Weeknight
3431 recipes found
Creamy Cajun-Style Chicken Pasta
A little spicy, a touch sweet and incredibly rich chicken pasta is a modern take on chicken Alfredo inspired by the bold flavors of Cajun cuisine, integrating bell peppers, scallions and a heat-forward spice blend into the creamy sauce. The origin of this dish is a bit unclear — it’s not a traditional Louisianian dish — but it’s become a cult classic, with several national chain restaurants featuring versions on their menu and even more copycat recipes. For this version, chicken breasts are rubbed with a Cajun-style seasoning (see Tip) and browned in the same skillet that’s later used to build the sauce. A big squeeze of lemon juice and chopped tomatoes help perk up the pasta. For extra acidity and heat, drizzle with Louisiana-style hot sauce at the table.
Cold Tomato and Kimchi Soba Noodle Soup
When the coolness of gazpacho meets the punchiness of kimchi, magic happens. The result is a cold soup that is alive with freshness and rich with layered flavors that belie its ready-in-minutes preparation. The fruity tang of tomatoes and the mild vegetal sweetness of cucumbers are emboldened by the sour heat of kimchi. The soup serves as the perfect base for nutty soba, a noodle that always performs exceptionally well when served cold. If you don’t have soba, try rice, egg or wheat noodles. The soup could also be consumed noodle-free, served with crusty bread for a simple and quick meal that deeply satiates. If you like, top with extra kimchi and, on extra-hot days, dot with a few ice cubes.
Tomato and Cottage Cheese Salad
In this deviation from a Caprese salad, slices of heirloom tomatoes are topped with dollops of cottage cheese and layered with red onions, olive oil and tender herbs, plus a savory spice blend inspired by everything bagels. Cottage cheese is a great blank canvas ingredient that plays well in sweet and savory applications, adding creamy richness to this tomato salad. Serve it up with grilled French bread at dinnertime or toasted bagels for a sunny summer brunch. Like most summer cooking, this dish is adaptable: Feel free to swap out the spice blend for your favorite textural alternative; try dukkah or za’atar.
Chopped Salad With Everything Bagel Croutons
This salad is somewhat of a New York style fattoush. Bagel pieces are tossed with olive oil, nuts and everything seasoning, then toasted in the oven to make supersavory, crunchy croutons. These are tossed through a green chopped salad with crispy lettuce, green bell pepper, scallions, cucumber, herbs and a zingy lemon dressing. The salad is rounded off with a base of tahini yogurt, adding a creamy, tangy finish that ties everything together. Perfect as a light lunch or a unique side dish, this salad is both wholesome and indulgent, offering layers of textures and flavors in every bite. Whether you’re a fan of bagels or crisp, textural salads, this recipe is sure to become a new favorite.
Harissa Puttanesca With Toasted Almonds
Pasta puttanesca, a classic Italian dish, gets a vibrant makeover with the addition of harissa, a spiced North African chile paste. In this version, harissa replaces the usual crushed red pepper, adding a smoky depth and complex warmth. Olives, anchovies and capers, classic puttanesca ingredients, deliver their signature briny punch, while toasted almonds add a satisfying crunch and a welcome protein boost. Perfect for busy weeknights, this dish made with pantry staples is both flavorful and comforting. While the recipe calls for spaghetti, any other type of long pasta will work just as well.
Oven-Seared Salmon With Corn and Tomatoes
This one-pan dinner pairs browned fish with a colorful salad of charred corn, tomatoes, scallions, herbs and lime, proving that summer cooking is best when you get out of the way of the ingredients. The salmon develops a crisp crust without requiring a sear on the stovetop thanks to a light coating of mayonnaise and the direct scorch of the broiler. You won’t taste the mayonnaise; instead, it’s there to caramelize the salmon’s surface while insulating the delicate flesh. Corn kernels cook alongside just long enough to plump, sweeten and char in spots. The salmon and salad are a meal unto themselves, or you could accompany them with quinoa or garlic bread.
Zucchini Fritters
Mildly flavorful zucchini tends to adapt to whatever ingredients the vegetable is paired with, and here, a heap of tender herbs and lemon zest brings out the best in this summer staple. Crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside, these fritters are relatively simple to assemble: grab a box grater and some other seasonal produce, including scallions and basil or dill, and heat up the skillet. You’ll need to make them in batches, but frying only takes a few minutes per side. A little baking powder in the batter provides rise for extra-fluffy fritters. Serve them as a party starter, with tzatziki as a dipper, or as a summer side to burgers or grilled salmon.
Zucchini-Peach Salad With Creamy Lime Dressing
Raw zucchini deserves to be a summer salad staple. With just time and salt, sliced zucchini softens into tender bites that absorb any dressing that graces them. This easy salad pairs thinly sliced zucchini coins with sweet, juicy, ripe peaches in a loose, creamy, lime-forward dressing. It’s a full-on journey, in just a mouthful.
Spiced Roasted Eggplant
This simple eggplant recipe yields soft and deliciously spiced rounds. Eat them as a side with meat or fish, or as a vegetable main, with seasoned yogurt and chopped herbs. Don’t be afraid to use your broiler for extra crispness at the end of roasting, and consider leftovers an excellent start for your favorite eggplant dishes, like moussaka or ratatouille.
Lobster Rolls
There are two longstanding, popular styles of lobster rolls, and they differ in two primary ways: temperature (cold versus warm) and sauce (mayonnaise versus butter). One style hails from Maine, where chilled lobster meat is tossed in a mayonnaise dressing (often with minced celery and chives), while the Connecticut version warms lobster meat in butter and serves it glistening in the butter sauce. These rolls embrace the best of both worlds and are both buttery and bright. The lobster meat is warmed in butter, quickly tossed in a light mayo dressing, then tucked into butter-toasted buns. Serve with potato chips and tangy coleslaw for a classic summer meal.
Connecticut-Style Lobster Rolls
Connecticut-style lobster rolls celebrate the pure flavor of lobster, simply warming the cooked meat in melted butter to bring out its inherent sweetness and preserve its plump texture. (Maine-style typically serve chilled lobster meat tossed with mayonnaise.) The approach is simple: Toast your buns in butter until golden, then heat the cooked lobster in the same skillet just until warmed. The use of salted butter seasons the meat, so no extra salt is required (though seasoning to taste is never discouraged). Although the optional celery seed is not traditional, its herbal brightness nicely highlights the seafood flavor. Serve these lobster rolls with potato chips and tangy coleslaw for a classic summer meal.
Roasted Zucchini
Due to its high water content, zucchini takes well to high- and direct-heat cooking methods like sautéing and grilling. Using these methods, color (a.k.a. flavor) can develop before the squash releases too much moisture. This recipe for roasted zucchini employs a few tricks to combat sogginess. First, the oven is cranked up to 450 degrees, so the zucchini browns in a matter of minutes. Second, the zucchini is diced into 1-inch cubes, so the pieces are large enough to withstand the high oven temperature without breaking down. Finally, the sheet pan is preheated, giving the zucchini a headstart on browning when it hits the sizzling-hot pan. For best results, use small to medium zucchini and wait to salt the squash until just before it goes into the oven. You can season simply with salt and pepper, or toss the zucchini with hardy herbs like oregano or thyme before roasting, and finish with fresh lemon and tender herbs such as basil or mint.
Turmeric-Ginger Salmon
This simply marinated and roasted salmon is lemony, garlicky, gingery and all with a hint of heat. Inspired by the Northern Vietnamese dish, cha ca la Vong, salmon fillets are first rubbed in a simple garlic, ginger and turmeric-based marinade then baked hot and fast. A sauce made with scallions, fish sauce, red pepper and olive oil is poured over the fish, so each bite has a huge pop of flavor. Great with rice noodles and sliced cucumbers, you can also serve with grilled bread or rice and a side green salad. If you feel like grilling this fish, the direct heat will only deepen the marinade’s impact. Chopped nuts are optional and add a textural crunch.
Spiedie Chicken Breasts With Buttered Broccoli
Native to Binghamton, New York, spiedies are marinated and grilled meat skewers, often made with lamb, pork and chicken. This casual weeknight dinner, inspired by the vinegary oregano marinade of spiedies, takes boneless, skinless chicken and transforms it into something special and undeniably juicy. Splitting thick, bulbous chicken breasts helps: The key to not-dry chicken is to level out its surface area so it cooks quickly and evenly. Tender-crisp buttery broccoli is a fun side dish here, something you can pan-sear after the chicken has had its time staining the skillet with its savory remnants of dried oregano and red wine vinegar. Serve with white rice, buttered toast or a big green salad.
Prosciutto and Melon Salad
On a hot, sticky summer day, this colorful, no-cook salad of prosciutto, melon, mozzarella and arugula belongs at the center of your table. Eating salty prosciutto with sweet melon is so classic, the combination of cured meats and fruit dates back to ancient Rome. Wrapping slivers of melon in prosciutto is still a go-to antipasto throughout Italy, but this rendition adds peppery arugula and creamy mozzarella to make it more of a salad. Make it a meal alongside braised beans and focaccia, or whatever’s coming off the grill.
Air-Fryer Zucchini
Popping zucchini into the air fryer is a quick way to cook the beloved summer vegetable, but the squash’s high water content can lead to sogginess. For crisp, can’t-stop-eating zucchini, employ these smart tricks: Remove the seeds, don’t salt before cooking, thoroughly dry the zucchini pieces, and finally, toss them with a little mayo before sprinkling with a mixture of panko, Pecorino Romano and cornstarch. You’ll end up with tasty, lightly crisped zucchini nuggets with a salty bite. For a vegan version, substitute vegan mayonnaise or olive oil and use nutritional yeast in place of the cheese.
Saladu Nebbe (Black-Eyed Pea Salad With Tomatoes and Cucumbers)
Black-eyed peas are a common sight in West African cooking, stewed long until tender or turned into fritters like àkàrà. They’re also a staple ingredient in the American South, where they’re commonly eaten on New Year’s Day as a symbol of good luck for the year to come. The chef Isaiah Screetch’s saladu nebbe, based on the Senegalese dish of the same name, highlights the nuttiness of the beans in a fresh salad that has a bit of spice thanks to serrano chiles. Studded with juicy tomatoes, cucumbers and red bell pepper, the recipe calls for letting the salad meld its flavors together in a lime dressing for two hours, but it can also sit overnight, making it the perfect side dish for a barbecue or cookout.
Everything Salmon With Creamy Caper Sauce
Covered in a crisp, everything-seasoning crust and served with a creamy, tangy caper sauce, this quick, weeknight salmon dinner is inspired by the beloved flavors of bagels and lox. The application of everything bagel seasoning forms a crisp crust on the fish fillets, adding deep flavor while preserving moisture. (You can use store-bought everything bagel seasoning, if you’ve got it, or create your own blend using pantry staples like sesame seeds, poppy seeds, granulated garlic and granulated onions.) Beneath the salmon, there’s a tangy cream cheese caper sauce laced with a subtle hint of lemon. For a refreshing bite, typical bagel and lox toppings — red onions and tomatoes — make a refreshing salad that rounds out the dish.
Grilled Salmon
For grilled salmon with crisp skin, tender flesh and nothing stuck to the grates, coat the skin with mayonnaise, an insulator that mitigates sticking, then cook the fish skin-side down the whole time. Skipping the flip allows the heat to rise up and gently cook the delicate fish, and as a bonus, creates really crispy skin. This method also works for other firm fish fillets such as red snapper, halibut or sea bass; just be sure to adjust the cook time so that the internal temperature hits 130 degrees (the minimum internal temperature for the salmon is 120 degrees).
Fennel and Lentil Salad With Caper-Mustard Dressing
Quietly dazzling, this salad is a dish you’ll turn to time and time again. It’s ideal for when you want something simple and hearty without being too filling. Made mostly of pantry ingredients, it has a punchy, acidic dressing that’s lightened up with fresh ingredients like fennel and parsley. While satisfying enough on its own, it works well with simple proteins like salmon, chicken or a jammy egg. Eat it for lunch during the week, and refresh leftovers by adding some baby spinach, fresh dill or more parsley.
Summer Fish Tea
Fish tea is an endlessly flexible soup recipe found across the Caribbean, consisting of fish, starchy vegetables like pumpkin and yellow yam, and seasonings, which can all vary depending on the cook. Some prepare it with a helpful packet labeled "fish tea flavored soup mix," while others prefer making it from scratch with fresh fish heads. This weeknight version lands somewhere in the middle, showcasing tender-crisp summer vegetables like corn and green beans in a delicate broth scented with ginger, allspice and juicy hunks of snapper. If Scotch bonnet chiles are unavailable, habanero will work. Making a small puncture in the whole pepper will allow some heat to permeate the broth, but not an overwhelming amount. For a spicier soup, make a larger incision. To make this soup preparation even faster, you can cut the vegetables for the soup while the broth simmers.
Dumpling and Smashed Cucumber Salad With Peanut Sauce
Serving as a luscious, umami sauce for pan-fried potstickers, peanut sauce yet again proves itself to be the hero of weeknight cooking. The sauce needs no cooking, just some hot water to soften the peanut butter, which also helps the sauce come together smoothly. By design, it is slightly runnier than usual, allowing it to casually drape over the dumplings. Right after whisking, the sauce may look too loose, but let it sit for a few minutes as it relaxes and thickens into the perfect consistency. Frozen potstickers — which have a flat base for pan-frying — work best, but you could use other types of dumpling too, cooking them according to their package instructions. The cucumbers are smashed and then salted, which not only draws out moisture, but also tenderizes them every so slightly, delivering just the right amount of freshness and crunch.
Tomato-Watermelon Salad With Anchovy Bread Crumbs
Slightly sweet and very savory, this juicy, colorful salad is perfect for summer, when tomatoes and watermelon are at their peak. Briefly marinating the tomatoes helps season them thoroughly and draws out their juices, which lend a soft, round note to the tart sherry vinegar in the dressing. Note to anchovy-avoiders: Their presence in the bread crumbs isn’t obvious or assertive. They melt into the oil, leaving behind just a hint of their saline, umami character. Serve this as a side dish to grilled or toasted meats or fish. Or, to make it a meal, you can add crumbled goat cheese or feta, but it would also be nice with a can of tuna flaked over the top or some chickpeas mixed in.
Shrimp Salad With Sesame-Ginger Dressing
Give in to the convenience of already poached shrimp in this bright main-dish salad, perfect for lunch or a light dinner. The core is easy and uncomplicated: Fresh ginger and chiles are married with sesame seeds and oil in a tangy vinaigrette for tender shrimp, crisp cucumbers and a bed of peppery arugula. It’s decidedly unfussy and very easily adaptable — add scoops of avocado or soft-boiled eggs for extra richness or simply serve with buttered toast and make open-faced sandwiches. Individual chiles have their own heat ranges, just like our taste buds. Use the amount in the recipe as a guide, but trust your instincts to adjust.