Listen. We all know recipe websites suck these days. Paywalls. Multiple competing levels of video ads. Endless pop-ups. Having to scroll down to the recipe every time. The cookies you can't even eat! Plus I've pretty much never made a recipe as-written. So I collect recipes here that I think I'll want to make again. This is a static version of the recipe box-styled main page of recipes, for maximum accessibility to mobile users, screen readers, people without javascript etc etc. There are like 4 lines of JavaScript that check to see if you've linked directly to one of the recipes by its id and expand it, if so, but this is a pretty minor piece of functionality that hardcore noscripters will have to live without unless somebody has a cool trick I don't know about.

If you're not me and you stumbled here, know that this was meant as a personal reference first and foremost. I've taken a lot of (classical, French-influenced) cooking classes and I take recipe-speak a bit for granted--when I say "dice" or "mince" or "slice", those all have different specific meanings and I know that's not necessarily how an untrained ear hears them. I'm not trying to be obtuse on purpose, but I'm not a beginner, so I couldn't begin to remember what all of the stumbling blocks are for newbies. My best advice for how to get started on learning cooking technique, if you want to, is to watch old episodes of Good Eats, but any of Alton Brown's cookbooks or Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking are also good resources. Or just try stuff until you figure out what works and what doesn't. I promise the stakes aren't that high.

Honey Sriracha Lime Salmon
Inspiration

This is an unusual recipe for me, because it's mostly fish and I make it almost exactly to the specs of the recipe aside from making extra sauce and disagreeing deeply with the stated cooking time (on the side of the actual laws of physics). It's one of the very few things that is a favorite for me, my girlfriend, and her husband, so it's in common rotation when I'm staying with them. Serve with rice, ideally, to make 1.5 lbs of salmon last for just about 2 dinners for 3 people. I keep thinking the leftovers would also make a lovely onigiri filling. The sauce also tastes great over roasted vegetables and pretty much anything you want to put it on. It is pretty spicy, according to the people with less of a spice tolerance than me.

Ingredients

  • 1-1.5 lb salmon fillet(s)
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup sriracha
  • 5-7 limes
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tsp minced garlic (around 3 cloves)
  • fresh cilantro

Instructions

  1. Measure out honey, sriracha, soy sauce, and minced garlic for the sauce. These can all go in the same measuring cup. Also juice two limes.
  2. Melt butter in a quart-sized saucepan over medium heat.
  3. Add all other previously measured sauce ingredients (honey, sriracha, lime juice, soy sauce, and garlic) to the pot. Whisk to combine.
  4. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for at least 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
  5. While the sauce is cooking, line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and cover an area around the size of the salmon with very thinly-sliced lime rounds. It's up to you how densely you want to pack the limes, and how thin you slice them--thinner and less dense lime coverage will reduce the total number of limes used, but you'll probably need at least 3 for this much salmon.
  6. Preheat the oven to 400°. This is also a good time to start cooking rice.
  7. Once the sauce is nearly done simmering, place the salmon over the lime slices (skin-down, if it has skin) and pour around 1/2-2/3 of the sauce over the salmon. You don't want too much sauce on the tin foil, as it will just burn, but you want the entire salmon to be covered.
  8. Add the baking sheet to the preheated oven. Cook until the salmon has totally lost its glossy translucency (25-30 minutes), then broil until the edges are just starting to char (5-7 minutes).
  9. Serve with extra sauce and chopped or torn cilantro, to taste.
Pressure Cooker Beans
Inspiration

Dry beans are usually cheap, you can control the texture/flavor you get, and they're easier to get home on your bike/less costly to ship. Cooking beans is the main thing I use my instant pot for. This makes the amount you'll need for my soup recipe.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups dry black beans
  • 3-4 bay leaves
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 2 tbsp cumin (often I use whole cumin)
  • 6 cups water (can sub some for broth or use a little bouillon)
  • 2 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients to the instant pot.
  2. Pressure cook on high for 30 minutes. It takes ~8 min to get up to pressure.
  3. Allow the pressure to dissipate naturally for 20 min before opening the pot. Still be careful when you open it.
  4. Drain. Remove bay leaves and garlic clove. Use immediately or store refrigerated.
Black Bean Soup
Inspiration

This soup singlehandedly carried me through grad school. It makes enough soup for one week of office lunches, if you're the kind of person who wants to take a lunch with a separate bag of soup accoutrement (I categorically am). It's a combination of like 4 different soup recipes that I cobbled together and it's more or less the base I adjust to make all other soups. You'll notice the similarities with my particular interpretation of the Lentil & Spinach Stem Soup recipe.

Ingredients

  • 4 slices bacon OR 2 tbsp olive oil (I usually use olive oil)
  • 3 yellow or vidalia onions
  • 2-4 carrots
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp better than bouillon
  • 1 (14.5 oz) can chopped tomatoes
  • 1 1/2 tbsp cumin
  • 1 tsp fajita seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder, chipotle powder, or any other tex mex appropriate spices
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 (15.5 oz) cans of black beans or about 2 cups dry black beans
  • cilantro
  • lime wedges
  • 3 avocados
  • mexican blend shredded cheese
  • sour cream

Instructions

  1. If using dry beans, soak overnight and cook or use a pressure cooker as you usually would. I normally season my cooking liquid with bay leaves, broth, cumin, and some smashed garlic.
  2. Chop onions and carrots. Mince garlic.
  3. Heat a 4-qt dutch oven (or slow-cooker with a saute setting) over medium heat. Use kitchen shears to cut the bacon into the pan and cook until the fat renders out, or add olive oil.
  4. Add onions and cook until they start to caramelize or you get impatient (5-10 min.)
  5. Add carrots and garlic, cook for 2-5 min.
  6. Add the better than bouillon, canned tomatoes, and 2.5 cans of beans (drained).
  7. Fill the dutch oven up with water (4-6 cups). Stir and bring to a boil.
  8. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 min. You can cook covered or uncovered depending on how much broth you added and how much you want it to cook down.
  9. Season with all of the spices, salt, and pepper. (Add or remove from the ingredients list as necessary; these are all approximate and I usually just ransack the tex-mex portion of my spice cabinet.)
  10. Blend the soup until smooth. Preferably, use an immersion blender. Because then you can leave it in the pot on the heat.
  11. Add the rest of the beans into the soup and cook for about 10 more min.
  12. Store the soup as-is, ideally in 4-5 individual serving tupperwares.
  13. To serve, reheat and then add the garnishes (chopped cilantro, lime wedge, sour cream, ~1/2 a chunked avocado, plus sometimes occasionally some cheese or corn chips).
Lentil & Spinach Stem Soup
Inspiration

In a farmshare box one year, I got several bunches of spinach with these long stems still attached to the little pink root. I found this random soup recipe that uses the "spinach heads", was shocked how much flavor they added to the soup. Next time I went back to find it, it had been scrubbed from the website, so thank god for the Wayback Machine. It's half the reason I'm making this page at all--I just don't trust anymore. You can also make this with any braising green, like kale or collards, but it's really not the same.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 yellow or vidalia onions
  • 3 carrots
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp better than bouillon
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1-2 cups chopped tomatoes (1 big tomato, 2 cups cherry tomatoes, or 1 can chopped tomatoes)
  • 2 bunches washed spinach with stems
  • 1 dry lentils (red preferred)
  • 2 tbsp shawarma or za'atar spice
  • 1/2 tbsp cumin
  • black pepper
  • salt
  • lemon juice
  • sriracha

Instructions

  1. Wash the greens very thoroughly. Remove the leaves from the stems, and set the leaves aside.
  2. Chop onion, carrots, spinach stems, and tomatoes if not using canned. Mince garlic.
  3. In a 4-qt dutch oven (or slow-cooker with a saute setting), heat olive oil over medium heat.
  4. Saute onion until transluscent (~5 min). Add carrots and spinach stems. Cook until soft (~10 min).
  5. Add garlic. Saute for 30 seconds then add tomato paste and better than bouillon. Stir until all the vegetables are evenly coated.
  6. Add lentils and salt. If using braising greens (spinach is not a braising green) or fresh tomatoes, add the leaves and/or chopped tomatoes now. Stir until all the new ingredients are evenly coated and the lentils are starting to pop or the greens are starting to darken.
  7. Add canned tomatoes, if using. Fill the dutch oven up with water (4-6 cups), stirring to combine.
  8. Leave the pot uncovered. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Add the spices (and spinach leaves, if using) after about 15 minutes.
  9. Serve topped with lemon juice, hot sauce, and extra salt and pepper. My girlfriend likes to put parmesan on this, too.
Soy Eggs
Inspiration

The day I realized that could make those tasty marinated soft-boiled eggs that the fancy ramen places put in their soup, my life was changed forever. I normally put these in MAMA instant noodles with some green onions and frozen dumplings. Fresh sprouts, ham, and corn are also great with miso ramen. Be sure to make them 24-60 hours before you need them.

Ingredients

  • 3 large eggs
  • 3 tbsp white vinegar
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp mirin
  • 1/2 tsp sugar or honey
  • 1 cup ice cubes

Instructions

  1. Add soy sauce, mirin, and sweetener to a sandwich-size ziploc bag. Shake to combine, but it doesn't really matter if all the sugar dissolves yet. If you do this in rigid tupperware, you'll need significantly more marinade to cover the eggs.
  2. Add the vinegar and kosher salt to a saucepan with around 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
  3. Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer.
  4. Set a 6.5 minute timer. Lower the eggs into the water gently but quickly with a strainer or spaghetti spoon. Start the timer when the last egg is fully submerged.
  5. Gently move the eggs around with the spaghetti spoon or a pair of chopsticks for the first three minutes of cook time.
  6. Fill a bowl with ice water.
  7. When the timer goes off, transfer the eggs quickly to the ice water bowl.
  8. Once the eggs are cooled (at least 10 minutes), peel the eggs. I like to crack the wider end first, where the air bubble is, and then roll the egg towards the pointier end so I can peel down that line. Peeling eggs always sucks a little, though.
  9. Put the peeled eggs into the ziploc with the marinade. Squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can. You can add a splash of water if you need it to cover just a bit more.
  10. Refrigerate at least overnight. The eggs are best 24-60 hours after marination, and they'll last another day past that in the fridge but you should dump the marinade after 60 so the salt doesn't migrate into the yolk and make stuff crusty.
  11. If adding to ramen, just drop these on top of the cooked & seasoned soup at the end.
Pesto Alla Calabrese
Inspiration

A more exciting pasta sauce than marinara for all occasions! I make giant batches of this ahead of time and freeze it in ice cube trays, thawing as needed for low spoons meals. Modified somewhat from the original source, but mostly translated and using ingredients I can find in the US.

Ingredients

  • 300g red bell peppers (~2 peppers)
  • 100g red onion (<1 red onion)
  • 200g cherry tomatoes
  • 10g calabrian chillies
  • 100g ricotta
  • 10g basil
  • salt
  • oregano
  • olive oil
  • 70g pecorino cheese

Instructions

  1. Finely slice the onions, core and dice the bell peppers, and quarter the cherry tomatoes.
  2. Fry the onions and bell peppers in olive oil over medium low heat until soft, fragrant, and starting to brown.
  3. Add the tomatoes and salt, stirring until tomatoes start to fall apart, about fifteen minutes. Drop the heat if they start to burn to the bottom.
  4. Turn off the stove. Add basil, chillies, and ricotta to a blender or food processor (immersion blender not recommended).
  5. Once vegetable mixture has coooled, add to the blender or food processor. Pulse until totally combined.
  6. Add oregano and salt to taste
  7. At this stage, the pesto can be refrigetated or frozen. If freezing, I recommend freezing small individual portions in very small tupperware or an ice cube tray. (You can transfer the pesto cubes to a ziploc or other container once they're frozen.)
  8. To serve pesto, boil pasta as desired and drain, saving about a half-cup of pasta water.
  9. Combine pasta with warm pesto and add pasta water until it starts to stick to the noodles. Grate pecorino to taste and mix up well.
Basil Pesto
Inspiration

I've been making this pesto for ages. My girlfriend can eat it, because it doesn't have any walnuts, and pine nut pesto is better anyways. I love mixing this with ricotta to add to lasagnas and other stuff, mixing with aioli to spread on sandwiches, or just eating it on pasta. You will be able to tell how fresh the basil was when you made the pesto, even if you freeze it.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh basil leaves
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Roast the pine nuts. The easiest way to do this is in an ungreased cast iron pan over medium-low heat. Keep the pine nuts moving until the just barely start to brown and your kitchen smells roasty. They're very easy to burn.
  2. Add the pine nuts and peeled garlic cloves to the bowl of a food processor. Once cool, pulse a few times until you have crumbs with no large pieces remaining.
  3. Add basil to the bowl of the food processor. Stream in the olive oil slowly and start to blend, going until you like the consistency.
  4. You can add about 1/2 a cup of grated parmesan now and use your pesto to top pasta, cook with, or refrigerate. But this is also a good time to freeze individual servings of pesto in an ice cube tray (you can transfer the pesto cubes to a ziploc or other container once they're frozen). If so, you can add the cheese when you're putting the pesto on pasta or using it in a recipe.
Borscht
Inspiration

Lithuanian borscht is usually served cold, but my family mostly ignores that because of this really cool new invention called a microwave. So this is my own take on it, halfway between the linked recipe that's based off of typical Russian borscht and the one my family used to sometimes make for US Thanksgiving. This makes about 6 servings and I like to squeeze about 1/6 of a lemon on each serving, so that works out nicely.

Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • 2 onions
  • 3 carrots
  • 6 red beets
  • 3/4 head of green cabbage
  • 2 tbsp beef better than bouillon
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 7 cups water
  • black pepper
  • salt (if needed)
  • pickled beet juice (optional)
  • 1 lemon
  • fresh or high-quality dried dill
  • sour cream

Instructions

  1. Dice the onions and cut the carrots and beets into matchstitcks. Peeling the carrots is optional but you must peel the beets.
  2. Pull leaves off of the outside of the cabbage and cut them chiffonade.
  3. Saute the onions in olive oil over medium until transluscent and brown.
  4. Add the carrots and beets. Cook until the carrots are soft.
  5. Add cabbage, bay leaf, and better than bouillon then stir until evenly coated. Bring to volume with water. (Alternatively, you could use broth/stock--just stir the cabbage and bay leaf in for about 2 minutes first).
  6. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.
  7. Add black pepper and salt to taste (I usually don't need more salt than the bouillon). You can also dump in a little pickled beet juice, if you have any, for extra color and earthy zing.
  8. Serve topped with lemon juice, dill, extra salt and pepper, and sour cream.
Zucchini Frittata
Inspiration

This is a nicely filling and veggie-packed frittata that reheats well in the microwave throughout the week. The prep and cleanup isn't bad, so this is a great way to make your glut of garden zucchini disappear if you have a food processor. You could even make zucchini bread at the same time, and freeze one or both!

Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • 1 red onion
  • 3 zucchini
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 8 eggs
  • 1/3 cup oat milk
  • 1.5 cups sharp cheddar, shredded
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Grate the zucchini, ideally using a food processor with a grating attachment.
  2. Add 1tbsp salt to the zucchini, mix well, and transfer to collander or strainer. Let drain for 15 minutes or more, until liquid seeping slows.
  3. Dice onions and mince garlic.
  4. Preheat oven to 325°.
  5. Butter an 8-inch baking dish.
  6. Saute the onions in olive oil over medium until transluscent and brown.
  7. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, (oat) milk, cheese, and any seasonings like salt and pepper.
  8. Add the zucchini to the saute pan with the onions and cook until all moisture has evaporated and the zucchini flesh is opaque.
  9. Once the vegetables have cooled slightly, mix into the egg mixture.
  10. Pour the egg and vegetable mixture into the baking dish.
  11. Cook until eggs are completely set and the center doesn't jiggle, about 30 minutes.
Bread Omelette
Inspiration

This Indian street food is an egg sandwich comprised of two completely joined pieces of savory french toast and a soft, eggy middle. It's all cooked in one pan, it's super easy to make, and you should fuck around with what you add. I haven't really found a recipe I like for it online, but the linked inspiration explains and demonstrates the technique. I also like to make mine out of challah slices, for maximum inauthenticity. The only restriction on your bread is that two slices have to sit butt-to-butt in your pan.

Ingredients

  • Olive oil, butter, or ghee
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 cloves garlic, diced
  • 1 small chili, diced
  • 2 slices bread
  • 1.5 tbsp oat milk
  • diced veggies, if desired
  • spice mix of choice
  • cilantro chutney

Instructions

  1. Cook the diced veggies in your saute pan first, using oil of your choice.
  2. Whisk together eggs, spices, garlic, chili, and (oat) milk.
  3. Pour egg mixture evenly over cooked diced veggies or empty pan with oil.
  4. Immediately dunk both sides of both pieces of bread into the egg mixture in the pan.
  5. Set bread down in the egg mixture so that the flat parts are joined in the middle.
  6. Cook until eggs are mostly set, then using a large spatula or two, flip everything in the pan as one piece. You can add cheese at this stage if desired.
  7. Cook until the bread touching the pan looks like fully-cooked french toast.
  8. Fold all of the overhanging egg onto the bread, then flip one piece of bread onto the other without breaking the egg connection.
  9. Flip the folded sandwich around the pan to cook any uncooked edges.
  10. Serve with hot sauce or chutney of choice.