Weeknight
3493 recipes found
Chicken and Orzo With Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Vinaigrette
A sun-dried tomato vinaigrette uses both the tomatoes and the aromatic oil in which they are stored for a deeply savory pasta meal. The vinaigrette serves double duty here as both a marinade for the tender chicken thigh morsels and a sauce for the orzo and feta. This dish tastes lovely warm, right off the heat, but it also makes for a wonderful cold lunch, like something you might find at an Italian American deli or salad bar.
Tiger Vegetable Salad
A bright toss of cilantro leaves and scallions, this dish, called lao hu cai, is somewhere between a salad and a garnish, adding coolness, salt and juice to the mix.
Spiced Salmon With Sugar Snap Peas and Red Onion
Seared sugar snap peas and red onions make a sweet accompaniment to silky salmon fillets in this lovely springtime one-pan meal. The salmon fillets, coated in a garlicky spice blend, are briefly browned, leaving fragrant, savory drippings in the pan. Those drippings then season the vegetables, infusing them as they cook. Keep an eye on the salmon, especially if you prefer it on the rare side. Thin fillets in particular are all too easy to overcook.
Simple Steamed Fish
Fungi
A staple on dinner tables in the Virgin Islands, this filling, earthy side dish goes well with fish or any stewed protein. In St. Thomas, you can find it accompanying tender stewed snapper or butter-braised conch, acting as a sponge for luscious sauces. Here, chef Julius Jackson, author of “My Modern Caribbean Kitchen” (Page Street Publishing, 2018) and native Virgin Islander, offers a simple, traditional version. This dish isn’t an exact science; some people like it so thick it stands up on its own, while others prefer it thinner, with runny lines of butter. Find which way works best for you by tasting and tweaking as needed. Chilled leftover fungi can be cut into squares and pan-fried in a bit of oil until golden, making a great base for scrambled or poached eggs with bacon on the side.
Lasagna With Asparagus and Chives
Lasagna doesn’t always have to be assembled and baked; it can be thrown together quickly, like a regular pasta dish. Use no-boil lasagna noodles for this deconstructed lasagna. Despite the name, they do require boiling here, but they will be lighter than regular lasagna noodles.
Iceberg Lettuce With Blue Cheese Dressing
Pan-Seared Chicken Thighs With Parsley and Lemon
This recipe will make you think, “Oh, that’s what parsley tastes like.” Bright and herbaceous, one bunch of flat-leaf parsley does a lot of work in this relaxed chicken dinner. First, the tough stems are puréed in a bold and garlicky buttermilk marinade that tenderizes boneless, skinless thighs, then the leaves and their tender stems are sautéed like spinach and spritzed with fresh lemon. Serve these juicy chicken thighs with rice, beans, bread or generously buttered noodles.
Warm Lentil Salad With Balsamic Roast Squash
This recipe started out as something else. I had in my pantry a bag of mixed sprouted lentils – black, green, and brown. I cooked them with the intention of making dal, but I so liked the integrity of the cooked lentils – green and black lentils remain intact even after they soften – that I didn’t want to mash them. Meanwhile I had roasted some squash with balsamic vinegar. I ended up warming the lentils in a cumin-scented vinaigrette and serving them with the squash.
Whole Roasted Cauliflower With Romesco
In this recipe, a whole head of cauliflower is boiled and then roasted until gloriously browned. It is served with a rich romesco sauce, resulting in a dish that is meaty and filling. It could even command center stage, but it also makes a nice accompaniment.
Avocado Soup With Salsa
Creamy Meyer Lemon Dressing
This delicate, lemony dressing is wonderful with most lettuces, both delicate and robust. I especially like it with endive. If you can find it, lemon-scented olive oil, sold in some gourmet shops, will add a delicious flavor.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Here’s a simple, foolproof way to prepare brussels sprouts: Toss with a little olive oil or bacon fat, salt and pepper and roast until tender inside and crisp outside. Finish with a little red-pepper flakes or a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, if you'd like. This recipe serves two, but it doubles or triples easily.
Sesame-Miso Chicken Salad
There’s always room for another chicken salad recipe, especially if the assembly is quick. This one calls for a whole cooked chicken, which you can roast or boil gently several hours ahead or up to 2 days in advance. (Some may choose to buy a precooked rotisserie chicken, but it can sometimes be hard to find one that is seasoned or cooked properly. If you can find a good one, go for it.) The creamy miso dressing can also be used to dress a green salad, or to replace mayonnaise on a sandwich. It also makes a great dip for vegetables.
Watercress and Endive Salad With Pears and Roquefort
Pears go wonderfully with all types of blue cheese, whether Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola or an American blue such as Maytag.
Lemon Chicken With Garlic-Chile Oil
Jarred chile-garlic oil is available from many brands and in many incarnations, but it’s also extremely easy to make at home. The trick is to cook the garlic in the oil slowly and gently so it doesn’t blacken and burn, which will make the whole thing acrid and unpleasant. This pungent and nutty chile-garlic oil recipe was inspired by one published in David Tamarkin’s wonderful cookbook, “Cook90” (Little, Brown and Company, 2018). Here, some of it is used as a sauce for chicken cutlets with lemon and capers. But keep leftover oil in the fridge to drizzle on hummus, steamed or roasted vegetables, or on top of avocado toast for a nutty, spicy kick.
BLT Tacos
Without the bread muffling the crunch of bacon and crisp lettuce, BLT tacos are a lot more texturally exciting than the usual sandwich. Here, hot sauce-spiked mayonnaise adds spice; avocado adds creaminess; and chopping the tomatoes into a salsa with jalapeño, lime juice and cilantro makes everything juicy and bright. You can serve these for brunch, lunch or a light, fast dinner.
Barbecued Chicken Wings, Korean Style
Creamed Corn with Gorgonzola, Tomatoes and Pine Nuts
This light summer meal comes together quickly: Corn kernels are simmered in a cream enhanced with blue cheese and pepper. It's then served on tomato slices and topped with pine nuts for a meal that embraces and enhances the season’s bounty.
Flounder With Brown Butter, Lemon and Tarragon
The flatfish family is comprised of numerous popular fish, including sole, halibut and flounder. But all the various boneless fillets are relatively interchangeable and can be prepared in more or less the same way, adjusting cooking time according to size. These pan-cooked fillets are quick, simple and elegant.
Pan-Roasted Spiced Cauliflower With Peas
This dish is inspired by a trip to Curry Hill, a neighborhood in New York dotted with stores selling saris, Indian restaurants, Pakistani cafes and hole-in-the-wall spice shops. When I got home from my shopping spree, a cauliflower was screaming for Indian spices, garlic and ginger. Better still, I knew I could knock together a pan-roasted meal in about 20 minutes.
‘Choucroute’ of Fish
This is a riff on a classic choucroute garni — usually a mess of smoked and fresh meats with sauerkraut — made primarily with fish, but with the addition of ham or bacon. Smoked fish is key here; salmon adds beautiful richness and color, and any white fillet completes the picture. Serve this dish with buttered rye croutons instead of the traditional boiled potatoes for more flavor and crunch.
Brined Pork Chops With Fennel
Pork and fennel — both fennel seed and the bulb-shaped vegetable — are often companions, and the combination of flavors is quite delicious. For best results, let the chops soak for at least a few hours, preferably overnight, in a quickly made brine.
Sosis Bandari (Spicy Sausages and Onion)
Sosis bandari means “port sausage” and refers to the ports in the south of Iran, home of this delicious street food. The classic preparation combines fragrant sausages and onion cooked in a rich tomato sauce with a couple of key spices, including some type of heat. You can use any dried or fresh chile that you have on hand. This recipe calls for beef hot dogs, or franks, which are a suitable substitute for the fragrant sosis, the sausages traditionally used in this sandwich. Other versions, like this one, include creamy potatoes and green bell pepper to add bulk and to flavor the spicy and savory sausages. Serve sosis bandari as a sandwich filling on a French bun or similar type of sandwich bread, or eat it straight from the pan with bread on the side for scooping. Either way, you’ll want plenty of napkins and something cold to wash it all down.