Recipe Archive

Side Dishes

Side dishes should earn their place at the table. These recipes focus on contrast, seasoning, and supporting flavors that make the whole meal better.

1006 recipes

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Recipes

Quelites con Frijoles (Shakua con Frijoles)

Chef Lupita

Quelites con Frijoles (Shakua con Frijoles)

Michoacan's Meseta Purhepecha bowl of cooked quelites, pinto beans, epazote, onion, and chile, the home plate that appears when the milpa gives greens before it gives corn.

Quelites del Bajío Salteados con Chiles Toreados

Chef Lupita

Quelites del Bajío Salteados con Chiles Toreados

Guanajuato's rainy-season milpa greens, verdolagas and quelite cenizo, sautéed fast in manteca with garlic, xoconostle, chilcuague, and blistered chile serrano beside frijoles bayos.

Quelites Guisados con Epazote (Shakuá)

Chef Lupita

Quelites Guisados con Epazote (Shakuá)

Michoacán's Meseta P'urhépecha side dish of wild milpa greens, wilted in pork lard with epazote, serrano, garlic, and onion on a comal de leña, never dressed raw.

Quelites Salteados con Ajo

Chef Lupita

Quelites Salteados con Ajo

Oaxacan wild greens, foraged or bought from the mercado, wilted in lard with garlic and white onion. The frugal weeknight side that has fed Oaxacan families for centuries.

Quibebe de Jerimum

Chef Juliana

Quibebe de Jerimum

You think pumpkin purê is fussy until the pan proves otherwise: onion, garlic, jerimum, salt, and patience. Mash it rough and your pê-efe gets orange, sweet, savory sense.

Quibebe de Moranga

Chef Juliana

Quibebe de Moranga

You think pumpkin mash sounds like baby food. Wrong pot, wrong method. With a real refogado and patience, moranga turns silky, savory, and strong enough for rice, beans, greens, and a roast.

Quintoniles Guisados Tlaxcaltecas

Chef Lupita

Quintoniles Guisados Tlaxcaltecas

Tlaxcala's quintoniles guisados are tender amaranth greens from the milpa, sweated in manteca with white onion, chile serrano, and epazote until they taste like the field they came from.

Rahmfisolen

Chef Elsa

Rahmfisolen

Fresh green beans tossed in a silky cream sauce sharpened with white wine vinegar, the Beilage that shows up beside every roast and Knödel on Austrian tables from Vienna to Salzburg.

Rahmgurken

Chef Elsa

Rahmgurken

Warm creamed cucumbers in a silky dill and sour cream sauce with a bright vinegar finish, the Austrian side dish that changes how you think about cucumbers forever.

Rahmspinat

Chef Elsa

Rahmspinat

Finely chopped spinach folded into a nutmeg-scented cream sauce, the Gasthaus side dish that turns a Semmelknödel and a fried egg into one of the most honest meals in Austria.

Rajas con Crema Sinaloenses

Chef Lupita

Rajas con Crema Sinaloenses

Sinaloa's plate of charred poblano strips swimming in Mexican crema with sweet corn and white onion, finished with queso Chihuahua and scooped up with warm flour tortillas off the comal.

Rajas de Chile de Agua

Chef Lupita

Rajas de Chile de Agua

Oaxaca's most quiet side dish: thin strips of chile de agua roasted over flame, peeled, and tossed with white onion and lime. Served next to tasajo, asi se hace y punto.

Ranch Baked Beans

Chef Dean

Ranch Baked Beans

Slow-baked beans lacquered in brown sugar and molasses, threaded with smoky bacon and sharpened with mustard. This is the dish that made chuck wagon cooks legends and keeps potluck tables honest.

Reiberdatschi

Chef Klaus

Reiberdatschi

Altbayern's potato pancake is simple only if you respect the water: grate raw, squeeze hard, fry small in Butterschmalz, and let the edges go crisp and lacy.

Relleno de Pan Oaxaqueño

Chef Lupita

Relleno de Pan Oaxaqueño

Oaxaca's Christmas bread stuffing, built on stale bolillo, roasted poblanos, apples, prunes, and orange zest, baked in a clay cazuela until the top crisps gold and the inside drinks the broth.

Relleno Navideño de Pavo

Chef Lupita

Relleno Navideño de Pavo

Ciudad de Mexico's Christmas turkey relleno is bolillo bound with chorizo fat, chile ancho, sweet corn, apple, raisins, almonds, and broth, baked until the top goes crisp.

Repolho Roxo Agridoce

Chef Juliana

Repolho Roxo Agridoce

You think the bright side on the Christmas table belongs to people who know what they're doing. It doesn't. It's cabbage, apple, vinegar, sugar, and patience cooked until glossy.

Rievkooche mit Rübenkraut

Chef Klaus

Rievkooche mit Rübenkraut

The Rhineland potato pancake lives by one plain rule: grate the potato, wring it dry, keep the starch, then fry it fast enough to crisp before it drinks the pan.

Riso Pilaf all'Italiana

Chef Graziella

Riso Pilaf all'Italiana

Rice toasted in butter and simmered in good broth until each grain stands separate and fluffy. The elegant contorno that proves restraint produces better results than excess.

Ristede Løg

Chef Freja

Ristede Løg

Sliced onions dredged in flour and fried in butter until they shatter between your teeth. The golden tangle that crowns a Danish hot dog, a roast beef smorrebrod, and half the comfort food in the Danish kitchen.

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon

Chef Dean

Roasted Asparagus with Lemon

Spring's finest spears roasted at high heat until the tips turn golden and crisp, finished with a shower of fresh lemon zest and flaky salt. This is asparagus treated with the respect it deserves.

Roasted Beetroot with Thyme

Chef Thomas

Roasted Beetroot with Thyme

Beetroot roasted in foil with thyme until the flesh turns sweet and yielding, the kind of side dish that quietly becomes the thing on the plate everyone reaches for first.

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese

Chef Dean

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese

Sweet, earthy beets roasted until tender, dressed warm in honey-sherry vinaigrette, then scattered with tangy goat cheese and crunchy toasted walnuts. The kind of honest, beautiful side dish that makes a dinner party feel complete.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Chef Dean

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Deeply caramelized Brussels sprouts with crispy edges and smoky bacon lardons, roasted at high heat until the outer leaves char and shatter while the centers turn sweet and tender.

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