Sara Dickerman

This simple bok choy recipe, flavored with shallot, garlic, and soy sauce, is ideal for when you’re short on time and ingredients.

My fried rice axiom is this: always use a little more ginger than seems appropriate. This is especially true with this fried rice version, enriched with smoky pork and rich bites of sautéed mushrooms.

There may be no better way to stretch odds and ends around the kitchen than to make a frittata: there’s no crust to fuss with, the eggy matrix can handle almost any savory inclusions, and the frittata itself can be enjoyed hot or at room temperature.

Served with a bright, zesty grapefruit-cabbage slaw, this crisp salmon is an easy weeknight dinner that takes less than 20 minutes to make from start to finish.

The ingredient list for a curry can be a little daunting with all those spices, but the technique isn’t very far from a pasta sauce: you just toast the whole spices and then move on to a sort of sofrito of onion, garlic, and ginger. From that flavor base, you add tomatoes and whatever veggies you desire. At the end, a quick chutney, really just a rough chopped blend of herbs and coconut, gives the stew a bright pop of flavor (the way a few torn basil leaves make that tomato sauce sing).

If you're ever cornered by a bland bowl of vegetables or whole grains, throw a handful of herbs on it. They instantly make the meal more beautiful and flavorful—without adding any salt, fat, or sugar.

This fresh take on tabbouleh eliminates the bulgur entirely and uses the golden seeds of millet instead, which give a nutty, cornlike taste to the salad. (Here's how to master millet). But it's really all about the green herbs: Feel free to add too many!

Pick a small to medium celery root and peel off its hide with a sharp knife. Inside you'll find ivory-green flesh that's crisp, a bit nutty, and utterly delicious in salads. This take on a classic remoulade provides perfect contrast to the silken luxury of seared scallops.

The crisp-skinned salmon is warmed up with spices and the sweetness of carrots. Then it's cooled down with one of the most refreshing combinations of all time: cucumbers and yogurt.

Hanger steak is the king of what I call weeknight steaks, casual cuts of leanish meat that deliver delicious flavor without a lot of expense or fuss. The skinny strip of flesh tastes best cooked hard and fast, for a crispy char on the outside, and left nice and pink inside. Slice it with a significant slant across the grain for the best eating texture. If you can find a grass-finished hanger steak, you’ll get leaner meat and a higher proportion of healthy lipids, such as omega-3s and CLAs. The bad news: hanger steak—or onglet, as it is sometimes known—can be hard to find. Even my regular butcher runs out somewhat frequently. Don’t fret—just substitute flank steak.

One way to break up the monotony of morning oatmeal is to play around with different whole grains. Here, we lean on a pre-cooked big batch of barley to make a toothsome porridge.

We're a big fan of keeping some frozen mahi mahi on hand in case you don’t have time to run to the fish market. Feel free to substitute swordfish, ono, bluefish, or salmon.

We’ve always loved the slightly sweet and nutty crunch of water chestnuts, which are actually the bulblike growth of a marsh-grown, grasslike plant. We use it unapologetically in spur-of-the-moment stir-fries. Learn how to make this recipe and more in our online cooking class with Sur la Table.

This salad was inspired by the classic French bistro salad, in which sturdy winter greens are laced with crisp lardons of bacon and a silky poached egg. We’ll never begrudge you a bit of bacon, but here vegetables are roasted to give the salad a leaner form of texture, flavor, and color.

If you don’t have time to make a batch of flageolets from scratch, choose the best canned cannellini beans you can find. We're a big fan of Bioitalia beans.

If you leave this on the thicker side, it's a great crudités dip. Or, thin it and pour onto salad.

If the vibrancy of this dressing fades, perk it back up with more lime juice.

A spoonful of this sweet, earthy condiment perks up eggs, grain dishes, and simply prepared proteins.

For a salty, savory, crunchy boost, sprinkle this on roasted vegetables, soups, and hot cereal.