Asian

Asian Recipes

813 recipes. Page 3 of 34

Curry, stir-fry noodles, and Asian recipes

Baingan Bharta (Punjabi Flame-Roasted Smoky Eggplant Mash)

Charring whole eggplant over an open flame until the skin turns completely black is what puts the smoke into this Punjabi mash. The flesh is mashed only roughly with a fork, so small pieces stay visible instead of becoming a smooth puree. Watery bharta usually comes from tomato that was not cooked down; the onion and tomato base should already be a dense paste before the eggplant is added.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Botan Nabe Wild Boar Hotpot

Botan means peony, and the name comes from the way thin slices of wild boar are fanned out on the platter like petals. The meat cooks with burdock and taro in a broth of mixed red and white miso, and the sansho pepper stays out of the pot, sprinkled over each bowl instead.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min Cook 30min 4 servings

Pancakes Medium

Jianbing (Chinese Savory Breakfast Crepe)

On the streets of northern China this crepe is made every morning: thin batter spread on a griddle, an egg cracked over it and smeared across, then sweet bean sauce, chili sauce, cilantro and a crisp fried wonton sheet before it is folded into a rectangle to eat by hand. Mung bean flour in the batter, alongside the wheat, gives it a nutty flavor. The wonton sheet goes in just before eating to keep it crisp.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Kimchi Easy

Wariboshi Daikon Harihari-zuke

Thick split-dried daikon softens slowly in a sweet soy-vinegar brine yet keeps a firm, crackling bite. In Miura, Kanagawa, families traditionally split winter daikon lengthwise into sixteen to twenty sections and sun-dried it for about two weeks, leaving pieces much chunkier than finely shredded dried radish. The radish is only rinsed twice in cold water to remove dust. Soaking it beforehand weakens the firm texture that should come back in the brine. Kombu and dried squid bring savory depth, and seeded dried chili adds heat to the whole jar. The centers are seasoned from day 4, and the jar is finished within 10 days.

Prep 30min Cook 5min 5 servings

Noodles Medium

Azuki Batto (Wide Noodles in Sweet Red Bean Soup)

Wide, hand-cut wheat noodles simmer briefly in a warm, sweet red bean soup, making a dessert that eats like a bowl of noodles. Coarse zarame sugar gives the beans a clean, pronounced sweetness, with a pinch of salt to round it out. Floating is not proof the noodles are done; the thickest strand gets split open to look for raw flour.

Prep 50min Cook 90min 5 servings

Salads Medium

Falafel Salad Bowl

Cooked chickpeas, onion and parsley are pulsed into a coarse mixture, shaped into small balls and baked or pan-fried into falafel that sit over romaine, tomato and cucumber under a tahini sauce. Done well, the falafel are deep golden and crisp outside but still moist within, a clear contrast to the raw vegetables. Lemon juice cuts the richness of the sesame-based tahini. No deep fryer is involved: the oven or a lightly oiled pan does the job.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Akashiyaki (Soft Egg-Dashi Octopus Dumplings)

Soft rounds of egg-rich batter, each holding a piece of boiled octopus, are dipped into clear dashi, warm or cold, in this specialty of Akashi in Hyogo. The batter uses refined wheat starch alongside flour, and because that starch stays tender when heated and the batter is heavy with egg and dashi, the result is far softer and moister than takoyaki. Locals long called it tamagoyaki. One story traces it to egg yolks left over from making Akashi-dama, imitation coral ornaments that used the whites, cooked with octopus caught just offshore.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Baking Medium

Earl Grey Roll Cake (Tea-Infused Chiffon Cream Roll)

Instead of grinding the leaves into the batter, this roll steeps Earl Grey in warm milk and strains it. The sponge carries bergamot aroma without visible tea specks. The chiffon sheet gets its lift from a folded meringue and stays soft enough to roll. Rolling it once while still warm, paper and all, sets the curve so it is less likely to crack when filled later. The whipped cream is only lightly sweetened, leaving the tea as the main flavor.

Prep 25min Cook 15min 8 servings

Rice Medium

Brown Rice Buddha Bowl

Brown rice goes in first, then pan-browned tofu, broccoli, carrot, red cabbage and avocado, each in its own section and none of them tossed together. The avocado is sliced just before serving.

Prep 20min Cook 20min 2 servings

Stir-fry Easy

Stir-fried Bok Choy (Bok Choy with Garlic and Oyster Sauce Glaze)

This goes to the table the moment it leaves the pan. Bok choy stalks keep releasing water even on the plate, and the sauce thins as they do. A splash of water in the oyster sauce and soy lets the seasoning run down between the stalks.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🏠 Everyday

Prep 8min Cook 6min 2 servings

Desserts Medium

Ude Manju Boiled Red Bean Buns

The name comes from yude manju, boiled manju, as it was said in Saitama. True to it, the bean-filled buns cook in boiling water instead of a steamer, then get a cold rinse once they float and are fanned dry until they shine. They were made with the new wheat crop, offered at Bon and handed round to neighbors.

Prep 40min Cook 20min 15 servings

Grilled Medium

Bo La Lot (Vietnamese Grilled Beef Wrapped in Betel Leaves)

La lot leaves, sold as wild betel, wrap seasoned ground beef and char at the edges while the meat's fat soaks into them, giving each roll a peppery, herbal smell. They are not the betel leaves sold for chewing, so look for the la lot or wild betel label.

Prep 25min Cook 12min 2 servings

Soups Medium

Soba Dojo Buckwheat Dough Hotpot

Buckwheat dough rolled between the palms into thin strands shaped like little loach fish cooks gently in a dashi full of vegetables. Bound with egg and hot water, the dough should be as soft as an earlobe without sticking badly to the hands. Burdock, carrot, kabocha, napa cabbage, shiitake and chikuwa fish cake share the pot, which holds far more than a plain flour-dumpling soup.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 30min Cook 25min 4 servings

Pancakes Easy

Jiriyaki Miso Wheat Pancake

In Gunma's wheat-loving farm villages, jiriyaki, a thick wheat pancake with green onion and sakura shrimp, was the snack eaten by hand at the work breaks at 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. It once cooked slowly over the ash heat of an irori hearth, and the name is said to echo the jiri-jiri sound of the batter sizzling.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 1 serving

Kimchi Medium

Yukina Fusube-zuke

Snow-grown yukina dipped into boiling water three times, for only three seconds each, develops a sharp, mustard-like pungency that the slightly bitter raw greens lack. Fusuberu is a local word in Okitama, Yamagata, for a brief scald. Lord Uesugi Yozan is said to have encouraged the crop so the snowy region would have winter greens, and under the snow the bundled plants feed on their own leaves to grow pale flower stalks. It is a short pickle: three days pressed and chilled, then eaten within a week while the aroma lasts.

Prep 35min Cook 5min 4 servings

Noodles Medium

Banh Canh Cua (Vietnamese Thick Crab and Pork Noodle Soup)

Pork stock thickened lightly with tapioca starch carries crab meat, thick chewy banh canh noodles, and soft curds of egg in this southern Vietnamese soup. The broth should just coat the back of a spoon, and it keeps thickening after the heat is off, so a splash of hot stock at the end loosens it.

Prep 20min Cook 30min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Fattoush Salad (Crispy Pita & Sumac Veggie Salad)

Oven-crisped pita chips anchor a Levantine vegetable salad, and sumac, a tart red spice, tints the tomato, cucumber, radish and romaine with color and sourness. Layering sumac with lemon, whose sourness is of a different kind, gives the dressing a fuller acidity. The chips are added just before eating, since they soften fast in the dressing, and each bite then has crisp centers and slightly soaked edges.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min Cook 8min 2 servings

Asian Easy

Aloo Gobi (Indian Cauliflower Potato Curry)

Cumin, turmeric, and chili cling to the potatoes and cauliflower as a dry coating instead of a sauce. A lid traps steam to cook the centers, then it comes off and the pan dries out, leaving the cauliflower edges lightly charred and the potatoes whole and fluffy. It is an everyday North Indian side, cooked everywhere from roadside dhabas in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to home kitchens.

🍱 Lunchbox

Prep 15min Cook 25min 2 servings

Baking Hard

Ensaymada Cheese Bread (Filipino Sweet Cheese Brioche)

Ensaymada traces back to the Spanish ensaimada of Mallorca, but the Filipino version turned into a soft, buttery brioche finished with butter and salty cheese. Each bun rises tall with visible spiral layers because the dough is rolled into ropes, coiled loosely, and baked in muffin tins. Powdered Parmesan stands in for the grated cheddar or Edam common in the Philippines, giving a lighter salty edge against the sweet crumb. The butter and cheese wait until the buns have cooled completely, or the cheese turns soggy. It shows up at Christmas, and the rest of the year as a breakfast bun with coffee or hot chocolate.

Prep 45min Cook 20min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Tokushima Sobagome Zosui

From the mountainous Iya area of Tokushima, this zosui uses buckwheat neither as flour nor as noodles but as hulled whole groats, called sobagome. Local tradition ties it to the Heike, who are said to have planted fast-growing buckwheat on land where rice would not grow well. Chicken, chikuwa, konjac and carrot share the broth with the grains.

Prep 480min Cook 35min 4 servings

Stir-fry Hard

Chi-irichi (Okinawan Pork Blood Stir-Braise)

Pasteurized, food-grade pig blood mixed with red miso cooks down into fine brown crumbs once the red liquid disappears. Those crumbs cling to strands of dried daikon, which are braised with seasoned pork belly, kamaboko and pork stock until most of the liquid is gone. Hihatsu, an Okinawan long pepper, and a little salt go in at the end.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 30min Cook 35min 4 servings

Desserts Medium

Botamochi (Rice Cakes Coated with Red Bean Paste)

Regular rice outnumbers glutinous rice two to one here, and the cooked rice is pounded only halfway, so whole grains still show under the bean paste that wraps each piece completely. The paste is cooked in the pot from unsweetened raw bean paste, sugar and water. Half-pounded rice is very sticky, so cut it small for children and older adults.

Prep 30min Cook 45min 30 servings

Grilled Hard

Gobo Maki (Burdock Wrapped in Eso Fish Skin)

In Hagi, Yamaguchi, the skin of eso (lizardfish) left over from making grilled fish cakes was saved rather than thrown away, marinated in sweet soy and wrapped around burdock root. The rolls appeared at festivals, for guests and in cherry-blossom picnic boxes, and what sets them apart is that they use the skin, not a paste of the flesh. The skin needs a night in the marinade, which means starting the day before. Sliced, each round shows burdock at the center ringed by layers of dark, glazed skin.

🍱 Lunchbox 🎉 For Guests

Prep 25min Cook 20min 1 serving

Soups Easy

Somage (Buckwheat Dumpling Soup)

There is no dough: buckwheat flour is scattered straight into simmering anchovy broth and cooks into small lumps that hold the liquid. Leftovers firm up as they cool, and cut small and browned in a dry pan they are good all over again.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 20min 1 serving