Big Little Recipes – FoodWatcher

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Don’t Throw Out Those Shrimp Shells. Use Them to Make This Perfect Pasta.

A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. That means five ingredients or fewer—not including water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (like oil and butter), since we’re gue…

A Big Little Recipe has the smallest-possible ingredient list and big everything else: flavor, creativity, wow factor. That means five ingredients or fewer—not including water, salt, black pepper, and certain fats (like oil and butter), since we're guessing you have those covered. Inspired by the column, the Big Little Recipes cookbook is available now.

Between you and me, when I started this column just over four years ago, I was worried I would run out of ideas. How many dishes could we possibly make with five or fewer ingredients?

Salt & Pepper…Ice Cream?!

Salt and pepper are a given in savory recipes, so much so that they’re often shortened to S&P, like a dear friend signing an email with a single initial. The other letters are unneeded. You know who they are.

I Could Eat 100 of These Bulgur-Feta Fritters

Yes, I have an Instant Pot. It cooks rice, beans, and polenta more speedily than I ever could on the stove. But you know what I never need it for? Bulgur.

Our Easiest Dessert Recipes Only Need 5 Ingredients (or Fewer)

When it comes to dessert recipes, it’s all too easy for ingredient lists to become very long, very fast. Most of the time, they can’t help themselves. Take this yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting for instance. There are a dozen ingredients—and m…

But not every dessert is like this.

Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese Is What Dreams Are Made Of

As someone who loves jalapeños, loves cheese, and does not love football, I reject any implication that jalapeño poppers are a seasonal snack. Super Bowl, sure, but any day of the year is worthy of their crispy-spicy-gooey goodness. Jalapeño poppers are timeless.

I Can’t Stop Snacking on This Matzo Toffee

Thirty-something years after she started making it, my mom can’t remember where this recipe came from. Maybe she got it from her mom, or a magazine, or her mom got it from a magazine. Who knows?

Winner Winner Cream of Mushroom Chicken Dinner

Since the 1930s, canned cream of mushroom soup has been a shortcut for all sorts of meals, from green bean casserole to beef stroganoff to shepherd’s pie. And while it’s hard to beat the convenience of a can—let’s be real, you can’t—this recipe comes awfully close.

Creamy, Cheesy, 2-Ingredient Tomato Sauce

If espresso martinis and fanny packs can make a comeback, why not sun-dried tomatoes? This wrinkly, tangy ingredient peaked in the ’90s, then fell out of favor in the decades since. But it never left my pantry.

This 5-Ingredient Roasted Pepper Soup Is Winter Magic

I bought a deep freezer for soup. It is 66 pounds, 7 cubic feet, and too wide for me to hug. (I’ve tried.) To finagle it into our basement, it took three people, a borrowed car, and the removal of one door. Was that worth it? Don’t ask my husband, ask me. The answer is yes.

The Most Popular Big Little Recipes of 2021

If you have a handful of ingredients, you can make dinner. Or, even better, dessert. This year, we made all sorts of dishes—from salads to soups to pastas to cookies—and these were the ones that our community loved the most. Let’s get right to it.