Spring

People have been brining chicken in buttermilk since forever, often as the first step in a dredged and fried chicken situation. But we have chef and cookbook author Samin Nosrat to credit for the idea of roasting poultry straight out of a buttermilk bath, which not only imparts delicious tangy flavor, but also helps the skin achieve a walnut-colored hue when roasted at high heat.

Swapping traditional ingredients like guanciale and pancetta for vegetable-based umami bombs (hello, garlic and smoked paprika) isn’t the only thing to consider when making a vegetarian carbonara. Many hard cheeses (including Parmigiano-Reggiano) use animal rennet, so if you want to seek an alternative, ask your cheesemonger.

If you’ve ever been intimidated by the thought of making fresh pasta at home, look no further. Ricotta gnocchi is simple to make, and it’s faster and more foolproof than its potato counterparts. The only tricky part is adding enough flour so that your dough is easy to work with, but not so much that it becomes stodgy or tough. If you don't want to make the buttery herb and pea sauce, use whatever you'd prefer, be it marinara, pesto, or sage and brown butter. 

Think of your favorite granola packed full of nuts and surrounding a layer of sweet-tart rhubarb jam and you’ve got these bars. 

This style of chopped salad is a staple of Hmong potlucks. This recipe, from chef Yia Vang, is packed with crunchy vegetables and tossed with a creamy-umami dressing.

This DIY furikake is just five ingredients and you can use it on nearly everything.

It doesn’t get more summery than these delicate cornmeal pancakes with rum-spiked strawberry compote.

Hot-and-sour soup inspired this highly nontraditional springtime version. Miso gives just enough body so that you won't need cornstarch to thicken it, and you can use silken tofu or thinly sliced yuba instead of egg for that same silky effect.

Wise words from chef Evan Funke, plus five of his must-make recipes to boot.

As the chicken cooks low and slow, the green garlic and turns into a crispy crumb topping.

This recipe is all about the technique. Once you learn it, you’ll be doing it over and over again.

It’s okay to use frozen peas! We’ll never tell. We love ‘em.

The name says it all. Shrimp with a garlicky, pungent, buttery sauce.

Blistered yet snappy asparagus and crispy pork in a robust sauce.

Think of this as carbonara minus the eggs but still with massive amounts of flavor from guanciale, black pepper, and Pecorino.

There’s so much you can do with this workhorse staple ingredient.

Attention, lovers of squishy and chewy foods! This moody-glam dessert packs tons of bold sesame flavor into one super simple one-bowl cake.

This is how you kick off a heavy winter meal.

Chaas, an Indian buttermilk drink, is reimagined here as a creamy salad dressing seasoned with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, and dried red chiles.

This fast miso-curry paste and handfuls of charred green beans and peas transform skinless, boneless chicken breasts into a highly craveable dinner.

To make this endlessly riffable salad, pair whatever produce you’ve got with 7-minute eggs, a mustardy dressing, and your favorite protein.

A simple slaw that pairs well with meaty summer mains.

To get the most flavor out of this open-faced breakfast sandwich, look for spring onions with round bulbs and very tender dark green stalks.

Skirt steak is our favorite choice when grilling for a crowd for two reasons: it feeds many and cooks in a jiffy.