Paleo

One bad hard-boiled egg can ruin you for life. At least, that’s what I believed until I learned how to cook soft-boiled and hard-boiled eggs, and precisely how I wanted to eat them. The perfect hard-boiled egg has no green ring around the yolk and the innards are creamy and mellow (plus easy to peel!). And if you’re in the mood, you can stop short of the hard-boil and make a gooey soft-boiled egg instead.

Homemade spice mixes can even the speediest meals taste better. To make your own chili seasoning, you only need five ingredients — and at least half of them are probably in your spice cabinet already. Homemade chili seasoning makes a near perfect pot of Classic Beef Chili, but can just as readily spice up a pot of Instant Pot black beans or a pan of roasted sweet potatoes. Here’s what you need to make chili seasoning at home.

Ready in minutes.

It's impossible to mess this up.

This foolproof technique delivers a perfect medium-cooked fillet that's tender and flaky with deliciously crispy pan-seared skin.

Pan-seared chicken breast for a gold chicken dinner.

A zesty, vibrant herb-packed sauce for everything from meat to potatoes.

Set it and forget it.

What if I told you that I could guarantee perfectly cooked, perfectly tender pork chops, every time?

For when you're bored of chicken (and pork chops).

Once you learn how easy it is to make, you may never return to the store-bought stuff again.

Memorize this surprising yet super-simple technique and you'll forever be rewarded with the crispiest skin and juiciest meat.

A wholesome take on the classic Chinese appetizer that you can eat for dinner.

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

There may be a million ways to roast a chicken, but there is one in particular that truly stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Zuni chicken. This method was originally developed by Judy Rodgers for her San Francisco restaurant The Zuni Cafe, but it has since traveled far beyond that kitchen. It involves salting the chicken days ahead and flipping it a few times during roasting, but the extra TLC is worth it. Simply put, this makes one of the best roast chickens ever.

Because despite the restrictions, there are still so many delicious things to eat.

Yes, you can make bone broth without beef — here's how to do it.

A whole chicken is key in the slow cooker classic chicken soup.

It can replace couscous or rice in any dish.

Just add a loaf of bread, a salad, and a bottle of wine!

A rich winter meal, too, easy and forgiving to cook under their sleek caps of fat, melting into tender chunks of pull-apart beef in the oven.

Yes, you can cook salmon in the slow cooker — and you should!

Clear out the crisper! With this formula, you can turn any number of vegetables into soup.

This old-fashioned pot roast, cooked quietly in the slow cooker all day with a mess of caramelized onions, makes a rich broth and meat that melts in your mouth.

Bone broth and the Instant Pot were meant to be!

Shredded meat — beef, pork, or chicken — is one of the most versatile dinner elements you can imagine! Cook up a few pounds to stash in the freezer, then dole it out for weeknight meals all month long. Or make a huge batch and feed a whole crowd of people in one go. Today, let’s talk chicken: Simple, inexpensive, and relatively quick, chicken has some advantages over the heavier beef and pork.

You're just 3 ingredients away from the ultimate spring side dish.

This simple chicken recipe is, far and away, the easiest way to cook our favorite poultry that I know. You hardly need a recipe: just toss a mix of chicken breasts, thighs, and drumsticks with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then roast for about a half an hour. No flipping, no fussing, no nothing — and you can pile everything on a serving tray without the bother of pulling out the carving board. So smart. This is the kind of recipe that belongs in your core arsenal as a home cook.

Salmon is one of the most versatile proteins to work with in the kitchen. It’s delicious and universally loved, quite good for you, and very easy to prepare. Salmon still retains its fancy and festive reputation, even though it is more readily available these days and can be purchased at a decent price point from most grocery stores. My favorite way to cook salmon is in the oven, very low and slow, with a pan of water for moist heat.

Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo shares recipes for sheet pan pineapple chicken, chicken and spinach velvet soup, an Italian-inspired chicken bake, and more.

This dinner is easy to prepare, and cleanup is a snap too.

The prep and cleanup are so easy!

They're loaded with avocado, bacon, and more, and served on lettuce leaves.

This soup is pure comfort.

You only need one pan to make this hearty and delicious dish.

Simple and delicious for those nights when you need something easy.

This vegan sweet potato chowder delivers everything you want in a warm fall soup. It has a velvety broth laced with seasonal spices, like sage and paprika, and chunks of tender root vegetables. It’s delicious the day you make it, but like most soups, it’s even better the next day. So make a big batch of this plant-based chowder and enjoy it all week long. We’re calling this soup a chowder, given the fact that potatoes are the key to both its velvety base and its hearty texture.

It's on the table in less than 30 minutes.

A one-skillet meal that's sure to be added to the weeknight rotation.

I don’t think the call of creamy, savory soup changes when you decide to change your diet. In my own personal experience, trying a Whole30 or eating a Paleo diet actually increases cravings for nourishing comfort foods like soup. This creamy coconut cauliflower soup hits all the high points of a warm, rich soup — smooth, a little nutty, perfectly spiced, all while being compliant with Whole30 and a Paleo diet.

If I’m completely honest, I have a really hard time getting behind the idea of green smoothies. Maybe it was the summer I spent blending smoothies at Jamba Juice. I love a smoothie, but I want it to hide the kale and spinach, not put it front and center. Green soup, though — especially this fresh take on broccoli soup scented with ginger — is a green sip I can get behind.

This easy dish is on the short list for weeknight meals that hit all my criteria: fast, healthy, filling, and killer good. Simply seasoned, the salmon is pan fried until the exterior is super crispy while the interior remains buttery soft. Its simplicity lends it to pairing with any number of sides, although I’m partial to serving it with a carb and something green; for example, whipped sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Cauliflower fried rice that tastes just like the real stuff.

Chile verde is more than a simple stew. Pork shoulder is rendered into supple, tender meat after a slow simmer in a sauce of roasted tomatillos, peppers, cilantro, and oregano. The resulting meat and sauce can be poured over rice or tucked into a tortilla. While the salsa verde requires a little prep work up front, the rest of the cooking is hands-off, thanks to the trusty slow cooker. This is a perfect dish to perfume your house when the weather gets crisp this fall.

Whether you call it Paleo chili or meat-lover’s chili, the most important thing to know about this chili is that it is downright delicious. Buried in the rich broth tinged with warm spices and cocoa undertones, you’ll find a double dose of beef in the form of seared cubes of chuck with crumbled ground beef. This version skips the beans altogether, but gets its bulk and an extra-hearty texture from a slew of thick-cut root vegetables, like sweet potatoes and carrots.

Our new favorite way to eat summer's best sandwich.

This is your key to a quick and easy 30-minute dinner.

The return of fresh asparagus to the farmers market is my favorite sign that spring has sprung. That moment will be here before we know it, so it’s time to start thinking about how you want to cook it once you get your hands on those gorgeous green stalks. The beauty of asparagus is that it lends itself to a lot of different cooking methods, and we’re laying out all them in one handy spot. Consider this your asparagus cheat sheet to get you through spring.

While I don’t follow a Paleo diet, I do believe in filling my life with delicious, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies as often as possible. These cookies are soft and chewy, with just a touch of firmness around the edges, and have a very generous helping of melty chocolate bits. Basically they’re everything you’d want from a classic chocolate chip cookie. And if they happen to skip the grains, refined sugar, and dairy, well that is just fine by me.

Want to make your mornings a whole lot easier? Of course you do. Well, a batch of easy egg muffins is the answer. Loaded with savory breakfast sausage, earthy mushrooms, and spinach, these make-ahead muffins are for people who love eggs and crave a satisfying breakfast that will get them through the morning. They’re also great for anyone in need of a one-handed morning meal they can eat on the go, or dig into when they get to their desk.

I admit that I don’t subscribe to any particular diet — not Paleo, not keto, and I’m not even doing a Whole30 this year. However, I’m always looking to lower the amount of refined flour and refined sugar that my family eats every week because for us, moderation is the key to sustaining a healthy diet. Now, I’m not going to try and sell you on any health benefits from a brownie because these brownies are just damn delicious.

Sounds crazy, but it really works.