Recipes

Kia Damon · NYT Cooking

After Thanksgiving, most people do their best to revamp leftovers throughout the week. There’s the iconic turkey, cranberry and stuffing sandwich, or a bowl of mashed potatoes layered with vegetables and finished with gravy. For those who don’t want to cook, but find themselves with leftovers fatigue, turkey fried rice is your secret weapon. Fried rice is already the quintessential quick, easy and comforting meal that relies on ingredients most kitchens already have. All you have to do is chop up some leftover turkey and pull that bag of vegetables from the back of your freezer. Depending on your holiday sides, you could also just use what you have on hand. Green beans, corn and carrots are perfect for this dish.

Kia Damon · NYT Cooking

Honey mustard deserves to be considered a top-five condiment: The sharp, tangy Dijon mingles with floral and fragrant honey, giving you a sweet and savory flavor that complements all of your favorite weeknight proteins. Here, mayo and Greek yogurt are added to the mix, making for a creamy and full-bodied dressing that’s brushed over salmon before it’s roasted, resulting in tender fish that’s sweet and salty all over. The natural fattiness of the salmon melds with the sauce, making for one rich bite after another. To balance the meal, serve it with bright, green vegetables like broccoli, green beans or sautéed spinach. You can even serve it chilled over salad the next day.

Kia Damon · NYT Cooking

What happens when you swap out potatoes for canned white beans in a classic gratin? You get a weeknight side that’s deeply satisfying and quick to make. Potato gratins give you creamy, tender, cheesy potatoes in exchange for quite a bit of prep and a long cook time. By using prepared white beans, you get that same starchy, silky goodness in a fraction of that time. The ingredients are rather simple, making this customizable to what you have in your pantry or to your personal taste. No cannellini beans? Use great Northern, navy or pinto beans. Not a fan of Gruyère? Try smoked Gouda or Parmesan.

Kia Damon · NYT Cooking

The combination of earthy spinach and white miso makes for a side that’s unexpectedly delicate, despite the use of heavy cream and cheese. Unlike most creamed spinach recipes, this one won’t ask you to blanch the greens: The heat from the pan is enough to soften them, and they maintain that gorgeous green hue. Don’t be fooled by the volume of the spinach — it’ll shrink in no time. If you have leftovers, consider tossing them with pasta alongside frizzled bits of pancetta or serving as a companion to butter-roasted salmon.

Kia Damon · NYT Cooking

Cucumber salad is an indicator that summer has touched down in the South. Though it can be eaten year round, you’ll often see this briny, refreshing side dish at picnics and cookouts, alongside smoked sausages and barbecue chicken. The slightly sweet vinegar marinade activates your appetite while the combination of raw cucumbers and crunchy onions act as a palate cleanser between bites. Don’t skip past the salting step! It may seem unnecessary, but salting the cucumbers not only seasons them, it also draws out their water content. The result is a crunchy cucumber and a marinade that isn’t watered down. This salad is traditionally made with distilled white vinegar, but apple cider vinegar is a solid substitute.

Kia Damon · NYT Cooking

Southerners know that beans are a great salad building block. They come in so many shapes, textures, colors and flavor profiles. They’re fantastic cold or hot, and stand up to the sauciest marinades and the tangiest brines. Three-bean salad is among the most popular and widely known examples: It’s such a staple that you can find canned and jarred versions at most Southern grocery stores. Though three is the magic number, this version drops the trio to a duo of black-eyed peas and green beans, tossed in a simple, yet satisfying dressing. The black-eyed peas are earthy and hearty and the green beans add a freshness that keeps the dish light. If you can’t find frozen black-eyed peas, swap in the canned kind. Just be sure to rinse them well, especially if they’re preseasoned.

Kia Damon · NYT Cooking

This herb-flecked salad is your answer to a filling-yet-light meal on a hot summer day. Tender salmon, crunchy celery and briny capers are bound together by an herbed, tangy yogurt sauce that only gets better with time. The recipe is great for weekend meal preppers since 25 minutes of cooking sets you up for 3 days of eating. You can also get versatile with how you serve it, be it on leaves of butterhead lettuce or rice, as a salad topper or straight up. If you want to cut the prep time to a mere fraction (and avoid turning on your oven) you can also swap the fresh salmon for canned. Just be mindful if using salmon that’s already salted.

Khushbu Shah · NYT Cooking

Though soba usually refers to buckwheat noodles, Okinawan soba uses wheat noodles that more closely resemble ramen. The chef Steven Pursley, whose family comes from the island prefecture off the Southern coast of mainland Japan, makes his own noodles from scratch. You can use store-bought fresh ramen noodles or another thicker Asian egg noodle for this soup, which gets its flavor from a delicate pork and bonito broth. You can find the noodles, kombu, sake, mirin, bonito, fish cake and red pickled ginger at Japanese markets or well-stocked Asian grocery stores. Khushbu Shah

Khushbu Shah · NYT Cooking

Typically consumed just once a year on New Year's Day, this brothy soup is comforting and nourishing. It’s also said to bring good luck and good fortune to those who eat it. Ozoni is highly customizable, but it must always contain pieces of chewy mochi. The rice cakes are traditionally pounded by hand, but are now sold already prepared and are easy to find in Japanese markets around the New Year. This Japanese American version from the chef Chris Ono includes pork belly that simmers in a mix of dashi, soy sauce, sake and ginger until tender. To balance that richness, he serves this soup with lots of mizuna leaves, which can easily be substituted with spinach. For those who believe pork is unlucky at New Year's, it can easily be left out or substituted with chicken. Khushbu Shah

Khushbu Shah · NYT Cooking

A staple of osechi ryori, a box filled with a variety of traditional Japanese New Year’s dishes, kurikinton is said to represent gold and bring good economic fortune. The chef Niki Nakayama likes to imbue the Japanese sweet potatoes with a golden hue by simmering them with gardenia pods. If those are not available, a pinch of saffron works too. Do not discard the syrup that the candied chestnuts sit in — it’s used to flavor the mash. The candied chestnuts are available in Japanese markets, particularly around the New Year, and the white sweet potatoes with red skin are available in most supermarkets. Khushbu Shah

Khushbu Shah · NYT Cooking

There are many unexpected overlaps between Thai and Italian cuisines, and Justin Pichetrungsi — chef and owner of Anajak Thai in Los Angeles — embraces several of them in this cheesy, deeply savory lasagna. Borrowing flavors from bold, meaty nam prik ong, a Thai dip, he turns to soy sauce, shrimp paste, fermented soybean paste and spicy sambal to amp up this lasagna’s beefy bolognese layer. The ricotta filling is intensified by chile crisp and fresh cilantro, and there’s plenty of Parmesan and mozzarella throughout, including in the crisp and cheesy golden top. Brightened with both Thai basil and Italian basil, it’s a far cry from the lasagnas Pichetrungsi grew up eating in Southern California, straight from the frozen section of Costco. This lasagna will shake up any dinner party or holiday spread. Khushbu Shah

Khushbu Shah · NYT Cooking

While writing her cookbook “Amrikan” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024), Khushbu Shah became convinced that a spinach lasagna could be greatly improved by swapping in the flavors of saag paneer for the filling. It’s a dish she jokingly refers to as “lasaagna.” Ms. Shah uses a saag base made with warm spices, spinach, cilantro and dried fenugreek leaves (which are optional but highly encouraged, and add a beautiful earthy note to the sauce), and then adds fistfuls of grated paneer for an extra punch of cheese. Many of the lasagna’s components may be made ahead (see Tips), making assembly a breeze, especially when making this dish for a dinner party or as a vegetarian meal during the holidays.

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

"Red cooking'' means braising with a strong sauce, one that incidentally is reddish in color. The technique is usually applied to meat but it works well with any firm white fish. If carp is unavailable, a similar fresh fish may be substituted.

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Ken Hom · NYT Cooking

Florence Fabricant · NYT Cooking

This recipe for spicy peanut noodles is adapted from Ken Hom, the chef and cookbook author best known for his BBC television show "Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery." It is incredibly easy to put together on a weeknight, yet loaded with complex flavors and textures. Florence Fabricant

Florence Fabricant · NYT Cooking

Florence Fabricant