You can make this vibrant, near-instant, green soup with ingredients you tend to have on hand—and come out with something intensely flavored that you’ve never tasted before. It's all thanks to the great Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat| New Window author and teacher Samin Nosrat, and a fateful cleanse she embarked on in the desert. “The rules of the cleanse turned everything I’d learned about classical cooking upside down,” Samin wrote for The New York Times Magazine| New Window. “Without potatoes, flour, other starches, or dairy to lean on, I had to look elsewhere to thicken and enrich the soup.” The answer: nutty, smoky tahini.

"If you can’t find milkfish, I think [something] like branzino would be perfect. Any round fish, [like] black bass, is a great substitute."

Obatzda, from Classic German Cooking by Luisa Weiss, is a creamy Bavarian spread made with ripe Camembert, butter, paprika, and shallots. Traditionally served with pretzels, it’s a tangy, savory staple of beer gardens and Oktoberfest tables.

Cookbook author, podcast host, and journal editor Hetty McKinnon thought she'd ruined her hummus after accidentally dumping a whole can of chickpeas, juice and all, into the blender. But she decided to press on—and discovered a luscious, super-smooth texture she’d never seen in hummus before, all without peeling chickpeas or invoking baking soda.

Unlike their more casserole-y cousins, these bright, make-ahead-friendly green beans from Maricel Presilla’s opus Gran Cocina Latina will take 5 minutes in one skillet on the stovetop on Thanksgiving Day (no oven hogging!). Despite their speed, they develop loads of flavor fast, thanks to a quick three-allium sofrito and a surprisingly simple splash of milk to hug the beans at the end. (Bonus: Nondairy milks are very welcome, too.)

Eggplant can be a mystery. Will it brown handsomely or stick to the pan? Will its flesh relax or stay stiff and chewy? Will it be sweet or bitter? Is it a boy or a girl? (This last one is a red herring. See the tip below for what you should really be looking for.)

"Both of my parents are from the Caribbean, so I’ve grown up appreciating the magic that happens when sweet and savory ingredients come together. The combination of smoky mushrooms, sweet pineapple salsa, coconut undertones, and supporting acidic and savory pops of flavor is what makes this bowl so divine. And don’t you dare skip out on the cilantro aioli—it is cooling, creamy, and simply the real deal."

Pastry chef Jami Curl wanted the simplest possible vanilla cake to stir together at home—one that, without a mixer, you could be eating warm from the oven in under an hour. Her latest cookbook Baking Gold has lots of ideas for dolling it up with fruit and glazes and crunchy bits (pictured here: jammy strawberries and butterscotch whipped cream). And in Genius trick news: It keeps well days longer than your average cake—so you can try lots of them. Sprinkle fruit on top or stir it through before baking (Jami loves frozen blueberries, and says blackberries would also be good, but will bring a bit of extra moisture). After baking, top it with anything you’re in the mood for: Buttercream and sprinkles for a birthday cake. Toasted coconut, grated chocolate, spiced nuts. More sour cream, fresh fruit, and a sprinkle of brown sugar. And ice cream would never be a bad alternative (or addition!) to the whipped cream.

On the surface, the Boulevardier appears to be nothing more than a Negroni with the gin swapped for bourbon, and indeed it’s a great gateway cocktail for a bourbon drinker to get into the genre of aperitif-driven cocktails. But rather than the similarities, it’s the differences from the Negroni that make the Boulevardier special. First off, there is a higher proportion of base spirit: Rather than the familiar 1:1:1 Negroni ratio, the Boulevardier uses a 2:1:1 ratio, allowing the richness and natural sweetness of the bourbon to tame the bitterness of campari. Round it out with a substantial vermouth (like Carpano Antica) and there is no denying that the Boulevardier punches above its weight.

Reprinted with permission from Mark Bittman's Dinner for Everyone| New Window. As for riffing, Bittman says, "Try other nuts or seeds—cashews, even coconut or sunflower seeds—in peanut bun; then garnish with whatever bits of cooked vegetables, meat, or fresh herbs you’ve got sitting around."

Excerpted with permission from Dorie Greenspan's Everyday Dorie:

This is the traditional French béchamel sauce used for gratins, soufflés, with eggs, etc. This will give you a creamy medium thick béchamel.

This is a flawless, crisp-chewy, endlessly malleable olive oil cake blueprint you will want to pocket, even without the crazy-sounding addition of olives. But you should really suspend disbelief and give them a try. For more on why, see the original article here| New Window. Variations: 1) Omit the olives, increase the salt to a slightly heaped 1/4 teaspoon, fold 1/2 cup cacao nibs into the batter, and press 1/2-2/3 cup salted, roasted Marcona almonds into the top before baking. 2) Omit the olives, replace the 1/4 cup almond meal with toasted pistachio meal (or ground, toasted unsalted pistachios), add 2 tablespoons shiro miso to the wet ingredients, and press 3/4 cup salted, roasted pistachios into the top before baking.

This vegan potato salad calls for a homemade mayonnaise with an aquafaba base| New Window. It’s an inexpensive alternative to store-bought, dairy-free mayonnaise, and it—along with this salad—is a great use for something that you might otherwise discard after opening a can of chickpeas. The mayonnaise is both lighter and thinner than conventional, store-bought mayonnaise; it gives the potato salad richness without a heavy mouthfeel, and it’s pleasantly tangy as-is—no sour cream needed.

This recipe, for once, doesn’t end with “salt to taste.” In fact, you’ll see the last line specifically says, “No salt or pepper will be needed,” the graceful words of the late Southern cooking champion Edna Lewis. She was of course right, and this simple, immediate Southern side dish needs nothing more than two ingredients: scallions and butter.

If the intimidation of making a soufflé has kept you away, it's time to change that: This recipe is the easiest soufflé you'll meet. This unusual recipe from Jacques Pepin's maman (which just means "mom" in French) is one you might have heard of—it's made the rounds for decades, and its genius is all thanks to a simple miscommunication.