Eating cookie dough is a time-honored tradition, but this treat of a recipe addresses the food safety concerns by skipping the raw egg and heating the flour with hot butter to form a roux.

This moist loaf, made with olive oil and yogurt, is less sweet and more complexly flavored than most zucchini breads. Grated lemon zest gives a gentle brightness, while brown sugar adds a caramel sweetness, and cinnamon makes it spicy and rich.

The ever-so-popular pair, broccoli and salmon, shine again in this warm salad that actually feels like a real meal. Both are seasoned with miso and soy then roasted until the broccoli is charred and the salmon just cooked through.

With crisp noodles and vegetables coated in a tangy dressing, this salad is reminiscent of the ubiquitous Chinese chicken salad, which isn’t actually Chinese in origin. Stripped of the chicken and given a more accurate name, this vegan take is a fresh salad with lots of textures and no active cooking.

This versatile salad sings with bright zesty ginger and lemon and is fantastic warm, cold or in between. Blanched broccoli florets are tossed in the vibrant dressing while warm, which helps the vegetable soak up all of the dressing’s tangy flavor.

This mainstay of the cha chaan teng, or Hong Kong-style diner, transforms the humble peanut butter sandwich into something decadent thanks to a custardy golden-brown exterior that gives way to a warm, creamy filling. Typically deep-fried, this version uses a shallow-fry method for a treat that is easy to achieve at home.

The perfect pancakes have crisp edges, fluffy centers and are easy enough to cook when you’re not fully caffeinated. This recipe hits all the right notes and features buttermilk for tang, a combination of baking soda and powder for lightness and a touch of honey or sugar for gentle sweetness and color.

Mojo is an enchantingly simple, intensely flavorful Cuban marinade, traditionally made with sour oranges, lots of garlic and oregano. Sour oranges are hard to find in many parts of the US, but a punchy mix of lime, orange and lemon is a great substitute.

Vibrant with the sharp creaminess of tzatziki, the Greek yogurt dip, this dish embodies the cool, easy eating of the warmer months. Crisp cucumbers and hearty chickpeas are dressed with a lemony and garlicky Greek yogurt mixture.

You’ll use up a full container of cottage cheese, along with a generous helping of high-fiber rolled oats, to make these gluten-free protein-rich pancakes. The batter comes together in a high-speed blender or a food processor, which pulverizes the oats and breaks up the cottage cheese curds.

As with coleslaw, there are two schools of potato salad: the mayonnaise-based and the vinegar-based. This recipe plants itself firmly in the latter camp with bright, punchy flavors.

In this quick dinner, chicken thighs are pressed while they cook, ensuring even contact with the hot pan to encourage a crispy, golden crust. To take advantage of the browned bits left behind, a splash of hot sauce and water (or stock!

This ultrasimple bean soup has been on the menu at the U.S.

Not to be confused with tasting like an actual burger, this soup is actually named after ground beef, which is sometimes referred to as “hamburger” in certain parts of the United States. Here, it’s combined with any mix of vegetables you like or have on hand, making it an ideal one-pot meal to use up odds and ends from both your crisper and freezer.

The magic of pork laab (also known as moo larb or laap) lies in the simple yet strikingly effective combo of fresh herbs and toasted rice to season this ground meat salad. Cilantro, scallions and mint balance the richness of the meat, while the nutty flavor of the ground rice — an essential component of laab — complements the zingy lime juice.

Smoked paprika is the secret weapon in this simple barbecue sauce, which goes beautifully with pork and chicken. If you’re painting the sauce onto cooking meat, thin it out with water to about a one-to-one ratio, which will keep the sugars from burning too quickly over the fire.

This hands-off path to pulled chicken results in a juicy, saucy tangle of meat for a crowd. The combination of boneless chicken thighs and breasts creates a mix of feathery and hearty shreds, while cooking the meat slowly in barbecue sauce ensures it won’t dry out.

Bright with lemon and herbs, and packed with hearty greens, this highly adaptable soup can be either light and brothy or thick and stewlike, depending on your preference. Smashing some of the beans to release their starch will give you a thicker soup that’s almost worthy of a fork.

This is the kind of substantial salad that’s nice to have on hand, no matter the occasion. If you have time, it’s best made with large dried white beans, such as cannellini, simmered at home.

Sweet, fruity jarred roasted peppers power this hearty cannellini bean salad that comes together with almost no preparation. Like many jarred vegetables, store-bought roasted peppers are a timesaver without any sacrifice in flavor; opt for fire-roasted ones, if available, for smokier notes.

You can use any kind or combination of canned beans to make this classic picnic salad, but a mix of white beans, chickpeas and red kidney beans makes it especially colorful. Although this is delicious when freshly made, it gets even better as it sits.

This hearty, no-cook salad has a range of textures and flavors that make it particularly satisfying, all without much effort from the cook. The canned white beans are dressed in a bracing red wine vinaigrette that enlivens their soft earthiness with a welcome tang.

Like so many bean salads, this one is delicious the day it's made, but gets even better as it sits. You can marinate the beans in the dressing ahead of time, and they’ll soak it up and become more flavorful in the fridge.

This superquick corn and black bean salad is enlivened with crackly corn chips, in the spirit of salads like fattoush, panzanella and crispy noodle salad. When corn is at its peak, its subtly sweet raw kernels are plump and juicy, and the perfect addition to salads.

This cozy yet reviving rice bowl pairs Thai red curry-stained rice with tender chicken and a citrusy slaw. To fire up the red curry paste, toast it with the raw rice before adding broth.

This chilled soup couldn’t be easier to make, packing a lot of flavor into a quick dish of just a few ingredients. Fresh, green and somewhat tart, it’s quite refreshing on a warm day.

This chickpea salad, adapted from my cookbook “Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor” (Knopf, 2025), mirrors the humble ingredients but standout flavors of harira, a North African soup that is steeped in tradition. Like the hearty tomato and legume soup it derives from, this salad is made from simple ingredients but achieves great depth of flavor by roasting the onions, celery and tomatoes with spices.

The plantain's boat-like shape makes it an incredible vessel for any manner of filling, from ground meat and chicken to seafood or vegetables. Here, oven-steamed plantain canoes are generously stuffed with a variety of mushrooms sautéed in a sofrito with sprinkles of coriander, cumin and smoked paprika.

These garlicky, buttery noodles are perfect for when you need a stellar pantry meal lickety-split. A packet of fresh or even instant ramen speeds up the meal prep and is ideal when cooking for one (see Tip).

Canned chickpeas and tuna are at the core of this hearty salad that is perfect for when you need a low-effort yet delicious lunch. This pantry-friendly salad also features refreshing cucumber paired with aromatic dill and ground za’atar, and is rounded out with bright notes of lemon and briny Kalamata olives.