Simple Cooking

This vegan pecan pie is flavored with coconut oil, maple syrup, and almond milk, while tapioca flour takes on the role of thickener, replacing eggs.

Bright, peppery turmeric and a smoky cumin salt on the rim make this vibrant drink perfect for celebrating Diwali. To serve, garnish with fresh mint and a wedge of lime.

Turn soaked sunflower seeds into a creamy dressing for smashed chickpeas with onions, celery, capers, and dill, then stuff into pita pockets for an easy, delicious vegan sandwich.

Stroganoff is endlessly comforting—and this version can be made in under 30 minutes.

Chunky apples, plus onion, thyme, and cider make this comforting dish especially appropriate for the holidays.

Like regular fish sauce, this vegan version packs a subtle umami punch—but a little goes a long way.

Roasted squash and mushrooms are the perfect building blocks for a week's worth of lunches. Here they're used as a taco filling for whole wheat tortillas.

A Korean classic of bouncy noodles, julienned vegetables, and a sweet-and-salty sauce—and this version only takes about 20 minutes.

Don't throw away your watermelon rinds. Turn them into these sweetly sour preserves, which are a perfect accompaniment to roasted meats, cheese plates, and more.

This dish would be just as welcome on the brunch table as on the dinner table, and I wouldn’t fault you for adding a little maple syrup.

Chewy, flaky, rich paratha is always a crowd-pleaser.

The complex flavor of this dish—briny, aromatic, slightly spicy—belies the extraordinarily simple method of actually making it.

There is something really good about crunchy lettuce and a bright shallot dressing filled with the flavor of dried oregano completed by creamy feta.

Smoky, subtly sweet grilled broccoli feels luxurious served on a bed of creamy egg salad, turning this dish into a satisfying, comforting main meal.

Layers of nutty pistachio ice cream and bright jam-flavored whipped cream make for a lovely pastel duo in this riff on a classic summer dessert.

A few tweaks to the standard icebox cake formula make this version stand out: jam (in this case, peach) folded into half of the whipped cream for a fruity element, Ritz crackers that go delightfully soft in the freezer but still make a case for belonging in dessert with their salty, buttery flavor, and a layer of butter pecan ice cream right through the middle.

These pickled iceberg leaves are a good reminder that meat isn’t always required to make a sandwich substantial and well-spiced.

Masa is the essence of Mexico. It is the foundation of Mexican cooking. In Oaxaca, a lot of families still make their own nixtamal at home to supply their daily masa consumption. Nixtamal is the process of treating dried corn with an alkaline solution to make it more nutritious. Slaking lime—also known as pickling lime, a naturally occurring mineral compound—has been used for thousands of years for this process. After a night of soaking, the nixtamalized corn is ground and transformed into masa. This technique has been passed from generation to generation, especially in Oaxaca. Every night before my mom goes to bed, she nixtamalizes a batch of corn so she can make fresh masa the next morning. It’s part of her nightly routine.    The trickiest part of making masa might be grinding it, and for that I recommend a tabletop wet stone mill or a hand-cranked wet grinder. I like Premier’s Small Wonder 1.5-liter tabletop wet grinder.    Believe me, there is nothing more fulfilling than making your own masa at home.

Though the amount of salt may seem excessive, a lot of the salt will be lost when the mixture is steamed inside the tamal wrapping. You can reduce the amount somewhat, but remember that the particular flavor of masa in tamales is complemented by salt.