Weeknight
3493 recipes found

Turkey Cubano
Two heated baking pans topped by a cast-iron skillet stand in for a sandwich press in this easy Cubano recipe. It also substitutes sliced turkey for the usual roast pork, but retains the melted cheese, sliced ham and slivers of pickle that makes the traditional sandwich so incredibly compelling. Deli ham is the go-to choice here, but prosciutto gives a deeper, saltier flavor; use whichever you like.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts With Pancetta And Chestnuts

Baked Codfish With Spinach and Cheese Sauce

Mexican-Style Marinated Steaks

Braised Beets With Ham and Beer

Roman Steaks
This simple recipe, which is adapted from “Mediterranean Cooking” by Paula Wolfert, was brought to the Times by Julia Reed in a 2004 article about easy Italian cooking. Ms. Reed said it was her favorite summer steak recipe, and for good reason: It requires very little effort and just a handful of ingredients to yield spectacular results.

Tuna and Cheese Souffle

Pizzapiazza Deep Dish Spinach Pizza

Brown Rice, Sesame, Spinach and Scallion Pancakes
With only one test of these hearty pancakes, they’ve turned into a favorite lunch, snack and dinner in our house. Try them heated with a little grated cheese on top, or serve with yogurt. These look prettiest when you use black sesame seeds.

Dark Molasses Gingerbread With Whipped Cream
This gingerbread, from the chefs Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, is just wonderful: a little spicy, a little sweet, very simple to make, and absolutely delicious. Whipped cream is an easy topping, although dulce de leche or another warm, caramel-y sauce takes it to a special place. But it’s also kind of nice plain, wrapped in waxed paper and tucked inside someone’s lunch.

Bistek
Bistek is steak, but one transformed by its encounter with soy sauce and citrus. My addition is browned butter, an ingredient not so common in Southeast Asian cooking. This was one of my lola’s signature dishes: She’d cut the onions half-an-inch thick, sear them briefly, then add a little water to make the pan flare up, so they’d get extra crisp. She would always plate it in a casserole dish, with enough pan sauce to sop up with rice. The beef fat should coat your lips, and then the citrus cuts through it. It’s worth investing in good olive oil; every ingredient matters, because there are so few, and you can taste them all.

Vietnamese-Style Rice-Noodle and Steak Salad
Fish sauce and chilies play up the beefy nuances while peanuts add texture and a warm, toasted flavor to this Vietnamese-inspired cold steak and rice noodle salad. Use thin rice sticks to keep things as speedy as possible. They complement the flavors of the sauce and can be soaked instead of boiled.

Pork-and-Green-Chili Stew

Shu Mai-Style Burgers
These burgers are inspired by the pork and shrimp filling of a shu mai dumpling. This gives you uncommon flavor in a burger — not only from the shrimp, but also from the combination of Asian ingredients — with adequate fat.

Shrimp in Yellow Curry
Many Thai dishes are not unlike what we call curries, but although they may contain curry powder, they are more often based on a combination of herbs and aromatic vegetables, rather than dried spices. A typical curry might feature a mixture of garlic, shallots, chiles, lime leaf, sugar and galangal (or ginger). This simplified version leaves out the lime leaf and sugar, but benefits from the addition of a couple spoonfuls of fish sauce at the end of cooking. It is brightly flavored, but blessedly easy to toss together on a weeknight.

Antipasto Salad With Marinated Black Walnuts

Arroz con Habichuelas (Beans and Rice)

One-Hour Texas Chili
One-Hour Texas Chili can be used for Frito pie. You top either a small open bag of Fritos, or a pile of Fritos on a plate, with this beef chili, grated Cheddar cheese and chopped onions. When served on a plate, some people call it a Straw Hat.

Grilled Polenta With Spicy Tomato Sauce and Fried Eggs

Baked Flounder and Eggs
Fish is a breakfast staple all over the world, from the grilled fish and rice of Japan, to kippers and eggs in England, to bagels-and-lox brunches. But here, fresh flounder for breakfast is exotic and unexpected. This recipe puts the fish and the eggs in one pan and adds a pungent green garnish.

‘Bouillabaisse’ of Fresh Peas With Poached Eggs
In the Provence region of France, it is a peasant tradition to make “poor man’s bouillabaisse” with vegetables. For this soup, only fresh peas will work — don’t try it with frozen.

Light Guacamole

Currywurst
Created in postwar Berlin in 1949, currywurst originated as a “poor man’s steak,” cobbled together using sausages, canned tomatoes and curry powder. Today, it’s a popular street food across Germany, although how you enjoy it depends on the vendor and your preferences: The sausages can be served with or without skin, and you can request your currywurst sauce to be scharf (hot) or even extra-scharf. In traditional German currywurst sauces, tomatoes and vinegar provide acidity, sugar or juice lend sweetness and mild curry powder adds spice (although some adventurous cooks add other aromatics and spices, like mustard powder, hot chile or even lemongrass). This recipe, adapted from Alfons Schuhbeck's “The German Cookbook” (Phaidon, 2018), is a great introduction, not too spiced or too sweet, and can be customized according to taste.

Provoleta (Grilled Provolone Cheese)
In Argentina, a thick slice of provoleta, a provolone-type cheese, is cooked over coals until browned and bubbling, then served as a mouthwatering appetizer with bread. It’s a bit like fondue or queso fundido but not quite as molten and melty. Typically, a large meal, or asado, of grilled sweetbreads, sausages and various cuts of beef follows, but provoleta makes a great snack with drinks, regardless of what you serve afterward. For ease of preparation, provoleta can be cooked in a cast-iron pan, under the broiler or baked in a hot oven. If you want success at cooking provoleta the traditional way, directly on the grill, leave the cheese uncovered at room temperature for several hours or overnight to dry the exterior a bit. A dab of chimichurri salsa is usually served alongside.