East Asian

Never cooked cucumbers before? This recipe should convince you to give the method a try, especially when they’re quickly tossed in a hot pan and kept crisp, as they are here.

You’ll get all the traditional flavors of the classic takeout dish by using a marinade made up of oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, and soy sauce, but the steak and broccoli are grilled for a fresh summertime variation.

The origins of this recipe are incredibly simple—leftover rice with hot water, broth, or tea poured over. We started there, then kept going. All of the finishing touches (ginger, furikake, and nori) make this feel less like a snack and more like a balanced dish.

No tough strips of dry meat here.

If you have a wok, gold star goes to you! Use it!

Shaoxing wine, a Chinese fermented rice wine, is the secret sauce that makes this recipe sing.

A pork cutlet (katsu) is a perfect pairing, but you can substitute chicken instead.

Nutty, buckwheat-based soba noodles add some heft to the classic miso broth.

The best, easiest miso soup ever.

If gochujang hasn’t made it to your pantry yet, you can use any miso.

A restorative, Japanese-inspired chicken soup with only 10 ingredients.

Searing the cauliflower in this recipe before marinating softens the cauliflower, which opens up the florets and creates more surface area for the marinade to stick to. If you marinate it raw, it will burn before becoming tender.

Kabocha squash is a tempura classic, but acorn squash works well too. The honey and crushed red pepper flakes, albeit untraditional, add a spicy-sweet dimension to the dish. 

Spicy, mouth-tingling, porky: Those are the words you’ll be using to describe this tofu recipe.

Not ready to commit to a special dolsot bowl? Toast the cooked rice mixture in a generous splash of vegetable oil in a large skillet until a crunchy layer forms, 10–15 minutes, then pile on the ingredients as described.