Epicurious

Stirring a simple vinaigrette into warm just-cooked lentils helps them drink up flavor so they taste anything but plain. Use French green or black beluga lentils as they will hold their shape best. You can keep a batch of these dressed lentils in the fridge and add to salads, pastas, soups, and more all week long.

This pickle brine–inspired dry rub turns potatoes and carrots crispy-creamy with pleasantly sharp vinegary tang. Toss them, still warm, with leftover shredded chicken and crunchy raw celery, onion, and yes, sliced pickles for a double-the-pickle, double-the-fun dinner salad.

The layer of streusel in this marbled loaf cake gets a complex punch of flavor from a coffee spice blend that includes dried orange peel, cardamom, and fennel seeds.

The transformative power of our new favorite seedy, spicy, crunchy, garlicky oil is on full display in this dinner of simply seared scallops. A couple of drizzles adds a spice drawer’s worth of flavor in seconds.

The power of a tangy, vinegary brine, but in powdered form. This spice rub brightens and invigorates roasted chicken, seared fish and shines when sprinkled over vegetables before roasting. The cornstarch in the vinegar powder helps form an extra-crispy, extra-tart crust on anything you put it on.

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 rich, flavorful Nigerian dish brings together bold chile heat, the pleasant funk of fermented locust beans and dried shrimp, and a good dose of Old Bay.

In this recipe, creamy mashed potatoes get jazzed up with crispy bits of bacon and sharp cheddar cheese, then wrapped in Savoy cabbage leaves before roasting in the oven.

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.

Thai green curry paste packs potent flavor into this one-pan, eight-ingredient, weeknight-friendly chicken dinner.

Bright in color and flavor, the silky sauce for these meatballs is made from a purée of coconut cream, Thai green curry paste, and spinach.

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.

This dairy-free cocoa uses fragrant coconut milk as its base. Dried rose petals bring an extra dose of floral aroma and flavor—not to mention romance.

Quickly roasting oysters in a hot oven pops the shells apart so they can be opened the rest of the way by hand, no shucking skills required.

Everything in this dinner (including the eggs!) cooks together in one steamer insert.

This gin cocktail is essentially an Aviation with orange bitters instead of Crème de violette.

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.

A pistachio custard filling makes for an enchanting moss-green spiral inside this cardamom sponge cake Yule log.

When roasted at high temperature, humble cabbage becomes sweet and incredibly satisfying. In this recipe, the cabbage ‘steaks’ are a base for crispy chickpeas, herby croutons, and a rich and lemony garlic sauce.