Cilantro

Step into January with this healing, brothy Cambodian-inspired soup, perfumed with warming spices, revitalizing ginger, and spicy dried chiles.

This is probably the most famous lentil dish coming out of India—yellow lentils tempered with spices and the usual holy trinity of garlic, ginger and chile. It has always been a favorite of mine and it would grace our family dinner table at least once a week when I was growing up. There are lots of different recipes for flavoring the oil (tadka), so play around with your spice pantry and see what you come up with. If you don’t have half of these spices, then don’t worry; just add a tablespoon of your favorite spice paste and it will taste just as delicious.

This is like pouring a cooked mojito over stewed chicken, with the rum, lime, and herbs mingling beautifully with the chicken juices. Serve it with rice and a cold, crispy Alsatian white like a Pinot Blanc.

Spaghetti squash plays the part of rice noodles in this take on a Vietnamese noodle bowl.

Cook barley until chewy and tender, then top with an assortment of crisp, golden brown mushrooms that have been pan-seared and basted in a fragrant, thyme-infused butter.

Crispy, salty, creamy, and full of protein (really!), these chickpeas should be a staple in your kitchen.

This light-bodied broth is a mélange of scraps that you can collect and save as you cook during the week—use whatever you have. For a shrimp and chorizo paella to make with this, follow this link.

Try this schmeared on toast, tossed with pasta, or dolloped on a baked potato.

Spoon some of this butter over a pork chop during the last minute of cooking.

You can pluck the herbs ahead of time and chill them wrapped in damp paper towels in airtight bags.

Feel-good greens and creamy comforting coconut come together in less than half an hour for a weeknight dinner you can really get behind.

This light and brothy stew is just the thing for crisp autumn nights.

If you don't have both spices, it's okay to omit one or the other.

Make your next party a falafel party with this irresistible recipe.

To choose a fresh tomatillo, they should be firm and the husks mostly intact. A split is ok, but you want them looking pretty tight. Roast the onions here if you like a deeper, caramelized flavor, or add them in raw for a more authentic salsa.

Creamy herbed avocado and edible flowers elevate a simple salad of mixed greens.

This spicy and sweet powerhouse seasoning blend packs layers of flavor onto grilled flank steak.