Western

Western Recipes

721 recipes. Page 15 of 31

Pasta, steak, and other Western recipes

Sweet Potato Kale Salad

Sweet potato roasted until its edges caramelize gives sturdy, bitter kale a sweet counterweight, enough to make this a filling bowl on its own. Almonds add crunch and dried cranberries a sour note, while a Dijon, lemon, and honey dressing keeps it bright. Cool the roasted cubes completely before they meet the kale, since leftover heat softens the leaves too far, and lift gently from underneath when mixing so the cubes stay intact.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min Cook 25min 2 servings

Western Medium

Chili con Carne

One ingredient sets the heat level of this pot: chili powder. In this recipe that means a blend of ground chiles with cumin, oregano, and garlic, not pure chile flakes or cayenne, and swapping in straight cayenne at the same amount changes the dish completely. Canned cooked kidney beans keep it to one pot, with no soaking or boiling dried beans. When it is done, the liquid clings to the beef and beans instead of running off the spoon, thick enough to serve over rice or tortilla chips.

Prep 15min Cook 45min 4 servings

Baking Hard

Choux Cream Puffs (French Hollow Pastry with Vanilla Custard)

Hollow choux shells filled with cold vanilla cream start as a paste cooked in the saucepan, and in the oven the water in that dough turns to steam and inflates each mound. The shells must be completely cool before filling, or the cream melts. A fresh one gives a crisp crack and then cold custard, but moisture from the cream gradually softens the pastry. Fill them close to serving, or refrigerate filled puffs and eat them within two to three hours.

Prep 30min Cook 40min 12 servings

Pasta Medium

Mushroom Truffle Gnocchi

Mushrooms brown over high heat, while the truffle oil is added only after the burner is off, at the very last stir. Each aroma is handled at its own temperature because heat flattens truffle oil. Well-drained gnocchi matter too: water clinging to them thins the cream sauce.

Prep 15min Cook 18min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Taco Salad

All the fillings of a taco, minus the tortilla: browned ground beef, kidney beans, corn, cheddar, and salsa piled over crisp romaine and finished with lime. Any water left on the romaine, beans, or corn joins the liquid from the salsa and lime and ends up pooled at the bottom of the bowl. Assemble just before eating, since the warm beef starts wilting the lettuce as soon as it lands.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 12min Cook 12min 2 servings

Western Easy

Chimichurri

Hand-chopped parsley should still show as flecks with olive oil running between them, whereas a blender turns the sauce into a thick paste closer to pesto and loses that. Red wine vinegar, raw garlic and dried oregano bring sharpness and herb aroma to steak or grilled vegetables. Only well-dried leaves and tender stems make it into the bowl, since wet leaves thin the sauce and thick stems stay stringy. The garlic is minced finer than the parsley so no bite lands on a large raw piece. As the oil settles, a stir from the bottom each time brings up herbs and oil together.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 20min 0 6 servings

Baking Medium

Ciabatta Bread

Arnaldo Cavallari, a baker in Veneto, created this wide, flat loaf in 1982 and named it after the Italian word for slipper. The dough carries so much water that it is folded in the bowl rather than kneaded, and that water becomes steam in the oven, opening large, irregular holes through a chewy crumb under a thin, crackly crust. It goes stale faster than denser loaves and is best the day it is baked: split for panini, torn and dipped in olive oil, or set beside soup to soak up broth.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Pasta Medium

Myeongran Lemon Cream Fettuccine

Myeongran lemon cream fettuccine wraps wide pasta ribbons in a sauce made from salted pollock roe, heavy cream, butter, and lemon zest. The small eggs of the roe are left intact and stirred into the sauce off the heat so they stay soft and burst with briny flavor when bitten rather than turning granular or hard. Garlic bloomed in butter forms the aromatic base, and a mixture of heavy cream with milk tempers the roe's saltiness into a smooth, balanced coating. Using lemon zest rather than juice adds a bright citrus fragrance without diluting the sauce or introducing acidity that would curdle the cream. Parmigiano-Reggiano deepens the savory foundation, and fettuccine's broad, flat surface holds the thick cream more effectively than thinner pasta shapes. The entire dish takes about twenty minutes from start to plate, making it a practical weeknight option that does not sacrifice depth of flavor for speed. The critical technique -- incorporating the roe off the heat -- keeps the texture creamy throughout and prevents the eggs from cooking into tough, unpleasant morsels.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Three Bean Salad

Canned kidney beans and chickpeas get blanched green beans for crunch and a dressing of cider vinegar and Dijon mustard. A night in the fridge lets the dressing work into the beans, and it tastes better the next day.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min Cook 5min 2 servings

Western Easy

Club Sandwich

Three slices of buttered toast hold two layers of sliced chicken, crisp bacon, lettuce, and tomato, with mayonnaise as the glue between them. A skewer through each stack lets you cut it on the diagonal without the layers sliding apart.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 2 servings

Baking Hard

Cinnamon Babka (Jewish Twisted Enriched Bread with Cinnamon Swirl)

Rolled, split and twisted, the loaf shows a dark cinnamon swirl in every slice against a pale, buttery crumb. Rich with butter and eggs, the dough eats closer to brioche than to sandwich bread and pulls apart in soft layers. Babka comes from Eastern European Jewish baking and sits as easily on a breakfast table as on a dessert plate.

At least 2 hr 40 min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Japanese Napolitan Spaghetti

Napolitan grew out of postwar Japan, when ketchup and Vienna sausages were easier to find than pricier ingredients, and it still tastes like retro home cooking. The ketchup is fried in the pan before the noodles join it, cooking off its water so the raw tang turns into concentrated tomato sweetness, with Worcestershire adding a fermented, savory layer. Sausage browns first, until its edges color and the pan smells of it. The onion and green pepper get only a quick blast of high heat so they stay crisp, and a knob of butter at the end softens the ketchup's tang into a sweet, salty gloss.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Tuna White Bean Salad (Lemon-Dressed Tuna and White Beans)

With olive oil and lemon doing the binding instead of mayonnaise, the canned tuna and white beans stay bright and sharp rather than heavy. Both sit in a sieve for at least 5 minutes first, since leftover liquid would thin the measured dressing. Celery and red onion bring crunch and bite against the soft beans, and parsley leaves finish it with a grassy note. The beans meet the dressing first, and the tuna, added afterward, stays in large flakes instead of turning into paste. Folding rather than stirring keeps the beans whole as well, and if dressing pools at the bottom after chilling, one gentle turn brings it back up.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 10min 0 2 servings

Western Medium

Cochinita Pibil (Achiote Pork)

Achiote paste and lime juice turn the pork shoulder red, and wrapping it in banana leaves inside a lidded pot keeps it braising rather than roasting, and the meat ends up pulling apart with a fork instead of growing a crisp skin. It is ready when even the meat near the bone gives way to a fork, and if it is still tough at the end of the stated time, it stays in longer. No overnight marinade is needed, and the red onions pickle in lime while the pork cooks. Look for achiote as a ready-to-use paste, not dried seeds or a hot sauce. Once cooked, the juices get skimmed of fat and, if there is a lot, reduced before being spooned back over the meat.

Prep 30min Cook 195min 6 servings

Baking Medium

Cinnamon Rolls

Swedish kanelbulle go lighter on sugar and add cardamom; American rolls are coiled thicker and covered in glaze. This one sits on the American side, with a cream cheese glaze spread on while the rolls are still warm. In the oven the sugar melts between the coils and turns sticky, and the soft bread unwinds by hand along the spiral.

Prep 90min Cook 25min 12 servings

Pasta Easy

Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe

The orecchiette boil in the same water the broccoli rabe was blanched in, so the little ear-shaped pasta picks up the greens' bitterness too. If that is too much, blanch the rabe a bit longer.

Prep 12min Cook 15min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Waldorf Salad

Crisp apple cubes, thin celery, juicy grapes and lightly toasted walnuts are held together by a light mayonnaise dressing. With only a few teaspoons of mayonnaise and a little sugar and lemon, the dressing should coat thinly, and pressing on the fruit releases juice that turns it runny. The walnuts are warmed in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant, then cooled completely so they match the temperature of everything else. Tossing the apple with lemon juice right after cutting keeps it from browning, and that same juice ends up in the dressing. Swapping half the mayonnaise for Greek yogurt makes a lighter version.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min 0 4 servings

Western Medium

Cod en Papillote (French Parchment-Steamed Cod with Vegetables)

Sealed in parchment, the cod steams in its own trapped vapor and stays moist from edge to center. White wine and lemon perfume that steam, while thyme brings out the sweetness of the zucchini and cherry tomatoes. Opening the packet at the table releases all of the aroma at once, which is part of the point. Foil works in place of parchment, and carrots, asparagus, or spinach can stand in for the vegetables.

Prep 15min Cook 18min 2 servings

Baking Easy

Clafoutis (French Baked Cherry Custard Dessert)

From the Limousin region of France, this dessert starts with a batter much thinner than pancake batter, poured over cherries and baked into something closer to soft custard than cake. The edges puff and brown while the fruit leaves pockets of juice around it. Made with plums, apricots, or blueberries instead of cherries, it goes by another name, flaugnarde.

Prep 15min Cook 35min 4 servings

Pasta Easy

Pasta al Limone (Italian Lemon Butter Cream Pasta)

Finely grated yellow zest melts into warm butter and carries the lemon scent through the whole sauce. The grater stays shallow, since the white pith underneath adds bitterness. The small amount of cream is only warmed until bubbles show at the edge, because a hard boil splits it. Starchy pasta water, added a little at a time with the Parmesan, emulsifies everything into a sauce that coats the linguine smoothly, and the plates go out before it tightens. With little more than lemon, butter, cream and Parmesan, this southern Italian pasta comes together in about 20 minutes, an easy weeknight dinner.

Prep 10min Cook 12min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Watermelon Feta Salad

Cold, juicy watermelon against salty crumbled feta gives the sweet-salty contrast this salad is built on. Lime juice and mint keep the finish cool, while thin half-moons of cucumber add a different, firmer crunch. Because watermelon softens and leaks quickly, the salad suits eating right away on a hot day rather than making ahead.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes 🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 12min 0 2 servings

Western Easy

Colcannon (Irish Mashed Potatoes with Cabbage and Butter)

Soft mashed potato gets flecks of cabbage, blanched for just 3 minutes so it keeps a little crunch, and the mild bite of scallion. In Ireland it was traditionally eaten at Halloween, sometimes with a coin hidden inside for luck.

Prep 10min Cook 25min 4 servings

Baking Hard

Classic Artisan White Sourdough

The rise comes entirely from a sourdough starter with no packaged yeast, and 12 to 15 hours of cold fermentation in the refrigerator give the crumb a gentle sourness. The starter should have roughly doubled and be full of bubbles when it is used; having fed it the night before is not proof that it is ready. A preheated Dutch oven with the lid on traps the dough's own steam so the interior stays moist, and once the lid comes off the crust dries to a thick, crackling brown.

Prep 1020min Cook 40min 4 servings

Pasta Hard

Pasta alla Genovese (Neapolitan Slow-Braised Onion and Beef Ragu)

Despite the name, this Neapolitan ragu has nothing to do with Genoese basil pesto, and it contains no tomato. One story credits cooks or merchants from Genoa for the name. A large amount of onion cooks down with beef chuck for at least 90 minutes until it nearly dissolves into the sauce, with white wine adding acidity. Even on low heat the onion likes to catch on the bottom of the pot and needs a stir now and then. The beef is then pulled into strands, and ziti hold the thick, sweet onion sauce well under a generous grating of Parmigiano.

Prep 25min Cook 120min 4 servings