Dairy-Free

Cooking grains in a bigger pot of boiling salted water is a great way to cook all of your grains from brown rice to barley.

Cacao nibs are unprocessed bits of the cacao pod. They are intensely flavored, not at all sweet, and give a wonderful depth and crunch to meals. Try blending them into smoothies, or use them to top a long-braised stew.

We’ve always loved the slightly sweet and nutty crunch of water chestnuts, which are actually the bulblike growth of a marsh-grown, grasslike plant. We use it unapologetically in spur-of-the-moment stir-fries. Learn how to make this recipe and more in our online cooking class with Sur la Table.

Avoid whole grain mustards that are aggressively sweetened with honey; you want a bit of sharpness here.

Portion out the oatmeal in individual containers so even if you're running out the door, you won't skip breakfast.

Regular old bark gets a bit spicier with a pinch of cayenne pepper and bitter orange.

You can find Chinese five-spice powder, a combination of star anise, fennel, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and cloves, at many supermarkets. We really like the fresh intensity and balance of the five-spice powder from World Spice.

This salad was inspired by the classic French bistro salad, in which sturdy winter greens are laced with crisp lardons of bacon and a silky poached egg. We’ll never begrudge you a bit of bacon, but here vegetables are roasted to give the salad a leaner form of texture, flavor, and color.

If you don’t have time to make a batch of flageolets from scratch, choose the best canned cannellini beans you can find. We're a big fan of Bioitalia beans.

Like many whole grains, Bhutanese red rice can be cooked in a bigger batch ahead of time. Reheat by steaming or microwaving in a covered dish with a spoonful or two of water.

Mildly bitter radicchio, nutty hazelnuts, and pops of sweetness from pomegranate seeds and pears zhuzh up roasted turkey in this leftover turkey salad

Feel free to substitute chard and radicchio for the endive.

Rainbow chard stems are among the tastiest in the greens department. They do take a bit longer to cook, so get them into the pan a bit before you add the green leaves.

Congee, a savory rice porridge, works for any meal. For a vegetarian version of this recipe, skip the chicken and use vegetable broth instead.

Don’t strive for perfection with these. The more irregular and off-kilter they are, the more realistic they look. ​

The effort-to-impressiveness ratio doesn’t get much better than this, people. Go ahead and double (Triple! Quadruple!) this recipe and you’ve got hostess gifts, emergency entertaining fodder, and quick, decadent snacks for days.

This avocado toast recipe is endlessly customizable—thus why we don't include specific amounts.