Simmer

Cornmeal thickens this soup and gives it a silky texture, and the combination of smoky andouille and greens packs in more flavor than you could imagine from a one-hour recipe cook time.

Chicken noodle soup never gets old. If you don’t have udon for this recipe, use rice noodles or regular old spaghetti. 

If you have extra time, double the amount of vegetables for this split pea soup recipe, then scoop out half of the soffritto and freeze it for a shortcut another night.

Poaching eggs right in the stew is so obviously genius, we are still trying to figure out why we didn’t think of this recipe sooner.

This recipe makes a lot of ragù, but it freezes well and is worth having around. If making the gnocchi feels like a project, serve over polenta instead.

Put a personal spin on this apple butter recipe by adding a sachet with spices (cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg) as the mixture cooks down.

There’s no stock in this wintry vegetarian stew recipe—it relies on the starchy bean cooking liquid for its flavor (which is a polite way of saying sorry, but you can’t use canned beans here and get the same results).

Natural dyes work best in royal icing (pictured here) or buttercream frosting, not cake batter. Here's how to make yellow food dye and blue food dye.

First of all, zoodle is a made-up word for vegetables that have been cut to look like noodles. Make this recipe vegetarian by substituting 8 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms in place of the bacon and using a vegetable stock or water.

Both types of tahini should be roughly the same consistency for this halvah recipe—ideally pretty loose and pourable—which makes it easy to marble them. Most black tahini will be great, but Roland and Whole Foods 365 Organic were the best of the white tahini we tested.

Quaker brand grits work really well in this recipe, and they are distributed very widely. If you can’t find them, use any other white, medium-grind, long-cooking grits.

If you’re not following our weekly meal plan and not making the Grilled Cheese (though you really should; it’s delightful), which you need wheat bread for, use country loaf or sourdough bread, crusts removed, for optimal breadcrumbs for this chicken stew recipe. Check out step-by-step photos here.

It’ll take a couple of hours to make the homemade broth and cook a whole chicken (your house will smell amazing) for this soup recipe. If you’ve had a long day, use 2 quarts store-bought broth and shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken. Whatever method you choose, use the chicken breasts to make this amazing salad with crispy rice. Check out step-by-step photos here.

If you don’t happen to have or particularly enjoy pastrami, bacon or pancetta would be a delicious substitute for this minestrone recipe. Check out step-by-step photos here.

The ingredient list for a curry can be a little daunting with all those spices, but the technique isn’t very far from a pasta sauce: you just toast the whole spices and then move on to a sort of sofrito of onion, garlic, and ginger. From that flavor base, you add tomatoes and whatever veggies you desire. At the end, a quick chutney, really just a rough chopped blend of herbs and coconut, gives the stew a bright pop of flavor (the way a few torn basil leaves make that tomato sauce sing).

If using frozen cranberries, which are just as good for this recipe, don’t bother thawing them first.

Kimchi gives this porridge recipe a spicy twist, while the 6-minute egg keeps it hearty and perfect for breakfast.

Don’t skip on the fresh herb garnishes for this recipe; they will serve as a good contrast to the curry.

Spicy, mouth-tingling, porky: Those are the words you’ll be using to describe this tofu recipe.

Take a breather from roasting. Our stovetop method for this glazed vegetables recipe yields glossy, tender results and works on basically any firm veg.

A cozy, stick-to-your-ribs porridge that soothes as it nourishes.

For this porridge recipe, pulsing long-cooking spelt, wheat berries, or barley in a blender yields a tasty base for a hearty, savory supper.

When you peel the kabocha squash for this recipe, use a vegetable peeler—not a knife. (Better to dull a $4 tool than your best kitchen blade.)

You don’t need hours to simmer tomato sauce. This recipe shows you how to make an excellent one in 30 minutes, with 5 ingredients, in 1 pan, with very little effort.