October 2022

For a vegetarian stew that was so flavorful and substantial even carnivores would be satisfied, we began with sweet, nutty farro and added mushrooms for meaty depth and butternut squash for substance. To start, we microwaved the mushrooms and aromatics with just a teaspoon of oil until the mushrooms softened, released some of their moisture, and were flavored by the aromatics. Vegetable broth worked well for the cooking liquid and provided a subtly sweet backbone. To give it a boost, we stirred in some white wine, which contributed complexity and brightness to our hearty stew.

Drizzling a mild, white fish with a caper-spiked browned butter is classic for a reason. The butter adds richness to the lean fish, and the tanginess of capers and lemon perks up any mellowness. In this version, adapted from the chef Danielle Alvarez’s cookbook “Always Add Lemon” (Hardie Grant, 2020), nori oil adds another layer of umami flavor. It’s both bright and deep, with a silky texture that’s easy to achieve. Serve it with rice or bread to mop up all the saline, buttery juices.—Melissa Clark

Gochugaru, a mild, fragrant red-pepper powder, bedazzles this quick salmon dinner. As a key ingredient in Korean home cooking, gochugaru proves that some chiles provide not only heat but fruity sweetness as well. Here, that’s especially true once it’s bloomed in maple syrup, vinegar and butter. If you like shiny things, you may find great pleasure in watching this pan sauce transform into a mirrored, crimson glaze. Try to get long center-cut salmon fillets for uniform thickness and even cooking. Their crispy skin tastes wonderful with white rice, which toasts in the rendered salmon fat.

This recipe is a promise of warmth on those cool autumn nights. Habanero chiles and peanuts both feature heavily in Nigerian cuisine, and this soup is an adaptation of a long-simmered stew common to much of West Africa. Don’t be afraid of a chile with seeds: The fragrant oils from these peppers are worth every bite. The peanut butter and coconut milk mellow the warmth of the chile to a gentle, lingering heat, but you can also take the chile out before the soup is puréed.

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor’s 1970 cookbook, “Vibration Cooking, or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl,” combined memoir and recipes in a new way, and introduced many readers to a brilliant new voice in American food culture. This onion-pie recipe is like many of her recipes, simple and deeply satisfying home cooking rooted in the South, but with a truly global point of view. If you want, you can toss a handful of cooked ham or grated cheese or fresh chopped herbs into the mix before putting it in the oven.

Chicken adobo, the national dish of the Philippines, is made by braising chicken in a salty, sour and sweet mixture of mostly soy sauce and vinegar. In this vegetarian version, cauliflower, rather than chicken, is caramelized on one side, then simmered in the pungent but not prickly sauce until toothsome yet tender. The simmer mellows the vinegar and soy sauce into a sauce interlaced with pepper, garlic and something herbal but not immediately traceable — that’s the bay leaves. Serve the cauliflower and sauce over rice or another grain with something green on the side.

Carrots work beautifully in this simple tart, but onions, parsnips, beets, zucchini or pumpkin work just as well. The key is to cook the vegetables before putting them on the tart, since the moisture released by baking raw vegetables would make the puff pastry soggy and prevent it from rising. Once you remove the tart from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes before cutting to allow the cheese to firm up slightly. The tart can be served warm, or cooled to room temperature, and would make a great addition to a picnic.

This smart weeknight dinner offers all the comforting flavors of a classic Parmigiana, but with minimal work. Earthy portobello mushrooms are used here, offering a perfect cradle for the red sauce and creamy mozzarella. Use good quality store-bought marinara sauce (vodka, arrabiata or amatriciana), a much-underrated pantry item that can turn around a meal quickly. This flexible recipe can be scaled up or down without too much fuss. It accounts for two portobello mushrooms per person, but if you’re serving them with pasta or a salad, you could reduce to one each.

Kwanzaa gatherings continue to go strong in community centers and at home in dining rooms, as they have since 1966. The seven-day holiday of self-reflection, often an extension of Christmas or the winter solstice, culminates with the karamu, or feast. The spread leans heavily vegetarian. In Atlanta, Folami Prescott-Adams dries, seasons, fries and broils pounds of tofu. Store-bought, tomato-based barbecue sauce provides the comfort factor. She is a 40-year veteran of Kwanzaa and maintains a spreadsheet of potluck logistics for her family and guests. Alongside this vegetarian barbecue, Dr.

To make crispy, flavorful tofu without having to press it first, use this smart method from Andrea Nguyen, the author of “Asian Tofu” (Ten Speed Press, 2012) and other cookbooks: Warm the tofu in a pan with a small amount of flavorful sauce. As it cooks, it will dry out and absorb the flavors of the sauce. Next, you add oil to the pan, which crisps the tofu. In Ms. Nguyen’s recipe, soy sauce is used, but here, the aromatics in Thai green curry paste and the sugars in coconut milk toast and caramelize on the tofu.