Vegetarian
6931 recipes found
French Grated Carrot Salad
Want to work more carrots into your diet? Make up a batch of grated carrot salad every week. Standard fare in French cafes and charcuteries, this salad keeps well. If you have it handy, you’ll be eating carrots every day. This classic version is made with a salad oil rather than stronger-tasting olive oil. You have a choice here, as extra-virgin olive oil has health benefits that canola oil may not. Still, choose a mild-tasting olive oil rather than a strong green one. For a twist on this version, try it curried, bolstered with capers, cumin and curry powder.
Savory Steel-Cut Oats With Fried Egg and Za’atar
Oat porridge for breakfast is often topped with brown sugar and cream. Though sweetened porridge is delicious, a savory approach with oats makes a nice change. Think of oats as a fine substitute for rice — you don’t always want rice pudding, do you? Steel-cut oats have a nutty whole-grain flavor and retain a nubbly texture, far superior to rolled oats; they pair nicely with savory toppings, for a risotto-like effect. This easy, hearty dish is actually suitable for any time of day, not just morning. If you can’t find za’atar (a splendid spice mix of wild thyme, sumac and sesame used throughout the Middle East), try a sprinkling of toasted ground cumin or a pinch of oregano, or a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. It’s hard to cook a single portion of oats, so make the full batch. Leftovers can be reheated for another day’s breakfast. (And if rolled oats is all you have, it’s no crime.)
Ponzu Tofu and Mushroom Rice Bowls
This quick, satisfying tofu and mushroom rice bowl uses citrusy ponzu sauce in two ways: first, to infuse the tofu as it cooks, then as a final bright drizzle over the rice. Japanese citrus (usually yuzu or sudachi) imparts tart, tangy flavor that complements and lightens soy sauce. (Some brands of ponzu contain bonito seasoning, which gives the sauce a slightly smoky flavor. Bonito flakes are made from dried and smoked skipjack tuna, and are commonly used to make dashi, a Japanese stock. If following a vegan diet, reach for a fish-free version of ponzu.) Tofu and mushrooms simmer in the zippy garlic and ginger-infused ponzu and absorb all of the aromas, with a final addition of snow peas for fresh crunch. Use any baby green or a mix; spinach, kale and mesclun are all great options.
Grilled Broccoli With Soy Sauce, Maple Syrup and Balsamic Vinegar
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. This is good one to have in your back pocket when you’re cooking burgers and dogs on the grill; it’s a no-recipe version of a dish that I first learned of from the Brooklyn restaurateur Joe Carroll. Toss broccoli florets in equal parts soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, a generous dash of maple syrup and a splash of neutral oil, then grill (or broil) until they’re soft and crunchy. Serve them under a scattering of red-pepper flakes and sesame seeds, or use furikake, a Japanese seasoning blend that contains, in addition to sesame, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt and, occasionally, monosodium glutamate. Never mind hot dogs or anything else, actually. I could go for that broccoli on white rice and call it dinner, full stop. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes With Sour Cream and Chives
This recipe gives you everything you want in a dish of mashed potatoes: supreme creaminess from both butter and sour cream, a deep potato flavor, a little Parmesan for a salty tang, and chives for color and freshness. That said, if you want to bring the fat content down, you can use less butter (as little as 2 tablespoons will still work). But don’t skimp on the sour cream, which is necessary for both flavor and texture. This is one of 10 recipes from Melissa Clark’s “Dinner in an Instant: 75 Modern Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and Instant Pot” (Clarkson Potter, 2017). Melissa Clark’s “Dinner in an Instant” is available everywhere books are sold. Order your copy today.
Slow-Cooker Curried Sweet Potato Soup With Coconut and Kale
This creamy Thai-inspired soup is all about balance: When the contrasting flavors are in harmony, it is outrageously delicious. (It is also vegan if there’s no fish or shrimp in your curry paste.) Supermarket curry pastes are a great shortcut to flavor for weeknights, but salt and spice levels can vary greatly among brands. So taste at the end, and adjust: You may need to add curry paste, sugar or lime juice to your liking. Chile-lime flavored peanuts, available at some grocery stores, are particularly good for topping — snap them up if you happen to see them. Otherwise, roasted salted peanuts will work beautifully.
Grilled Cheese With Jalapeño, Tomato and Fried Egg
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Sometimes I get it into my head to make a fancy grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t have a recipe because you don’t really need a recipe to make grilled cheese sandwiches. You just need desire, and a triangle in your head: salt; crunch; melting ooze. So I’ll slice some mild Cheddar. Get some decent bread, a sliced jalapeño, the tail end of a beefsteak tomato. Then, sizzle-sizzle-flip-flip in some unsalted butter, and top with a sunny-side-up egg. It’s the simplest kind of cooking, and on a weeknight that’s exactly what most of us need. Make grilled cheese! Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Spicy Tomato Pasta With Arugula
A back-pocket recipe for tired weeknights when you don’t want to cut an onion or mince garlic, this one-pot pasta is coated in a flavorful sauce thanks to a simple base of olive oil, tomato paste, fiery Calabrian chile paste and pasta water. Crushed Calabrian chiles blended with oil, salt and sometimes vinegar comprise this Italian chile paste that offers both heat and flavor, though a chile-garlic paste or hot pickled chiles can be used if you have trouble finding it. (Err on the side of caution with the chile, as you can always top your bowl with more.) Serve the arugula two ways: Add a tangle of it to the bottom of each serving bowl and toss it with the hot pasta to soften and cut the rawness, or pile it on top, drizzle with your nice olive oil and some grated cheese for a salad and pasta combination.
Asparagus Pesto
Making asparagus pesto lets you use the peel, which contains a ton of flavor even though it’s sometimes too tough and stringy to eat. Puréeing lets you sidestep this issue: you keep the peel, and the flavor, but your food processor pulverizes the fibers, even if you use thick spears.
Arugula Pesto
To most people, pesto means one thing: pesto Genovese, the famous and fabulous basil paste from the Italian Riviera. But there are sauces made with copious amounts of other herbs or greens not destined for pasta. They aren’t called pestos, yet that’s what they are — all made by grinding herbs and other ingredients to a paste, then thinning out and enriching with oil. This dish is inspired by one found in southern Italy. This sauce, like other forms of pesto, is all pungent with garlic. In addition to serving this vibrant pesto with pasta, it can be used with grains — risottos made with rice, barley, or wheat — and as a topping for tomatoes. It’s great on its own, spooned onto a thick slice of country bread. Don’t use a sharp olive oil with this, or it will overwhelm the arugula.
Asparagus Ricotta Pasta With Almonds
In this comforting pasta, fragrant herbs, spinach and crisp-tender asparagus offer the lightness of spring balanced by rich, garlicky, scallion-infused ricotta. For the creamiest sauce, look for ricotta without added stabilizers or gums, or try making it yourself. An almond crumble brightened with lemon zest adds a nutty crunch and makes each bite texturally diverse. Spiral-shaped pastas have long nooks and crannies for the thickened sauce to cling to, but other short shapes of pasta like penne work well here, too.
Creamy Chickpea Pasta With Spinach and Rosemary
Luxurious and hearty, cheap and easy, this vegetarian pasta uses mostly pantry staples, requiring just a few fresh ingredients, like baby spinach, rosemary and heavy cream. Canned chickpeas form the foundation of the dish: They’re cooked until crisp and caramelized. Half are then saved as a garnish, while the rest are simmered until they break down and thicken the sauce. You can swap out your greens or beans, and if you want to experiment with flavor, raid your spice cabinet: Ground coriander, toasted fennel seeds, coarsely crumbled pink peppercorns or a sprinkle of smoked paprika perk up the dish.
Pasta With Mint and Parmesan
The pairing of pasta with mint and Parmesan is a good one. There is something about the lightly assaultive yet somehow sweet nature of mint that is unlike any other herb. Older cuisines use it occasionally, but it is rarely seen as a major player. In this dish, however, softened by butter and cheese, mint converts a basic but undeniably heavy combination into an easy yet complex pasta dish best described as refreshing. To the inevitable question, Can I use olive oil instead of butter? my answer is that you can, but you will completely change the nature of the dish; it won't be bad, but it won't be as good. Better, I think, to cut the butter back to two tablespoons. But because this sauce is cut with the pasta cooking water, the butter is spread nicely throughout, and it really isn't a huge amount per person.
Pasta e Ceci (Italian Pasta and Chickpea Stew)
There is an incredible number of recipes for this classic Roman dish, and everyone has an opinion on how it should be prepared. This version is more stew than soup, but it can be loosened up with a bit more water if you prefer. It begins with sautéing onion, tomatoes, garlic and rosemary in olive oil, then tossing in the chickpeas, and smashing a few to give the stew a creamy texture. Water is added, then uncooked pasta, which cooks as the stew simmers (and results in one less dish for you wash). Escarole is folded in right before serving. This flexible stew can go in a number of directions, so tweak it as you see fit, but don’t forget to finish each bowl with grated pecorino and a drizzle of olive oil. Ciao.
Extra-Creamy Scrambled Eggs
Adding a small amount of a starchy slurry to scrambled eggs — a technique learned from Mandy Lee of the food blog Lady & Pups — prevents them from setting up too firmly, resulting in eggs that stay tender and moist, whether you like them soft-, medium- or hard-scrambled. Potato or tapioca starch is active at slightly lower temperatures than cornstarch and will produce a slightly more tender scramble, but cornstarch works just fine if it’s what you’ve got on hand. Make sure your skillet is at just the right temperature by heating a tablespoon of water in the skillet and waiting for it to evaporate. For creamier eggs, you can replace the water with milk or half-and-half.
Breakfast Burritos
A delightful breakfast, these burritos filled with soft scrambled eggs, scallion-flecked refried beans and buttery avocado slices are also great any time of the day. Cilantro adds freshness, and a few drops of your favorite hot sauce will deliver a nice zing. The nontraditional open-ended rolling technique used here will tightly encase the filling in the smaller-size tortillas while ensuring the optimal tortilla-to-stuffing ratio. To seal completely, wrap each tortilla in a strip of foil and twist both ends. For convenience, the little wraps can be made ahead of time, stored in the refrigerator or freezer and reheated in an oven.
Scrambled Eggs With Peppers
This dish, a classic piperade from southwestern France, is a great way to use those vitamin-rich peppers still abundant in farmers’ markets. You can mix and match peppers here. Just be sure to cook them for a long time so that their juices infuse the eggs.
Velvety Scrambled Eggs
This recipe adapts a technique from making Chinese egg drop soup — gently poaching a thin stream of beaten eggs in simmering liquid — to a Western-style breakfast of scrambled eggs. The results are special and one of a kind. Drizzling the eggs into hot cream gets them to set into tender, velvety curds that end up bound with a rich custardy sauce, perfect for spooning onto buttered toast. The eggs are delicious without the herbs, but, given how rich they are, think of them as a special occasion dish, worthy of the added effort.
Potato-Kale Casserole and Eggs
Inspired by a classic colcannon (potatoes mashed with kale or cabbage), this recipe turns those elements into a heartier meatless meal by cracking eggs into the mixture and baking it until the yolks are as runny or jammy as you like. Cheddar adds nuttiness and richness, and browned shallots round out the flavors and offer sweetness. You can make the potato-kale mixture a few hours — or even a day — before serving. Reheat it in the skillet on the stove until piping hot before adding in the eggs as directed in Step 7. This makes a substantial brunch or light dinner, maybe accompanied by a salad.
Green Smoothie With Cucumber and Cumin
This smoothie, the only savory drink in this week’s Recipes for Health, is a bit like an Indian lassi, with a little heat from the pinch of cayenne, and some lovely spice. I used a mix of baby greens – chard, baby kale and spinach, as well as parsley and mint. It makes for a filling lunch.
Seeded Pecan Granola
Maple-glazed pecans, coconut oil and a hint of spice bring big flavor to this crunchy, cluster-packed granola, adapted from the restaurant Jon & Vinny's in Los Angeles. If you don't have flaky sea salt, kosher salt is fine; just use slightly less (about 3/4 teaspoon, give or take).
Pineapple and Millet Smoothie
I played around with this smoothie, toying with adding this ingredient (banana) or that (coconut); but in the end what I love about it is the pure flavor of pineapple, softened by the grain that also thickens and bulks up the drink.
Mushroom and Spinach Frittata
Use bagged, presliced mushrooms and baby spinach for this and it will come together very quickly. The frittata is great for dinner, breakfast, brunch or lunch.
Deep Purple Blueberry Smoothie With Black Quinoa
My idea for this week’s Recipes for Health was to match grains and fruit by color and make nourishing smoothies. For this one I could have also used any of the black or purple rices on the market, such as Alter Eco’s purple jasmine rice, Lotus Food’s Forbidden Rice or Lundberg Black Japonica. I happened to have a full bag of black quinoa in the pantry, so that’s what I went for and it worked beautifully. You can also use fresh blueberries for this, but when they are not in season, frozen will do fine and will eliminate the need for ice cubes.