Cilantro

Like chocolate, the chile peppers that give chili its name and flavor come from Mexico. By assembling the many ingredients below and allowing them to cook together over low heat, you can easily imagine earlier versions of this Mexican stew (despite a few modern concessions). The cocoa powder adds depth and earthiness to the spicy indigenous flavors. This is a big batch and serves 15 people. You can also freeze it.

Authentic, fiery mole sauces from the southern region of Mexico take days to prepare. This is a relatively quick version of the chunky, spicy, and chocolatey, mole negro or “black sauce.” To experience the full flavors of peppers, native spices, and fresh chocolate, book a culinary vacation to Oaxaca, Mexico, the Land of Seven Moles, where you can explore a district known as the Trail of Chocolate. In the meantime, get fresh ingredients from your local farmers’ market. You can substitute jalepeños for the poblano chiles, but the dark dried ancho and mulato chiles are important to bring the sauce to its characteristic deep chocolate brown. This will make a large batch of sauce designed to thin and use for a meal, then freeze and thaw as needed.

While the steak is simmering, prepare instant brown rice to serve with the sweet and spicy sauce. Round out the meal with tossed salad or your favorite green vegetable.

Here’s a new twist on chicken salad. Serve this one with baked tortilla chips on lettuce-lined plates, garnished with jalapeño rings.

This exciting, inviting fruit salad is especially delicious served with grilled pork or chicken.

Probably one of the easiest soups you will ever make, this smooth, creamy delight is perfect whether you’re entertaining or curling up in front of the fire.

Fresh herbs add a lively taste to this refreshing, light soup.

In this country, dishes of Mexican origin have a reputation for being fat-laden and bad for you. At the same time, we can’t seem to get enough of them! The funny thing is that in Mexico, the traditional food is generally fresh, healthy, and wholesome—lots of grilled fish and meats, intensely flavored (and cream-free) sauces, fresh vegetables and fruits, and herbs. The problem is the blanket of full-fat cheese and sour cream under which most Mexican-American dishes are served. The Mexican flavors we love come from healthy foods like bright-tasting tomatillos and cilantro, so I banked on them in this new version of enchiladas.

This is a light and simple chicken dish that’s perfect for a summer barbecue. Although we eat more chicken than any other animal protein in the United States, the problem with most of it is that it is insipid and tired. A fruit-based salsa like this one offers some sweetness and acidity that really sparks up this ubiquitous bird. This recipe is simply too good not to include.

If you’ve never had real pad Thai, it will change your life when you do. It’s a perfect example of Asian kitchen alchemy. The texture of the rice noodles against the sweet, salty, sour, and bitter taste of the almost seventeen ingredients (in the original) is the thesis for every Asian fusion dish to come out of an American chef’s kitchen since the 1980s. “Complex,” “layered,” and “dynamic” are words that come to mind—and every bite is different. All that comes with a price, though! The original can tip the scales at 2,000 calories per serving. This made-over version comes in at a fraction of the calories and a fraction of the work, and it tastes great. Fish sauce is derived from fermented fish and can be found in many Southeast Asian dishes. It is available in the ethnic or Asian aisle of most major supermarkets.

I must admit that I didn’t realize at first that tortilla soup was an American favorite, but it slowly dawned on me. One of my favorite hotels serves it, there is a movie called Tortilla Soup, and when I asked my Twitter peeps about soups, it came up over and over. Its origins are Mexican, but it has become Americanized over the years. In Mexico City, this soup is made simply with roasted tomatoes, chiles, chicken broth, and corn tortillas. This version is true to the original, with a few additions.