Name: Greens With Magical Sesame Salt
Total time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds; ½ tsp. sugar; ¼ tsp. Diamond Crystal or Morton kosher salt, plus more; 3–4 (lightly packed) cups room-temperature cooked leafy greens (such as water spinach, Tuscan kale, collard greens, or Swiss chard with stems); 2 tsp. (or more) fish sauce or soy sauce; 1–2 limes, halved

Cooked leafy greens covered with sesame seeds served on a white platter next to a mortar and pestle filled with sesame...

Photograph by Isa Zapata, food styling by Thu Buser, prop styling by JoJo Li

Sprinkle muô`i mè, a Vietnamese ground sesame seed salt, over your vegetables and watch them disappear. The three-ingredient mix (Nguyen’s take includes a touch of sugar for balance) instantly transforms the mundane into something special. If the toasted sesame seeds taste dull, revive them in a small pan over a medium-low heat until you can smell their nutty aroma (taste black seeds for nuttiness), about 2–3 minutes. Briefly cool before using. And a cheeky shopping tip from Nguyen herself: “I shop for the biggest, shiny-ish, smooth-skinned limes possible. They have thin skins and the most juice. My husband doesn’t have much hair on his head so we joke that the best limes are bald looking ones!” News you can use.