Weeknight
3434 recipes found
Vegetable Chow Mein
When you order chow mein in the United States, your meal is likely to look different depending on your location: In the Northeast, it might be a plate full of gravy-laden stir-fried vegetables crowned with crispy noodles, whereas on the West Coast, the strands are thick and chewy. More traditional Cantonese restaurants will serve up deep-fried noodles, but in New York City, those noodles might be softer and thinner. Some versions use soy sauce liberally, while others abstain entirely. This Hong Kong-style chow mein is from the chef Lucas Sin, who researches regional Chinese cuisine and how it has morphed across the globe. This recipe, from his menu at Nice Day, a Chinese American takeout place in New York, is stained with soy sauce and has a robust vegetable-to-noodle ratio. It’s bouncy, it has bite and it’s delicious hot off the wok (or even cold from the fridge).
Crunchy Cauliflower Salad
This chopped salad celebrates raw cauliflower, a hearty vegetable often reserved for roasting, which renders it golden and soft. Here, crunchy, thinly sliced cauliflower and radicchio bring a mix of slightly sweet and pleasantly bitter flavors; the honey and Meyer lemon vinaigrette is a nod to winter, when citrus fruits are at their brightest and sweetest. Customize the salad with whatever crunchy vegetables you have on hand; celery, fennel and cabbage all make great candidates. This dish makes the perfect side for roasted fish or chicken, or enjoy the salad as a main dish topped with beans, shredded chicken or canned tuna.
Sheet-Pan Salmon and Broccoli With Sesame and Ginger
A healthy sheet-pan dinner that comes together in just 20 minutes? Sign us up. Brushing a simple sesame-ginger glaze onto the salmon before it roasts promotes caramelization on the fish, a feat not easily accomplished when roasting salmon fillets. The garnishes give this dinner a professional finish: A squeeze of lime juice, a sprinkle of sesame seeds, and a handful of thinly sliced scallions make for a beautiful plate.
Black Pepper Stir-Fried Tofu and Asparagus
This fast, one-skillet stir-fry dinner combines vibrant spring vegetables with hearty tofu in a rich and spicy black-pepper sauce. (Use freshly ground pepper, if possible, for the ideal combination of flavor and heat.) The tofu is simmered in the fragrant sauce, which is spiked with aromatic garlic and ginger until it has absorbed all of the flavors and is nicely glazed. This recipe is perfect for using up that pencil-thin asparagus, which cooks quickly and toes the line between crisp and tender, while sweet snap peas balance out the assertive sauce. The dish can be served over baby spinach or in lettuce cups instead of with rice for a satisfying salad.
Easiest Chicken Noodle Soup
The majority of shortcut chicken soup recipes use rotisserie chicken. It’s a convenient hack, but cooked chicken doesn’t absorb flavors very well. On the other hand, sautéing ground chicken in olive oil with garlic, coriander and celery seeds (or fennel seeds and rosemary, or herbes de Provence) creates a deeply complex base. Add the vegetables, then the stock and the noodles for a complete meal that cooks in 30 minutes. You can use egg noodles, cavatelli or alphabet noodles, but you may want to adjust the amount of stock to taste, since they’ll each absorb a different amount of liquid.
Crispy Rice With Shrimp, Bacon and Corn
This one-pan recipe is a great use of leftover rice, though you can also use freshly cooked rice as long as it’s no longer hot. The starch in sticky short-grain rice, together with the corn’s starch, caramelize into a nice crust that you can remove in big pieces. Long-grain rice will brown as well, but stay loose when served. Try to get a little of everything in each bite: crisp yet tender rice and corn, savory shrimp, crunchy bacon, juicy tomatoes. This recipe was developed with 16/20-count shrimp in mind, but you can use whatever shrimp you find aside from fancy super-jumbo ones. Serve with hot sauce if you’d like.
T’chicha (Barley and Tomato Soup)
This simple soup, which comes from the Amazigh, or Berber, community of North Africa, perfectly demonstrates how just a few ingredients can create a wholesome and comforting meal. Pearl barley has a distinctive taste and texture that once cooked, naturally thickens soups and gives them a creamy consistency. The sweetness of the paprika and tomatoes against the boldness of the thyme and pearl barley give this soup its special flavor and appeal. The dried thyme is added at the end of the cooking process to preserve its aromas. Feel free to customize your t’chicha by adding your choice of chopped vegetables such as eggplant or zucchini and proteins such as cooked chicken or beef.
Vegan Dan Dan Noodles With Eggplant
Sichuan dan dan noodles are traditionally made with ground pork, a spicy sauce and sui mi ya cai, or pickled vegetables, but this vegan version features pan-fried eggplant in place of the meat. Cutting the eggplant into relatively chunky pieces and covering the pot with a lid while cooking is the key to achieving the right texture: It locks in moisture, ensures that the pieces don’t fall apart, and allows the flesh to become tender and smoky. Once tossed with the noodles and sauce, the eggplant breaks up and becomes creamy. If you don’t have tahini, you can substitute it with smooth peanut butter or almond butter.
Large White Bean, Tuna and Spinach Salad
You could use canned cannellini beans for this, but I love the size and texture of large white limas. I don’t soak limas because the skins tend to detach and the beans fall apart when you cook them. You want them intact for this, but you also need to make sure to cook them all the way through.
Classic Tuna Salad Sandwich
Here is Craig Claiborne’s version of the classic lunchbox staple. Celery, red onion and red bell pepper add crunch; capers and lemon juice lend a little tang.
Curried Rice and Quinoa Salad
For a salad to make a meal, it should contain something more substantial, like grains, beans or potatoes, or protein-rich ingredients like cheese, fish or eggs. Poach an egg, place it atop a generous serving of frisée salad tossed with croutons, herbs and a tart vinaigrette, and you’ve got lunch or a light dinner. A spinach salad with green beans can be transformed into a comforting and nourishing meal when warm potatoes tossed with vinaigrette and feta are added to the mix. I’ve made this mixed-grains salad using both regular brown rice and brown basmati rice. I like the lightness of the basmati brown rice, but I also enjoy the chewiness of regular brown rice.
Beet and Radicchio Salad With Goat Cheese and Pistachios
Here's a hearty roasted beet salad that doesn't take hours to make. Cutting the beets up into small cubes shortens the cooking time and results in all over caramelization that you don't get with roasted whole beets. By the time you're finished prepping the rest of the salad, the beets will be done.
Beans and Greens Stew With Doenjang
In this deeply comforting stew, the hardest part is washing and chopping the greens, which is to say, not very hard. Earthy-sweet Swiss chard, especially rainbow chard, tastes beautiful here, but coarsely chopped spinach, kale, mustard or radish greens, napa cabbage or broccoli rabe would be lovely, too. Canned cannellini beans, crushed lightly with a wooden spoon, thicken the gentle, savory broth. The key to this dish lies in how you layer each ingredient into the pot: The onion and scallions are first browned to start an umami-rich base; the Korean fermented soybean paste, doenjang (see Tip), is bloomed in oil to awaken its deep, salty funkiness; and then the honey is caramelized slightly for sweetness and floral complexity. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Silken Tofu With Crunchy Lettuce and Fried Shallots
Built like Japanese hiyayakko, in which cold, pudding-like tofu is heaped with toppings, this 20-minute dish is lively with contrasting textures and temperatures. Here, crunchy lettuces dressed with soy sauce, vinegar and seasoned oil are piled atop cold silken tofu, then scattered with crispy fried shallots and jalapeño. Eat the dish on its own, with rice or fish, and maybe a cold beer.
Pressure Cooker Porcini Risotto
This recipe, adapted from the slow-cooking maven Lorna Sass, proves that pressure cookers shouldn’t be associated with overcooked food. The rice turns out perfectly in the end, and you save a lot of time and effort. It’s finished off with peas for a bit of color, and the usual cheese, salt and pepper. It’s a meal that will justify buying that pressurized pot.
Air-Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
Like air-fryer French fries, air-fryer sweet potatoes achieve similar success, utilizing less oil and requiring less time than deep-fried versions. While sweet potato fries won’t crisp up as much as their potato counterparts, that’s part of the appeal, offering textural contrast of creamy centers and charred tips. Oomph from any of your favorite spices would work well here, along with the paprika. Sumac could add a punch of brightness or a dash of cayenne can impart some heat. If your air fryer basket is larger, try a bigger sweet potato for a higher serving — but don’t overfill it with sweet potatoes, or they’ll steam rather than crisping in spots.
Pressure Cooker White Bean-Parmesan Soup
A pressure cooker renders dried beans buttery soft in a fraction of the time the stovetop would take. For this recipe, seek out whole wheat berries — not hulled or pearled — because they stand up to the long cook time, developing a pleasant chewiness while maintaining their shape. You can substitute whole farro or spelt, but make sure the farro is not pearled. The key to this soup’s flavor is the Parmesan rind, which infuses the soup with an earthy saltiness. Finally, don’t forget the finishing touches of lemon and parsley: They add brightness and bring other deeper flavors into sharper focus. You can also make this recipe in a slow cooker. Find that recipe here.
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.
Pressure Cooker Chocolate Pudding
Dense, creamy and fudgy, this pudding is meant to be made in a 6- to 8-quart electric pressure cooker like an Instant Pot. You can bake this recipe as one larger pudding or as individual servings. It can be made in a stovetop pressure cooker, by trimming a few minutes off the cooking time, or you can also bake the individual servings in a water bath in the oven. To do so, heat the oven to 300 degrees. Set the filled, uncovered custard cups in a large roasting pan positioned on the oven's center rack. Add hot tap water to the pan, halfway up the sides of cups. Cover the entire pan with foil, and use a fork to prick holes in foil. Bake until edges are lightly set (lifting the foil to check) but the centers are still jiggly – they will set as they cool – 30 to 35 minutes.
Chicken With Caramelized Onions and Croutons
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. This idea came to me from the great New York Times food reporter Julia Moskin. Scatter a bunch of sliced onions and shallots across the oiled bottom of a large pan, then put a bunch of chicken thighs on top, skin-side up. Season the thighs with salt and pepper, then slide the pan into a 425-degree oven to roast until the chicken is crisp on top and cooked through, about 35 minutes. Shake the pan every so often, and add wine or stock if the onions are browning too fast. Meanwhile, make some croutons from good, chewy olive-oil-tossed bread, toasting them until golden in a pan or in the oven alongside the chicken. They can be cut or torn up — no matter. Put the croutons on a warm platter, dump the contents of the roasting pan over the top and arrange the chicken on top of that, mixed with bitter greens. Boy howdy. 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.
Italian Subs With Sausage and Peppers
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. For these subs, you'll start with the onions, slicing two big sweet ones and setting them in a hot pan with a couple of gurgles of olive oil. Season with salt, black pepper and a shake of red-pepper flakes, then cook over medium heat, stirring and tossing occasionally so that they go golden and soft. This’ll take a while. Add a couple of sliced bell peppers to the pan, and continue cooking, still stirring and tossing, until they begin to wilt. Set the vegetables aside. About halfway through, set some sweet Italian sausages in another hot, oil-slicked pan, and cook them through until crisp and brown on the exterior, turning often. Split your sub rolls (I like the sesame-seeded variety here) and scrape out a little of the interior from each. Load one side of each roll with some of the onions and peppers, the other with a sausage. Top with mozzarella, put the open sandwiches on a sheet pan and slide them all into a hot oven for five minutes or so, until the cheese is melted and the bread is lightly toasted. Fold together and serve. 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.
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.
Rotisserie Chicken Salad With Greens and Herbs
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Pick up a heat-lamp roast chicken at the market on the way home — it’s O.K.! — and tear it apart to feed four, or half of it for two, shredding the meat with your fingers. Mix the chicken with a few handfuls of baby arugula, a large handful of sliced scallions and a lot of chopped cilantro. Cut an avocado or two into the mix if you have them on hand. Then make a dressing out of lime juice — one juicy squeezed lime will do — a pressed garlic clove and a few glugs of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Drizzle that over the top and serve. Dinner in 15 minutes, tops. 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.
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.