Vegetarian
6897 recipes found
Porcini Ragù
As a child living in Tuscany, Ixta Belfrage fell for a pasta rich with dried porcini mushrooms, served at the lone restaurant in the tiny mountain village of Acone. In her cookbook, “Mezcla” (Ten Speed Press, 2022), she pays homage to the power of porcini mushrooms, which are typically gathered from the wild and taste of it, luscious and nutty. They offer a shortcut to glory in this ragù that almost defies the name, because it doesn’t demand hours on the stove and attains a velvety intensity in practically no time at all. Leave the porcini to soak and swell back to life; chop; gently fry with tomato paste, garlic, chile and parsley; rain down black pepper; melt in some Parmesan; swirl with pasta water and porcini broth and let it bubble. A dab of cream, then a slicking and coating of the pasta, and it’s on the table.
Lo Han Jai (Buddha’s Delight)
On Lunar New Year’s Day, many Cantonese families will make a pot of lo han jai, also known as Buddha’s delight. The vegan dish is rooted in Buddhist tradition, which prescribes that a meat-free diet be observed during the new year as a form of self-purification and to welcome good luck. Delicious any time of year, Lo han jai has transcended Lunar New Year and is nowadays enjoyed as an everyday dinner dish. There is no single recipe for lo han jai — families are likely to have their own versions — but the key is to create a textural dish by bringing together dried and fresh vegetables. Swap out any of the ingredients you cannot find and consider substituting with other vegetables such as carrot, sugar snap peas, lotus root, baby corn or cauliflower.
Roasted Kabocha Squash
Naturally sweet kabocha squash takes on a caramelized richness when brushed with maple syrup and coconut oil and roasted. The flavorful dish is equally at home alongside a holiday roast, on a bed of whipped ricotta or atop a grain bowl. Coconut oil works exceptionally well here, adding a subtle nuttiness and sweetness that other oils lack, though vegetable oil will work too. Best of all, the kabocha skin is edible so no peeling required. Don’t forget to save those seeds for roasting.
Creamy Cauliflower-Cashew Soup
Creamy and comforting, this cauliflower soup happens to be vegan, and takes its silky texture from being simmered and thickened with roasted cashews. The nuttiness of the cauliflower and the cashews is balanced by the addition of a tart apple. The preferred thickness of creamed soups varies, so if the soup feels too thick, just adjust it to your ideal level of creaminess, adding more stock or water — and an additional sprinkle of salt — as needed.
Orange Marmalade
Marmalade techniques abound, and many are complicated, but everyone can master this easy recipe with good old-fashioned navel oranges and a little patience. Most traditional recipes are made with Seville oranges, a fragrant citrus that often requires blanching to remove some of its bitterness. To mimic the unique tangy bittersweetness of Sevilles, this method simply uses a combination of oranges and lemon. Rest assured, it will not taste cloyingly sweet, but rather balanced and bright, as all great fruit preserves should. One step that can’t be rushed, however, is an overnight soak to extract as much pectin from the boiled peels as possible — this will keep the marmalade spreadable and buoyant.
Roasted Spiced Squash With Whipped Feta and Pistachios
Sweet and nutty, squash never fails to bring quiet luxury to the plate. Here, a generous dusting of cumin and coriander accentuates its earthiness and tempers its sweetness. (The cumin and coriander could easily be replaced with a spice blend like ras el hanout, baharat, garam masala or five-spice powder). Thin-skinned varieties of squash such as butternut, honey nut or delicata are easy to prepare (as they need no peeling), and the skin adds an essential textural bite to this dish. The velvety whipped feta is adaptable and versatile; you can add a handful of herbs to inject some color or drizzle in a tablespoon or two of olive oil for a richer finish. For an even heartier dish, roast some chickpeas alongside the squash. Have some bread or flatbread on hand to mop up the whipped feta.
Stovetop Berry Crisp
You don’t need to wait for summer’s ripest fruit to enjoy a fruit crisp. This quick, small-batch version delivers jammy fruit beneath a crispy topping any night of the week, no matter the season. Start by making the topping in the microwave, then as it crisps, simmer the berries on the stovetop. Once they resemble a compote, add more berries for pops of freshness. You can use a mix of berries or just blueberries, and they can be fresh or frozen — no need to thaw the frozen ones first. Because the topping is already cooked when it’s scattered on the fruit, it won’t get soggy, delivering a brown-sugary crunch in every bite.
Microwave Sticky Toffee Pudding
You’re just 10 minutes away from a bowl of soft, date-flecked cake draped in a brown sugary sauce. This speedy take on sticky toffee pudding is made for one or two people and doesn’t require turning on the oven — just the microwave. Topping your warm cake with cold ice cream, whipped cream or sour cream is a welcome contrast and helps temper the sweetness. A few toasted pecans on top would add a nice crunch.
Fairy Bread
If you go to a children’s birthday party in Australia or New Zealand, you are very likely to find fairy bread: triangles of untoasted white bread covered with margarine or butter and “hundreds and thousands” (you can use round rainbow sprinkles stateside). Fairy bread is a much-loved treat with fairly murky origins; one variation is hagelslag, a Dutch treat that uses chocolate sprinkles instead of rainbow-colored rounds. After one bite of fairy bread, it is clear why the combination of soft bread, creamy butter and crunchy, sugary sprinkles is beloved by so many — and may be soon by you, too.
Triple-Chocolate Brownies
Featuring a terrazzo-esque contrast from a melted bittersweet-chocolate batter studded with shards of white chocolate and milk chocolate, these luxurious brownies owe their rich flavor and nuanced texture to a few essential details. The batter employs both melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder, a combination that provides complex flavor and a fudgy bite. Snappy chunks of milk and white chocolates get folded into the bittersweet base, creating a multidimensional celebration of chocolatiness. Both dark brown sugar and granulated sugar are key to obtaining that hallmark shiny surface and a velvety soft interior. About midway through the baking process, the baking pan gets tapped on the counter, resulting in a brownie that deflates until desirably gooey but not dense, which will please just about every type of brownie lover.
Chocolate Crepes
These cocoa-infused crepes are delicious rolled up and eaten as-is, but for a more celebratory dessert, dress them up with your choice of chocolate-hazelnut spread, whipped cream, powdered sugar and berries. Making crepes isn’t complicated, but it does require a bit of patience. Letting the batter rest for the full 15 minutes (or up to overnight) allows the flour and cocoa powder to hydrate, which contributes to a tender and slightly bouncy texture when cooked. To minimize frustration while cooking, use a good nonstick skillet and avoid cooking the crepes too hot and fast—medium heat is ideal.
Persian Love Cake
The origins of Persian love cake, a fragrant and tender cake adorned with rose petals, are shrouded in a romanticized story of unrequited love. Set in bygone lands with the scent of cardamom and rose wafting through the air, the tale tells of a Persian prince and the girl who won his heart by baking him this magical cake. It’s unclear from where this tale first sprung, but the timeline is certainly recent: The earliest mentions of Persian love cake do not date back to ancient or even modern-day Iran, but possibly to a chef in Australia in the early 2000s who prepared an almond flour-based cake and called it Persian love cake. Perhaps the combination of almonds, cardamom and rose water, ingredients typically used in Iranian baked goods, inspired the name. This version uses a combination of almond flour and all-purpose flour, which makes for a delightfully light crumb. The perfume of lemon and rose water in the cake is echoed in the syrup that drenches the cake, as well as in the icing that drapes it. Like every good romance, this take on Persian love cake will keep you coming back for more.
Brie and Mango Chutney Grilled Cheese
Grilled cheeses come in many flavors and shapes depending on the cheese, bread and condiments used. This version opts for relatively mellow, creamy Brie topped with tangy mango chutney and earthy spinach. Mayonnaise is slathered on the side of the bread slices that cook on a preheated pan for a guaranteed crunchy crust, and the two halves of the sandwich initially cook separately to ensure the Brie melts nicely. Feel free to adjust the amount of mayo, cheese and chutney depending on the size of your bread slices (and your taste). To make a simple, comforting appetizer or shareable snack instead of a sandwich, remove the grilled cheese halves from the pan after Step 3, cut into rectangles or triangles and serve.
Strawberry Lassi
Strawberry lassi is a popular variation of lassi, the yogurt-based blended beverage with origins in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. This refreshing drink is made with frozen strawberries instead of ice to add flavor while keeping it cool. Sugar is the traditional sweetener in lassi, but the maple syrup here adds a subtle earthiness and dissolves quickly while blending. South Asian dahi (yogurt) is ideal for achieving the drink’s characteristic tart creaminess, but plain whole-milk yogurt will also work well. (Greek yogurt and skyr can be too thick for lassi.)
German Pancake
This large-format pancake puffs up at the perimeter, creating light airy edges, while the center remains denser and almost custard-like. It’s the combination of these two textures that makes the German pancake special — that, and the ease of being able to whip up pancakes for six without being tethered to the griddle. What’s the difference between a Dutch baby and a German pancake, you may wonder? Semantics, really. The origin of this giant baked pancake is commonly attributed not to a Dutch or German dish, but to a Seattle restaurant called Manca’s that began serving the dish in the 1940s. The inspiration and name for this uniquely puffy pancake may have come from some variation of pfannkuchen (the German word for pancakes) and the word Deutsch (German) pronounced in American English eventually morphing into “Dutch.” While many German pancake recipes call for a cast-iron skillet, this recipe uses a 9-by-13-inch rectangular baking pan to create one gargantuan pancake with plenty of crisp edges. How you serve the pancake is up to you: Fill it with berries and maple syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar, or cut it into individual squares and let everyone top the pancakes to their liking.
Red Velvet Cookie Bars
These bar cookies have all of the flavors of your favorite red velvet cake, in a cute, compact form that is quick and easy to make. Their flavor and texture falls somewhere between a vanilla sugar cookie and chewy brownie. A generous layer of fluffy cream cheese frosting is a tangy and delicious cap to the bars, but feel free to reduce the frosting as you like. Enjoy these at room temperature or cold from the refrigerator. The food coloring in the recipe brightens their warm, chocolaty tone, but you can add extra for a more vibrant hue.
Mornay Sauce
Mornay is a rich and velvety sauce made by adding cheese (traditionally Gruyère and Parmesan) to a classic béchamel base. It requires just a handful of basic ingredients — primarily flour, milk, butter, cheese and nutmeg — and is quick to put together. A superversatile sauce, it’s a favorite for mac and cheese and gratins, and is great with roasted veggies, boiled potatoes and poached eggs. The sauce is best used right away, but can be held at room temperature for a few hours or chilled for up to 3 days. (It thickens quite a bit as it chills, but will return to a saucy state once rewarmed.)
Vegan Queso
Thanks to a hefty dose of funky nutritional yeast and smoky heat from paprika and chipotle, this cashew-based dip has enough nacho-cheesy vibes to please all kinds of eaters. Unlike traditional queso, this recipe, adapted from my cookbook “Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook” (Knopf, 2023), stays smooth and creamy even at room temperature, ideal for snacking on all party long. Don’t be shy with the salt, which is critical to bringing out that cheesy flavor. Serve this with tortilla chips, steamed broccoli or French fries, or toss with boiled elbow macaroni for a vegan mac and cheese.
Fondant Potatoes
In this classic French restaurant dish, Yukon Gold potatoes are given the steak treatment: Seared in a hot pan, basted and then baked, they become creamy and fall-apart tender. (The name, fondant, refers to the French word for melting). To achieve their signature cylindrical shape, you can use a round cookie or biscuit cutter, or a paring knife, to shave down the sides of the potato. Choosing potatoes that are long and tube-like, rather than round, will also help. But you can also feel free to skip this step; the potatoes won’t be strikingly uniform, but they will still be delicious! Serve alongside steak, or roast beef or chicken for a show-stopping and comforting dinner.
Pear-Almond Cake
This simple cake comes together with little fuss: It’s just sliced pears baked in an easy almond flour batter, but in flavor and texture, it’s so much more. Feel free to make it early in the day, or even the day before serving. It keeps well. Use firm, slightly underripe pears if possible.
Arugula Salad With Radish, Fennel and Mustard
This zesty arugula salad is a bold beginning to a meal. Use a sharp knife or mandoline to cut the watermelon radish and fennel bulb so they’re just shy of paper thin. When dressing the salad, try to bring some of those bright, colorful slices to the top for an especially attractive result.
Chocolate Pound Cake With Strawberry Whipped Cream
This deeply chocolaty pound cake is simple to make but so much more than the sum of its very straightforward parts. Dutch cocoa lends its rich color and flavor to a cream cheese–infused pound cake batter. The cream cheese adds a tangy depth of flavor and gives the cake a soft, velvety texture. Make sure your butter, cream cheese, eggs and sour cream are at room temperature to ensure the cake batter emulsifies properly and bakes up tall and even. The cake is delicious on its own, dusted with a bit of powdered sugar and sliced into tidy slices, or with a dollop of perfectly pink strawberry whipped cream, which makes use of freeze-dried strawberries that are perfect year round.
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.
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.)