448 crisp recipes

Bengali-style oven-fried potatoes baked directly on greased oven racks with turmeric, cumin, and cayenne. Crisp, golden, and Indian-spiced without a drop of frying oil.

Low-fat fried fish fillets coated in Parmesan breadcrumbs and egg whites, frozen for a crisp crust, then pan-fried with cooking spray instead of oil.

Rosette cookies fried on a decorative iron with a thin egg-and-milk batter, dusted with powdered sugar. Crisp, lacy Scandinavian holiday cookies with a delicate snowflake shape.

7-day sweet pickles made the old-fashioned canning way: five daily soaks in boiling water followed by a hot sugar-vinegar spiced brine. The slow process delivers shatteringly crisp, glassy-sweet bread-and-butter style pickles that put the supermarket jars to shame.

Microwave oven-fried chicken gives you a crisp, paprika-flecked crumb crust with no oil and no mess. Coated in seasoned bread and cornflake crumbs, it cooks in the microwave and tastes great hot or cold.

Pseftokeftedes are Santorini tomato fritters mixing chopped Roma tomatoes, scallions, garlic, mint, and oregano into a pancake-style batter, fried crisp in olive oil. Vegetarian Greek meze.

Homemade ciabatta bread using sourdough starter and active dry yeast for a tangy, open-crumbed loaf with a crisp, chewy crust. Makes three torpedo loaves.

Shredded yellow summer squash seasoned with oregano, garlic, and chicken bouillon, then microwaved to crisp-tender in minutes. The fastest veggie side dish in your rotation.

A Mexican-inspired chilled gazpacho loaded with fresh Roma tomatoes, zucchini, roasted garlic and spicy vegetable juice, topped with crispy tortilla strips and crumbled Cotija cheese.

Israeli salad with diced cucumber, tomatoes, radishes, green pepper, carrots, and lettuce in a fresh lemon juice dressing. A crisp, vegetarian chopped salad ready in 10 minutes.

Cinnamon sugar cookies with a tender shortening-based dough, brushed with egg white and topped with a cinnamon sugar sparkle. Crisp edges, soft centers.

Garlicky falafel from soaked dried chickpeas, ground with onion, potato, and four cloves of garlic. The traditional Middle Eastern street food technique with a crisp exterior and fluffy interior.

Asian-style beef and couscous with flank steak in an apricot-ginger sauce, bell peppers, and mushrooms. A sweet-savory microwave meal with crisp-tender vegetables.

Gingerbread icing that dries rock-hard for gluing gingerbread houses and piping crisp royal-icing details. Three ingredients, stiff peaks, no egg whites.

Rosettes are delicate Scandinavian fried cookies shaped on a decorative iron, crisp like a wafer and dusted with powdered sugar. A Christmas tradition in Nordic and Midwestern kitchens.

Broiled polenta shapes with reconstituted chipotle peppers and sun-dried tomatoes folded in. Smoky, savory cornmeal cut-outs that crisp up under the broiler for an elegant appetizer or side.