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Tofu can be bamboozling to buy. Here's what you need to know.

Chewy noodles, umami-packed mushrooms, and garlicky chicken, all coated in a spicy, sweet, and savory sauce.

This deeply comforting Haitian meal consists of sos pwa nwa, black bean sauce enriched with coconut milk, served alongside mayi moulen, a creamy cornmeal porridge flavored with garlic and herbs.

These Italian vegetable fritters can be made from any kind of vegetable and baked, shallow-fried, or deep-fried.

A beloved Hong Kong dish with approximately one billion variations, this soup—which relies heavily on fridge and pantry staples—is meant to be a little sweet and a touch sharp. 

This sweet-sour Indian pantry staple makes everything better.

Herbaceous, aromatic, fresh, and—maybe most importantly—simple, this Trini-inspired recipe from Brigid Washington is just the cure for those January blues.

Nooch to the rescue.

Crisp tostadas topped with cheesy sautéed poblanos and mushrooms, charred cherry tomato and serrano salsa, and fried eggs.

This satisfying vegetarian stew is recipe developer Rachel Gurjar’s riff on North Indian-style lobia masala. Black-eyed peas soak up the flavors of an onion- and tomato-based gravy along with kale or any greens you’d like.

Creamy, cheesy potatoes with crispy edges, tender middles, and just a whisper of heat—need we say more?

The beloved Korean stir-fried chicken dish dakgalbi is spicy, sweet, aromatic, and comforting—and it comes together in a few easy steps and one pan.

This lightly spiced chocolate cake from Yossy Arefi's book Snacking Cakes is packed with pumpkin purée and features spices often found in Mexican chocolate. If you choose to use it, the pinch of cayenne adds a pleasing bit of warmth. 

Cabbage has emerged as the hero of weeknight pantry cooking. Inexpensive and infinitely versatile, with an impressively long shelf life, one head of cabbage goes a long way. In this recipe, half of a cabbage is bathed in a turmeric-accented coconut milk until it’s meltingly tender and sweet. 

This one-pot recipe, which makes a holiday table centerpiece with leftovers you’ll be thankful for, is adapted from Sabrina Ghayour’s book Simply. Cooking a lean cut of meat like brisket for an extended period of time in a moist environment yields meat that is, in Sabrina’s words, “ridiculously juicy [and] tender, [with] plenty of flavor.”

Melissa Weller has all the tricks up her sleeve. 

Meera Sodha’s take on the beloved Indonesian dish nasi goreng uses shredded brussels sprouts two ways: Some are sautéed and incorporated into the rice mixture, while others are marinated and added on top for crunch and zing. Don’t skip the kecap manis—the syrupy Indonesian soy sauce is what gives nasi goreng its caramelization and depth.

Be the sharpest knife in the block.

Honing may not be sharpening, but it still is useful.

Instead of 14 rando knives, buy 3 good ones.

This is a “necessity is the mother of invention” kind of recipe, born from isolation, scant ingredients, an oversupply of kimchi, and sheer hunger. Yet this unconventional one-pot approach also happens to be one of the simplest ways to prepare mac and cheese. 

When a recipe calls for sopping up sauce, these breadsticks are your sopper-uppers of choice. Topped with Kalamata olives, garlic, red onion, and Calabrian chiles, they’re also just as good on their own—serve them straight from the oven and let everyone rip them off with their hands. This recipe comes from Bryan Ford and is based on his Master Bread Dough. Feel free to customize them with whatever finely chopped toppings you desire; just be sure to press them into the dough so that they stick.

Make these sesame buns today, then question why it took you so long to make your own buns for burgers, egg sandwiches, fried chicken, and fillets o’ fish. This recipe from bread master Bryan Ford is based on his Master Dough recipe; simply portion it out, roll into tight balls, then dip in sesame seeds (or any small seeds and seasonings of your choice—poppy, flax, dried onion…). Ford bakes his buns in muffin rings, which gives them dramatic height—but free-form works just as well.