Simple Cooking

The transformative power of our new favorite seedy, spicy, crunchy, garlicky oil is on full display in this dinner of simply seared scallops. A couple of drizzles adds a spice drawer’s worth of flavor in seconds.

Coconut milk and lots of aromatics bring life into this fish chowder. And just when you thought oyster crackers couldn’t get better, you’ll cook them in butter and smother them in paprika.

Slowly rendering the pancetta, gently toasting the garlic, and concentrating the tomatoes puts three pots’ worth of flavor in just one.

Juicy pork al pastor and oozy Oaxacan cheese make a brilliant combo. Thinly slicing the pork and cooking it in a hot skillet with plenty of marinade still clinging to the meat yields the charred edges and deep flavor of traditional spit-roasted pastor.

Birria is usually served with a side of consomé, the rich pan juices from the roasted meat. This recipe takes things a step further by puréeing those juices with roasted vegetables and dried chiles.

The power of a tangy, vinegary brine, but in powdered form. This spice rub brightens and invigorates roasted chicken, seared fish and shines when sprinkled over vegetables before roasting. The cornstarch in the vinegar powder helps form an extra-crispy, extra-tart crust on anything you put it on.

This chile oil combines tons of texture from toasted whole spices and seeds with a just-spicy-enough heat level. Drizzle it over any, literally any, savory food you can think of.

Use this coffee spice mix as a dry rub on chicken, steak, pork chops, or carrots for dinner, or fold into chocolate chip cookies, coffee cake, ice cream, and more for dessert—it plays happily on both sides of the field.

It’s really satisfying to make chicken stock on the grill. The pot can sit in a corner of the grill as long as the grill is fired up, and the stock will only get better with each hour.

Thyme goes beautifully with sweet and citrus flavors, making it perfect for cocktails. This recipe multiplies easily for large groups.

The salad works best with strips of Persian flatbread, but plain tortillas work just as well. The addition of golpar, with its citrusy aroma, really lifts this dish, accentuating the sweetness of the pomegranates and adding a wonderful depth of flavor, so try and track some down if you can.

This rich, flavorful Nigerian dish brings together bold chile heat, the pleasant funk of fermented locust beans and dried shrimp, and a good dose of Old Bay.

This lovely, simple dish is great to have in your fridge at all times. It adds a wonderful, distinctive flavor to any dish it accompanies.

Frozen fava beans make easy work of this fragrant rice dish, and you could also replace them with shelled lima beans or edamame instead.

In this spicy salad, cubes of fried tofu act like tender-bellied croutons amid the leaves of baby kale, only with much more protein and spunk than the usual toasted bread.

Using both syrupy date molasses and pitted, sliced dates gives this dish rounded sweetness. It gets a dash of sourness from apple cider vinegar and some heat from cayenne.

This is a very simple way to make wonderful rice in under an hour. It is a technique favored around the Caspian, where rice is eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

A vegetarian version of khoresh, this braise inspired by the popular Persian dish is made with cremini mushrooms, which keep their shape and offer earthy flavor. Enjoy it over rice.

This recipe from Bryant Terry highlights the earthy taste and the toothsome texture of collards, and offsets the greens with tofu that’s been soaked in a Jamaican-inspired marinade.

These hamantaschen are filled with a celebration of seeds set in chewy-soft caramelized honey. While poppy is traditional, we threw in sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin as well for variety and crunch.