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

ʻUlu Hash Browns (Sāmoan Pan-Fried Breadfruit Patties)

Chef Makoa

ʻUlu Hash Browns (Sāmoan Pan-Fried Breadfruit Patties)

Firm Sāmoan ʻulu grated coarse, squeezed dry, and fried in coconut oil until the edges crisp and the middle turns soft, breakfast food from the canoe crop, easy enough for Tuesday.

ʻUlu Mash (Hawaiian Mashed Breadfruit)

Chef Makoa

ʻUlu Mash (Hawaiian Mashed Breadfruit)

Mature Hawaiian ʻulu boiled until it gives, then mashed with warm broth, paʻakai, and a little fat if you want it. Soft, humble, and real weeknight food.

ʻUlu Paʻiʻai (Hawaiian Hand-Pounded Breadfruit)

Chef Makoa

ʻUlu Paʻiʻai (Hawaiian Hand-Pounded Breadfruit)

Hawaiian ʻulu cooked until tender, peeled while warm, and pounded dense and smooth into paʻiʻai, the thick stage before poi ʻulu, simple enough for a weeknight and old enough for the canoe.

Umu ʻUlu (Sāmoan Earth-Oven Whole Breadfruit)

Chef Makoa

Umu ʻUlu (Sāmoan Earth-Oven Whole Breadfruit)

Whole Sāmoan ʻulu cooked in the umu until the skin chars black and the flesh goes golden and soft. One ocean, one canoe, one root, brought home to the table.

Updrögt Bohnen

Chef Klaus

Updrögt Bohnen

Ostfriesland's winter bean pot is made before the pot gets warm: green beans dried on a string, then soaked back to life and stewed with smoke.

ʻUru Rōti (Tahitian Roasted Breadfruit)

Chef Makoa

ʻUru Rōti (Tahitian Roasted Breadfruit)

Tahiti's ʻuru roasted whole in its skin, blackened outside and creamy within, the daily bread of maʻa Tahiti brought from embers into a real home oven.

Veracruz Baked Plantains with Cheese (Platanos al Horno)

Chef Lupita

Veracruz Baked Plantains with Cheese (Platanos al Horno)

Veracruz's Gulf lowland plantains, baked in the peel until their own sugars collapse, split open with melting queso Chihuahua, crema, and the quiet discipline of a Sotavento kitchen.

Veracruz Black Beans (Frijoles Negros de Olla con Epazote)

Chef Lupita

Veracruz Black Beans (Frijoles Negros de Olla con Epazote)

Veracruz's black bean pot, slow-simmered with epazote, white onion, and garlic until the broth turns inky, earthy, and serious enough to anchor rice, plantains, yuca, or tortillas.

Veracruz Fried Sweet Plantains (Plátanos Machos Fritos)

Chef Lupita

Veracruz Fried Sweet Plantains (Plátanos Machos Fritos)

Veracruz's Gulf lowland plantains, sliced long and fried in manteca de cerdo until the edges caramelize, made to sit beside frijoles negros, crema, and queso fresco.

Veracruz Garden Rice (Arroz a la Veracruzana)

Chef Lupita

Veracruz Garden Rice (Arroz a la Veracruzana)

Veracruz's garden rice, white and loose, cooked with carrot, peas, garlic, onion, and perejil. The quiet side dish that knows how to stand beside fish.

Veracruz Refried Black Beans (Frijoles Refritos Negros)

Chef Lupita

Veracruz Refried Black Beans (Frijoles Refritos Negros)

Veracruz black beans cooked with epazote and chile jalapeno, then mashed into pork lard until thick and glossy, the Gulf lowland side that belongs beside huevos tirados and platanos fritos.

Veracruz Stuffed Chayote (Chayotes Rellenos)

Chef Lupita

Veracruz Stuffed Chayote (Chayotes Rellenos)

Veracruz's Gulf-side chayotes rellenos, hollowed, stewed with ham and Mexican crema, returned to their shells, and finished under a blanket of melted queso manchego.

Verdolagas en Salsa Verde P'urhépecha

Chef Lupita

Verdolagas en Salsa Verde P'urhépecha

Michoacán's Meseta P'urhépecha side of wild purslane, charámakua, cooked in manteca with tomatillo, chile serrano, epazote, and a little masa to sit beside churipo or atápakua.

Verdolagas Guisadas con Tomate

Chef Lupita

Verdolagas Guisadas con Tomate

Oaxaca's rainy-season green stewed in charred tomato, white onion, and chile serrano. The kind of weeknight pot that proves Mexican home cooking is built on what the mercado is selling that morning.

Verduras al Pibil

Chef Lupita

Verduras al Pibil

Yucatan's pib applied to chayote, calabaza, and camote, rubbed with recado rojo, sealed in banana leaf, and slow-roasted until the vegetables take on the deep earth flavor of achiote and the grassy perfume of the leaf.

Verduras Asadas al Carbón Sonorenses

Chef Lupita

Verduras Asadas al Carbón Sonorenses

Sonora's parrillada vegetables, blistered over mesquite alongside the carne asada. Calabacitas, chiles güeros, cebollitas, and corn dressed with lime, chiltepín, and a few drops of Maggi.

Vermont Maple Roasted Root Vegetables

Chef Dean

Vermont Maple Roasted Root Vegetables

Humble root vegetables transformed by high heat and pure Vermont maple syrup into something golden, lacquered, and worthy of the Thanksgiving table. The honest sweetness of the earth, elevated.

Vogtländer Grüne Klöße (Griegeniffte)

Chef Klaus

Vogtländer Grüne Klöße (Griegeniffte)

The Vogtland potato dumpling that doesn't try to be white or delicate: raw potato wrung hard, its starch saved, then scalded into a firm Kloß built for gravy.

Waldviertler Knödel (Half-and-Half Potato Dumplings)

Chef Elsa

Waldviertler Knödel (Half-and-Half Potato Dumplings)

The Waldviertel's proud potato dumplings, half raw and half cooked, pressed together by hand and simmered until they turn glossy and elastic. This is how Lower Austria earned its reputation at the table.

Warm Lentils with Garden Greens

Chef Ally

Warm Lentils with Garden Greens

Earthy French lentils, still warm and dressed while they can absorb the vinaigrette, paired with peppery greens that wilt just enough to surrender their bite.

Warm Potato Salad with Herbs

Chef Ally

Warm Potato Salad with Herbs

Tender waxy potatoes dressed while still warm so they absorb every drop of mustardy vinaigrette, layered with briny capers, showered with soft herbs, and crowned with shallots fried until golden and impossibly crisp.

Westfälische Dicke Bohnen mit Speck

Chef Klaus

Westfälische Dicke Bohnen mit Speck

A Westphalian bean pot for broad-bean season, smoky with bacon and sharpened by Bohnenkraut, with the sauce bound only after the beans are tender.

Westfälischer Pickert

Chef Klaus

Westfälischer Pickert

Lippe's winter potato pancake lives by one job: squeeze the raw grated potatoes dry, keep the settled starch, and fry the batter slowly until the middle cooks through.

Westfälisches Blindhuhn

Chef Klaus

Westfälisches Blindhuhn

The Westphalian blind hen has no hen in it, just beans, roots, orchard fruit and smoked bacon cooked in the right order so each piece stays itself.

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