Easy

Make soft, creamy steel-cut oats in under 20 minutes.

The fastest, most refreshing ice cream trick we know.

Just 3 ingredients!

This breakfast casserole was made for summer.

Just saying.

For whenever a craving strikes.

Baguette layered with thinly sliced ham, Gruyère cheese, and cornichons — très délicieux!

If you’re looking for a quick, cheap lunch and want new ways to fancy-up canned tuna, this recipe is for you! Tuna is tossed with an orange-ginger dressing, creamy avocado and served with rice and vegetables. It’s a simple yet satisfying budget recipe that makes for a great lunch. When I look at a can of tuna, it saddens me that such a convenient and tasty (in my opinion!) food is just so…unattractive, especially when compared to fresh tuna steak.

Everything is done in the same skillet in this recipe — easy cooking and easy cleanup.

Fast, flavorful, and super easy.

Make it once and eat all week.

All the smart home cooks are doing it.

It's all wrapped up in an easy Dijon vinaigrette.

The result is easy, lightened-up, and still oh-so-crunchy.

This recipe takes less than five minutes to pull together and then rewards you with a delicious, healthy dinner at the end of the day.

This fabulous egg bake starts with those convenient pre-cut veggies from the produce section.

A simple sauce is the best thing you can do for your meal.

Raise you hand if you agree that every night should be pasta night.

The rice-like pasta is a weeknight superhero.

It will get to the table faster, too.

Let’s talk about holiday appetizers and cocktail party snacks. Everyone needs just one or two really reliable crowd-pleasers around the holidays, no? It’s a relief for a cook to set out a plate of tasty bites while he puts the finishing touches on a meal. And in the spirit of giving, let me offer you the prettiest, easiest, and most lusciously decadent appetizer I know: baked brie in sweet cranberry sauce. I mean, hello.

A pan sauce feels like something you read on a menu, doesn’t it? A bit of fancy chef magic that should only be attempted by trained professionals. But here’s the real secret: pan sauces are so incredibly simple. And fast. In the time it takes your steak or pork chop to rest, you can turn those pan drippings into a fantastic sauce, no culinary school degree required. Liquid, in a combination of wine or stock, is used to deglaze the pan and a little butter is added to make things rich.

Big-batch sangria that won't break your budget.

Teff is a gluten-free whole grain that’s starting to get more attention these days. And for good reason: these tiny grains pack a big nutritional punch since they’re made up primarily of the bran and germ, where all the good-for-you stuff is. Making teff porridge is easy. Before cooking, first toast the teff for two minutes in a pan, then transfer in a saucepan and bring to a boil for 15 to 20 minutes.

Memorize this recipe and ditch delivery.

Poppy seed dressing has a balance of sweet and tangy that I find completely irresistible. The ingredients are easy-to-find; you need white wine vinegar, sugar, and some finely shredded shallot or onion. It’s great on a spinach and strawberry salad, makes a fun spin in a coleslaw, and also does wonders as a marinade for chicken. It’s the jack-of-all-trades of the salad dressing world. This dressing is also surprisingly easy to make yourself.

You likely have everything you need.

Creamy, tangy, no-cook panna cotta is perfect no matter the season.

With your favorite cut of cured pork, molasses, canned beans, and a secret ingredient, you can be eating creamy beans suspended in a velvety sauce in just 30 minutes.

I'll never get tired of it.

They're also vegan.

I didn’t grow up eating pickled shrimp, which is surprising considering my mom’s coastal upbringing. Her family spans from the Atlantic beaches of Florida, all the way to the bayous of Louisiana. Seafood made regular appearances at our family gatherings, but usually in the form of spicy Cajun gumbos and jambalayas. It wasn’t until I attended an annual Christmas Day cocktail party a few years back that I discovered the wonder that is Sea Island Shrimp.

It's the high-protein, make-ahead breakfast you need.

You want to keep this list handy from now through the end of winter.

These fajitas have roasted sweet potato slices dusted in cumin and smoked paprika. Stuff them into warm tortillas and drizzle with a tangy yogurt and lime crema.

There is a particular bottled salsa on every table in Costa Rica. It’s called Lizano and the first time you taste it you have to stop and think a minute. Do I like it or not?

The slow cooker does it again!

Say hello to the newest addition to our liquor cabinet! This rather improbable combination of vodka and milk makes a liqueur so smooth and perfectly sweet that you’ll want to sip it straight. To make one, simply mix vodka or grappa with an equal amount of milk and sugar. We love the idea of making our own liqueurs, and we’ve been wanting to try this milk liqueur ever since we saw it in David Leite’s most recent book The New Portuguese Table.

It only takes 10 minutes, and it's the easiest, best way to preserve tomatoes for the cold months ahead.

Quick-cooking shrimp make for easy weeknight meals, plus their mild flavor makes them incredibly versatile so that you don’t ever have to get bored. I always have a few bags in the freezer — I honestly never buy shrimp “fresh,” which are usually just frozen shrimp that have already been thawed. This means I can always whip up some sort of 10-minute meal. They are a great way to get creative in your kitchen.

You'll want to make room at your next potluck or barbecue for this fast side.

Winter's feel-good, caffeine-free nightcap.

I once went to the Caribbean and actually got sick of piña coladas. It happens to the best of us. Midway through the vacation, I asked my bartender to switch it up a bit and it turns out that the same drink made with mango is just as good, if not better. The bartender kept the pineapple slice garnish as a nostalgic nod to our journey together through a week of seaside cocktails. If you don’t want to bother tracking down a ripe mango and slicing it, use frozen mango.

Some soups work well in polite company — a light bisque or a boeuf bourguignon, for instance, are the stars of a dinner party menu. But then there are other soups that are really just for you, just for those days when you need something simple and nourishing without much fuss. That’s this kale and potato soup. It’s humble, unassuming, and best enjoyed alone at the kitchen counter with the last hunk of some sourdough bread.

Imagine all the things you can sprinkle this on!

Sweet, salty, and sour, and perfect with everything you're grilling this summer.

And it comes together with three basic ingredients.

There's a much smarter way to buy it.

Made in a pressure cooker, rice pudding takes about 30 minutes and comes out creamy and perfect each time.

Extra-fluffy with creamy, custard-like middles — ricotta pancakes are something you need to try tout suite! They make an elegant alternative to your usual Saturday morning fare, and are a good excuse for adding ricotta to your shopping list. Most ricotta pancake recipes have you separate the eggs and whip the whites, folding them into the batter at the end.

A refreshing, light slaw fragrant with roasted peanuts you can serve on a weeknight or on a buffet.

All the flavor of hot wings without any of the fuss.

Do you really need a reason to bake a single dark, chocolatey brownie? One that requires only pantry staples and a toaster oven? A brownie that you don’t have to share? Fine, I’ll give you a few — it’s better than a box mix and only takes about 20 minutes total to make, bake, and cool. Brownies are the champions of chocolate cravings, and this one is chewy, chocolatey, and fast. Baking in a toaster oven has a few benefits.

The best jam you can make with just fruit, lemon, and sugar.

If you're on appetizer duty for the Super Bowl party, this is what to make!

You'll have a wholesome meal to reach for all winter long.

The best bacon you'll ever eat is sweet, smoky, and spicy.

Summer — the season of impromptu picnics, backyard get-togethers, and lazy dinners — demands hospitable and casual desserts that come together easily and feed everyone from large to small. This is one of my favorites: A one-bowl butter cake, baked in a pretty dish, and topped with tangy whipped cream and piles of summer fruit. Easy as one-two-three, and beautiful too.

A crock of slow-cooked grits is a dream to wake up to and an easy, no-fuss base for weeknight dinners.

It's a classic frittata meets French onion soup mash-up that is dressed to impress.

At taco trucks, my drink of choice is always jamaica, that bright red brew that is a little tart, a little sweet and totally refreshing on a hot day. Made with dried hibiscus flowers, jamaica is easy enough to make at home, but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered how much tastier — and even simpler! — it can be when you cold-brew it overnight in the refrigerator.

Sausage gravy is one of those dishes that is so basic, you don’t even need a recipe. But it’s also one of those dishes that, in the age of everything being bigger, bolder, and more unique, tends to get lost in the mix. But let’s not let that happen! In this recipe, you only need only a few ingredients – pork sausage, flour, milk, salt, pepper, and hot biscuits – to make Southern sausage gravy.

Stash these in your freezer ASAP.

I love the fall. The weather is getting cooler, my slow cooker happily takes its semi-permanent place on my kitchen counter while my oven always seems to be occupied roasting something. There are a handful of comfort food dishes that I crave in fall, and this Korean Curry Rice is one of them. This mild dish uses beef short ribs, and it is cooked with carrots, potatoes, and serve over white rice. As a kid, I have fond memories of walking into our kitchen and smelling curry simmering on the stove.

It's rich, creamy, and made in a single skillet.

If you're looking for a quick way to preserve a bunch of cherry tomatoes, pickling is a unique way to put them to good use.

When you crave a sweet snack but want to avoid the seduction of a whole cake or a dozen chocolate chip cookies, the one-off mug cake is your best friend. Have you ever made a mug cake? It’s just what it sounds like: a few tablespoons of ingredients whisked up in a mug and baked in the microwave for less time than it takes to make popcorn. Presto: sweet, moist cake. And just one of them.

Mustard works its magic on braised chicken.

Everybody loves creamed spinach, even folks who hate spinach! Here’s a luxurious baked version that I love serving with oven-roasted pork tenderloin, though it pairs just as well with steak, pork chops, or any other protein on your plate. Splurge on a little mid-week comfort food and make this with your dinner tonight! This spinach bake is a cross between creamed spinach and a spinach soufflé, and in my opinion it’s the best of both worlds.

Toss it on a grain bowl, salad, or even over pasta all week long.

The one-pot affair comes together without fuss, when you need it most.

It steals the scene at every party.