colorful, vegetable-filled dish has all the flavors of ratatouille but requires a lot less work to get there. Instead of standing at the stove to cook the eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and peppers individually, they’re roasted all together on a sheet pan until they caramelize and collapse, turning silky and sweet. Spiced chickpeas are added to the oven halfway through cooking, giving them a chance to crisp up. Sprinkled onto the vegetables just before serving, they add protein and a delightful crunch.
Boozy Apple Crunch Cake
This cake is loosely inspired by German apfelkuchen, a simple apple cake that capitalizes on humble ingredients and great seasonal produce. In this version, brown butter, bourbon, almond and a hint of citrus perfume the custardlike cake, which gets an extra bourbon soak after baking for good measure. Slicing the apples thinly allows for them to nestle in a cozy pile in the center of the cake, almost as if the cake itself were laminated with apples, cooking through while maintaining a nice crisp bite. The top, a mixture of coarse turbinado sugar and chopped slivered almonds, provides a necessary crunch that sparkles. Boozy, crunchy and chock-full of apples, this cake can be served warm with ice cream or at room temperature, and is sure to be the “it” dessert at any fall function.
Sweet Potato and Brown Butter Snacking Cake
A snacking cake is something that can be made with everyday ingredients, often in one bowl and baked in a single layer. The best ones are fit for a celebration but also so easily assembled that they feel casual enough for snacking. This sweet potato cake comes together in about an hour, making for a perfect low-effort dessert that pays dividends. The cake itself is a cinnamon- and nutmeg-scented spice cake, owing its moist and tender texture to grated sweet potato and the addition of maple syrup. The star of the show, however, is the brown butter cream cheese frosting, which is at once nutty, caramelized and slightly tangy. Take care to ensure the brown butter and cream cheese are around the same temperature and texture, so that they emulsify properly and the frosting doesn’t split (look curdled). Move over, carrot cake! A new root vegetable is here to steal the spotlight.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Pound Cake
This loaf cake is all the best parts of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, amplified. Tender and a bit denser than a traditional sponge cake, this perfectly peanut-buttery cake features layers of jam that ripple throughout the center so that each slice gets the proper ratio of jam to nuttiness. Use whichever jam or jelly you like, though note that jam varieties can be quite different, and some are much looser than others. (If yours feels particularly loose, reduce it on the stove for a few minutes or strain it before dolloping it into the loaf pan.) Roasted salted peanuts get strewn over the sweet, fruity glaze. This cake would fit in at the lunch table with a tall glass of milk, or at a dinner party with an espresso martini, because the love for a good PBJ is universal.
Pumpkin Blondies
Fudgy like a brownie but slightly cakey (and light) from the pumpkin purée, these delightful brownies are the ultimate fall sweet treat. They’re a riff on a Martha Stewart recipe, tweaked by Annie Marshall of Everyday Annie to include butterscotch chips and white chocolate. (If white chocolate’s not your thing, don’t worry: It’s not cloying, but adds perfect little pockets of sweetness.) Add nuts or don’t, but do chill a bit before cutting if you have the time, as it helps ensure clean, even squares.
Parsnips With Miso and Parmesan
Parsnips roast beautifully, their edges caramelizing as they soften and sweeten in the heat. Here, they’re paired with a quick miso-lemon dressing that provides sharp notes, bolstered by crisp golden garlic and thyme warmed in oil. A final layer of arugula and Parmesan, peppery, salty and bright, continues the contrast. What starts as a simple sheet-pan roast vegetable gets lifted until complete; depending on its company, it becomes the perfect side dish, or even a warm stand-alone salad.
Smoky Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos
The smoky heat of chipotle chiles, combined with the sweetness of sweet potatoes and the heartiness of saucy beans come together in a chewy flour-tortilla burrito that’s ready to be your meal prep darling. Inspired by Mexican tinga, a classic guisado that builds off of the complex sweet and tangy flavor of chipotles en adobo, these burritos can be served fresh for dinner with a big green salad or Mexican rice, or wrapped up for easy lunches throughout the week. Feel free to get creative with your add-ins: Leftover rice makes them extra hearty, sliced avocado adds richness and pickled jalapeños bring spicy brightness. The filling alone is delicious served over rice and topped with greens as a tinga bowl. Best of all, these burritos freeze beautifully, giving you a stash of satisfying desk lunches that reheat in just 5 minutes.
Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake
Carrot cake has always felt like a fall-winter dessert due to its warming spices, dried fruits, and nuts. This version, inspired by Italian citrus cakes made with olive oil, feels lighter and brighter and is incredibly quick to put together because there is no grating required. The carrots are tossed in a blender along with the wet ingredients, creating a smooth texture and a much lighter cake without those bits of carrot, fruit and nuts weighing it down. (Another light, fluffy carrot cake made with a blended batter, called bolo de cenoura, is also popular in Brazil.) Orange zest and juice brighten things up, and cardamom brings in that warmth you want in a carrot cake while keeping it distinct from the classic.