Recipes

These Ugly-Looking Recipes Are Beautiful on the Inside (and Taste Really, Really Good)

Lentils, mashed veggies, all sorts of brown food… these may not be the sexiest-looking recipes, but gosh darn it, are they tasty!
Image may contain Plant Food Produce Bean Vegetable and Lentil
Yossy Arefi

Lentils, mashed veggies, and all sorts of brown food are proof: Sometimes the ugliest recipes are the ones that taste the best. These 15 recipes won't win any beauty contests, but they're always welcome at our dinner table.

  • Image may contain Plant Bowl Food Vegetable and Produce
    Yossy Arefi
    5/15

    Oven Risotto with Kale Pesto

    Risotto is a sea of mush, and this kale pesto is aggressively green. But give it a try, and we guarantee you'll have a new favorite weeknight dinner (P.S.: This is made in the oven for a novel hands-off risotto experience).

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  • Image may contain Food Pizza Plant Meal Dish Vegetable and Cauliflower
    Jeremy Liebman
    6/15

    Mashed Root Vegetables with Bacon Vinaigrette

    We especially like the combination of parsnips, kohlrabi, and celery root in this bacony mash. It's white on white on white, but hello—there is bacon!

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  • Image may contain Dip Food and Egg
    9/15

    Black-Eyed Pea Hummus

    Don't judge this book by its cover—this garlicky, lemony dip will give chickpea hummus a run for its money.

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  • Overhead shot of a Dutch oven filled with braised short ribs in a rich red wine broth.
    Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kate Buckens
    10/15

    Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs

    These short ribs are even better when they're allowed to sit overnight. Serve with a sprinkling of fresh herbs to break up all that brown and saucy stuff.

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  • Image may contain Food Dish Meal Stew and Plant
    Aya Brackett
    15/15

    Rintaro's Beef Curry

    Beef stew is soupy, sloppy, and very brown. But when the temperatures drop, there's no meal more comforting.

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Senior Associate Web Editor. When she’s not torturing herself by grinding coffee beans by hand and making her own butter, Rochelle writes about cooking techniques and seasonal eating for bonappetit.com. She comes to BA by way of a small farm in Central New York, where she worked as a farmhand ... Read More