Weeknight
3491 recipes found
Sardine Salad
For a vivid take on lunchtime tuna salad, use oil-rich sardines and skip the mayonnaise. Emulsifying the deeply seasoned oil from the sardine tin with lemon juice and mustard makes the salad creamy like mayonnaise does but with flavors that are more intense and pronounced. Add any of the sharp, crunchy, fresh pops you like in your tuna or whitefish salad, such as capers, cornichons, pickled peppers or herbs, and eat this sardine salad over greens, on a bagel or English muffin, or between two slices of toast.
Huevos Rotos (Broken Eggs)
Variations of this hearty fried egg-and-potato dish can be found throughout Spain, including the Canary Islands, where it’s said to have originated. There’s always a runny egg, but whether it sits atop fried potato rounds, French fries or crunchy chips varies by region and personal preference. The potatoes are often served with chorizo sausage or Serrano ham, but in this vegetarian version, smoked paprika and red-pepper flakes mimic chorizo’s flavor and heat. Pierce the eggs just before serving so the golden yolks coat the potatoes with a glossy sauce. Serve with sautéed greens or a crisp salad dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. This one-pan meal is good with a cup of coffee or a beer — it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner material.
Eli Zabar’s Egg Salad Sandwich
In 1975, Eli Zabar, the owner of E.A.T., Eli's at the Vinegar Factory and numerous restaurants and markets throughout the city, invented what he calls the platonic ideal of an egg salad sandwich. He did it by eliminating half the egg whites. During this period, he was into simplicity, he said, and he wanted to get to the essential “egginess” of egg salad. The recipe remains unchanged more than 40 years later. But what of all the leftover hard-cooked egg whites? E.A.T. sells them as chopped egg white salad in two versions: plain, and dressed with mayonnaise and dill. Waste not, want not.
Kimchi Grilled Cheese
Spicy heat plays well with melty cheese (think: queso dip, stuffed jalapeños, Buffalo wings and blue cheese). Here, kimchi and mozzarella cheese come together for a twist on the classic grilled cheese. Mildly flavored mozzarella is an especially good choice in this recipe because it lets the kimchi shine, but you could also add 1/4 cup of grated Cheddar, Monterey Jack or even pepper Jack for more kick. If you have grilled steak, roasted vegetables or practically any other savory leftover in your fridge, chop it up and add about 1/4 cup to your sandwich along with the kimchi. Smearing mayonnaise on the bread, instead of butter, might sound weird, but it won’t burn as quickly as butter, allowing the cheese ample time to melt, and the bread to toast up to golden perfection. (Watch the video of Ali Slagle making kimchi grilled cheese here.)
Chickpea Salad With Gim
The salty, nutty and gloriously savory flavors of gim — the Korean roasted and seasoned seaweed — anchor this easy chickpea salad. Packed with umami, sheets of crisp gim are finely chopped into onyx-black confetti, speckling the sesame oil and mayonnaise-bound chickpeas. (Note that Japanese nori, the unseasoned sheets of seaweed used for sushi, are too dry and will not work in this recipe.) As it sits, the salad absorbs the dressing and the raw red onion mellows out beautifully, which means this is an ideal contender for making ahead and lugging to picnics whenever.
Fried Rice
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Start with some cooked rice, white or brown, a cup or so per person, made fresh or pulled from the freezer where you keep some in a plastic bag against the promise of just such an exercise. (The chill helps separate the grains.) Also helpful, also in the freezer: bags of diced organic vegetables you can get at the market (the mixed corn, carrots and peas number, for instance). For the rest: meat if you eat meat, a couple eggs, lots of chopped garlic and ginger, some scallions. You can make a sauce from soy sauce and sesame oil (about a 3:1 ratio) and fire it up with a teaspoon or two of gochujang. You’ll need a little less than a quarter cup of sauce to feed four. To the wok! Crank the heat, add a little neutral oil, then toss in your meat. I like chopped brisket from the barbecue joint, or pastrami from the deli, or ground pork, or bacon, or leftover roast chicken — whatever you decide on, you’ll need far less than you think. After the meat crisps, fish it from the pan and add about a tablespoon each of minced garlic and ginger, a handful of chopped scallions. Stir-fry for 30 seconds or so, then add those frozen vegetables. More stir-frying. Return the meat to the wok. Stir-fry. Clear a space in the center of the wok and add the eggs, cooking them quickly to softness. Throw in the sauce, then the rice, and mix it all together until it’s steaming hot. Finish with more chopped scallions. 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.
Peanut Butter Sandwich With Sriracha and Pickles
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Here’s a spin on a great old sandwich of the American South: peanut butter and pickle sandwiches with a spray of sriracha or sambal oelek, and a tiny drizzle of soy sauce. Toasting the bread before spreading it with peanut butter adds crunch and warmth, and the result is a sandwich of remarkable intensity, sweet and salty, sour and soft and crisp. Trust me on this one! 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.
Classic Bean Salad
You can use any kind or combination of canned beans to make this classic picnic salad, but a mix of white beans, chickpeas and red kidney beans makes it especially colorful. Although this is delicious when freshly made, it gets even better as it sits. If you have time, make it at least an hour or two before serving; it can rest at room temperature for up to 4 hours — but after that, slip it into the fridge. If you want to make this the day before, add the celery and parsley just before serving, so they stay crisp and green.
Creamy White Bean Soup With Spicy Paprika Oil
As easy as it is fast, this simple blended white bean soup relies upon cheap staples like canned beans, stock, garlic, olive oil, shallots and dried herbs. An artful drizzle of paprika oil enlivens it. While the soup simmers, toast red-pepper flakes and smoked paprika in olive oil to make a vibrant red sauce inspired by Chinese chile oil. The soup is great before blending — it’s more like a stew — but purées to a creamy white. You could top the soup with sautéed quartered button mushrooms, roasted vegetables or toasted croutons, but the paprika oil provides deep flavor, and is the only garnish you truly need.
Roasted Tomato and White Bean Stew
This hearty, flexible stew comes together with pantry ingredients and delivers layers of flavors. Cherry tomatoes, roasted in a generous glug of olive oil to amplify their sweetness, lend a welcome brightness to this otherwise rich dish. Onion, garlic and red-pepper flakes form the backbone of this dish, to which white beans and broth are added, then simmered until thick. While this stew is lovely on its own, you could also add wilt-able greens such as kale, escarole or Swiss chard at the end, and toasted bread crumbs on top. The dish is vegan as written, but should you choose to top your bowl with a showering of grated pecorino or Parmesan, it would most likely work well in your favor.
Fried Egg Quesadilla
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. This simple fried egg quesadilla makes as fine a light supper as it does a breakfast repast. Easy work: Melt some butter in a pan and gently cook a corn tortilla in it. Top the tortilla with grated Cheddar, a slice of deli ham or some cooked bacon if you want them, a little chopped cilantro or salsa or hot sauce, and another tortilla. Cook, flipping the quesadilla a few times, until it is crisp and golden and the cheese has melted into lace at the sides. Use a spatula to pull it out of the pan, and place it onto a cutting board to rest. Fry an egg in the now-empty pan with a little more butter, then cut the quesadilla into quarters, placing the egg on top. Top with cilantro and hot sauce or salsa. 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 Apples and Apple Butter
If Cheddar on a slice of apple pie sounds good to you, you will love this twist on a grilled cheese sandwich, which marries salty and sweet elements between two caramelized pieces of buttery bread. Look for dark apple butter, with no added sugar, since it will have the richest flavor. Unlike most grilled cheese recipes, which call for building the sandwiches, cooking them on one side, then flipping, this one calls for cooking the sandwiches open-faced, then assembling them.The cheese melts more quickly and reliably if cooked this way. Depending on the size of your bread slices and your skillet, you may be able to cook two sandwiches at a time. You could also have two pans going, or just serve them as they are finished. To serve all four at once, just transfer the cooked sandwiches to a baking sheet in a 200-degree oven while you crisp up the remaining sandwiches on the stovetop.
Easy Lentil Soup
This earthy, simple-to-make lentil soup can be embellished however you please. Leave it plain, and it’s warming and velvety. Or dress it up as you like, either with one or two of the suggested garnishes listed in the recipe (see Tip), or with anything else in your pantry or fridge. If you’d like to make this in a pressure cooker, reduce the stock to 3 1/2 cups, and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes, allowing the pressure to release naturally.
Midnight Pasta With Garlic, Anchovy, Capers and Red Pepper
There’s something about pasta, cooked properly, that trumps all the other possibilities. And the smell of pasta boiling is a heady cheap thrill. With a few basic staple pantry items, a true feast can be ready in minutes. Good spaghetti, good olive oil, garlic and a little red pepper are all you need, plus some anchovy and capers if you have them.
Pistachio-Lemon Bars
These delightful and easy lemon bars have everything the traditional ones do – tang, sweetness and a buttery base – plus the added benefit of pistachios folded into the filling and the crust.
Sticky Harissa Chicken Wings
This seemingly simple chicken wing recipe from Mansour Arem, a co-founder of Zwïta, a Tunisian food company, has genius moments throughout the cooking process, resulting in sticky, stellar results. Dry-roasting the wings ensures thin, crackly skin that’s at once crispy and airy under the spicy, sweet and immensely savory sauce, which requires no cooking, just stirring. Adding the hot wings to the cool sauce awakens the flavors of the harissa and lets it shine bright. This recipe calls for chicken, but the glossy sauce works well on many things, including salmon, tofu and chickpeas. Mr. Arem recommends enjoying this dish with beer, such as a pilsner, hefeweizen or amber lager.
Korean BBQ-Style Meatballs
These meatballs, inspired by traditional Korean barbecue, bring the savory-sweet flavors of caramelized meat without the need for a grill. As the meatballs bake, the soy sauce marries the garlic and scallions to create a glaze. This meatball mixture can be made ahead and left to marinate in the fridge for 3 hours or even overnight. Use ground beef that is 85 percent lean meat, 15 percent fat, or 80 percent lean and 20 percent fat for juicier meatballs. The Ritz crackers here make for a more tender meatball, but feel free to substitute plain dry bread crumbs. The meatballs are tasty on their own, but for a simple dipping sauce, combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar. Serve over steamed rice with kimchi, or as a sandwich with mayonnaise or marinara sauce.
Classic Caprese Salad
This classic summer dish doesn’t get any simpler or more delicious. Use different-colored heirloom tomatoes for the prettiest salad, and buffalo milk mozzarella for the best tasting one.
Broccoli Aligot
Traditional pommes aligot, from Aubrac, France, add enough cheese to mashed potatoes until they stretch like fondue. If you aggressively stir mozzarella cheese into a luxuriously creamy broccoli purée, you can get the same effect. This decadent side is a great accompaniment to a fancy steak dinner or your next holiday spread, and makes an indulgent filling to a baked potato. For best results, be sure to use only the deep-green tops of the broccoli florets. Using too much of the watery, light-green stem yields a purée that’s loose and lacks lusciousness. The rest of the broccoli can be used in an entire other dish: seared into steaks, shaved into a salad, chopped and tossed into stir fries, or employed in almost any recipe that calls for a head of broccoli.
Lemon-Dill Meatballs With Orzo
With nutty orzo, tender meatballs, bitter greens and spoonfuls of herby yogurt, this Mediterranean-inspired skillet dinner is hearty yet light. There’s an incredible amount of dill, but don’t bother plucking fronds from the stems. Instead, chop the whole plant until you hit the roots; the stems are crunchy and flavorful. While the fennel seeds are optional, their anise flavor is reminiscent of tarragon, so alongside the orzo’s anchovies and the herb yogurt, you might be reminded of green goddess dressing. Instead of orzo, try rice or pearl couscous, and add liquid as needed until tender.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Honey, Almonds and Chile
Tossing sprouts with a simple honeyed vinaigrette brings out their natural sweetness, while roasting them helps develop their deep savory notes. To avoid soggy steamed sprouts, heat your sheet pan in the oven. When you add the sprouts to the hot pan, you’ll know by the accompanying sizzle that they’re on track. For a sunny jolt, top the charred sprouts with a drizzle of honey, sliced chiles tempered with a splash of vinegar, smoky almonds and fresh orange zest and juice.
Harissa-Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Red Onion
This simple salad is powered by two naturally sweet vegetables – sweet potato and red onion – but harissa, the popular north African spice paste, balances everything out. Harissa adds more than just a subtle heat to a dish; it injects smokiness, tang, richness and overall intrigue. When shopping, look for harissa that has a deep, brick-red color, a thick consistency and dried red chiles listed as one of the first ingredients. Cutting the sweet potatoes into wedges creates sharp edges so that they get crispy and golden in the oven. This dish is easily adaptable, and simple to make into a complete meal by adding roasted chickpeas, cooked lentils or grilled radicchio.
Miso Gravy-Smothered Green Beans
In this modern take on green bean casserole, beans simmer in creamy gravy until completely tender and supple. Inspired by classic Southern gravy, this one gets unexpected savory depth from earthy miso. A final swirl of tangy sour cream and acidic lemon juice lightens the rich sauce. For some crunch, try topping the beans with fried shallots or onions, or chopped nuts, like roasted pecans or almonds. The dish makes a perfect side dish for the Thanksgiving table — or alongside a simple weeknight roasted chicken.
Green Bean Salad With Hot Mustard Dressing
Hot mustard powder brings a sharp, spicy twist to traditional mustard vinaigrette, which complements sweet green beans well. The beans are blanched until crisp-tender, then tossed in the vinaigrette while still hot. As the beans cool, they absorb all the flavors of mild shallot, fragrant garlic, tangy rice vinegar and hot mustard. Rich, roasted pecans add nutty sweetness to balance the spicy dressing. Though the salad can be made a few hours ahead, you’ll want to top it with the nuts right before serving to preserve their crunch. The beans themselves can be served at room temperature or chilled.