Make Ahead

Birria is usually served with a side of consomé, the rich pan juices from the roasted meat. This recipe takes things a step further by puréeing those juices with roasted vegetables and dried chiles.

This chile oil combines tons of texture from toasted whole spices and seeds with a just-spicy-enough heat level. Drizzle it over any, literally any, savory food you can think of.

Use this coffee spice mix as a dry rub on chicken, steak, pork chops, or carrots for dinner, or fold into chocolate chip cookies, coffee cake, ice cream, and more for dessert—it plays happily on both sides of the field.

This lovely, simple dish is great to have in your fridge at all times. It adds a wonderful, distinctive flavor to any dish it accompanies.

These hamantaschen are filled with a celebration of seeds set in chewy-soft caramelized honey. While poppy is traditional, we threw in sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin as well for variety and crunch.

Homemade green curry paste has more vivid flavor and aromatic intensity than store-bought, not to mention the freedom to control the spice level. Sopon Kosalanan of restaurant Khao King in, Queens says, “If you get it from a can, I don’t feel like it’s green curry. It doesn’t have the same aromas.” This is the recipe he makes in big batches for his restaurant every day.

Nigerian peppersoup should be fiery hot with rich flavor—while the traditional spices can be hard to find in the U.S., this recipe approximates the taste with a few more readily available substitutes.

This crispy-crunchy-salty mix gets its green hue from a blend of ground seaweed snacks, dried dill, and lime zest. The seasoning of garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and sugar rounds it all out.

Shelled raw peanuts are easy to find at Asian markets, health food stores, and other specialty food stores.

Whipping an egg into the filling of these simple, folded dumplings makes them fluffy and moist—and a double hit of soy amps up the umami.

By coarsely mashing, seasoning, and storing the squash to use later in the week, you've got an ingredient that'll yield more types of dishes than would be easily available to you if you were to have cubed and roasted leftover squash. It's a spread, a sandwich filling, sweet component of a frittata, the starting point of an easy appetizer. 

This big batch of jalapeño-spiced orange-lime juice keeps in the fridge for a couple of days. Pour it over ice and top it with seltzer for a refreshing alcohol-free pick-me-up.

Toasting the pine nuts until they’re properly golden brown to the center and not just on the surface is key in coaxing out maximum flavor. That said, pine nuts are expensive and can burn, so keep a close eye on them as they cook.

A holiday-spiced grenadine syrup, club soda, and a twist is a grown-up Shirley Temple we can all enjoy. For the adults who want to imbibe, a splash of Scotch fits just right.

This recipe assumes you have fresh or leftover cooked plain pasta in the fridge, but if you happen to magically have leftover pesto pasta, throw that in (no extra sauce required).

Massage kale and brussels sprouts in a sweet, tangy dressing of rice vinegar, soy sauce, and honey, then serve it with creamy hummus and jammy eggs.

This savory granola will magically boost the flavor, protein, and crunch factor of any dish. Sprinkle it over a plate of whipped ricotta and crispy broccoli for an easy, veggie-centric meal.

It’s a vodka martini—properly called the Kangaroo—gone savory with peaty Scotch and olives four ways.

Pairing the tangy fruit with Scotch—plus oolong tea that’s been steeped forever—gives a whisper of smoke and a bitter, malty edge to the drink.

While brandy is the traditional partner for fruit cake, you could also try using a dessert sherry such as Pedro Ximénez. It’s an intensely sweet, dark sherry made from the Spanish grape variety of the same name. Perfect in festive cakes, puddings and custards, you can find it in liquor stores.