Lemongrass

When you’re not in the mood to do much work, you need a marinade that does the work for you.

This Vietnamese-inspired marinade, packed with fish sauce, brown sugar, and chiles, hits all the notes.

Olive oil works great in stir-fry recipes; its sharp grassy notes complement flavors like lemongrass and basil.

This marinade recipe works with any other quick-cooking shellfish or seafood—try scallops or squid.

This aromatic Vietnamese-inspired dish calls for pounding the chicken breasts to a uniform thinness, which eliminates any dryness.

Faster! Faster! Skip the pickling and just top the curry with sliced fresh Fresno chiles. Or leave them out altogether if you’re spice-averse.

Lightly crushing the lemongrass releases essential oils that lend a subtle lemon flavor to this cocktail. You can use the same stalk to stir several drinks.

This versatile coconut curry recipe is incredibly easy to make vegetarian (using vegetable stock, omitting the chicken, not using fish sauce, etc.).