5 Ingredients or Fewer
26 recipes
Tortilla Espanola
The Spanish potato omelette: potatoes and onion poached soft in olive oil, drained, then bound in beaten egg and set in a skillet into a thick round with a barely creamy center.
Tamagoyaki Rolled Omelette
Seasoned egg cooked in thin layers and rolled onto itself into a striped, faintly sweet log. Sliced crosswise, it works for breakfast or a lunchbox.
Sunomono Cucumber Salad
Paper-thin cucumber salted and wrung dry, then dressed in sweetened rice vinegar. The squeeze is what makes it: the slices stay crisp instead of turning watery in the bowl.
Stovetop Kettle Corn
Popcorn popped in oil with sugar stirred in at the moment the kernels go, so it caramelizes into a thin sweet-salty shell instead of scorching in the pot.
Smashed Cucumber Salad
Cucumbers bruised open with the flat of a knife so their ragged edges hold a dressing of Chinkiang black vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and toasted sesame oil. Salting first keeps it from going watery.
Sinangag Garlic Fried Rice
Filipino breakfast fried rice built on day-old grains and a lot of garlic, half of it fried crisp for the top. Salty, toasty, and dry enough that every grain stays separate.
Sheet Pan Sausage and Peppers
Italian sausage links roasted over bell peppers and onion until the skins split and the vegetables collapse into the pan juices. Five ingredients and one pan to wash.
Sambal Oelek
The plain Indonesian chile paste: fresh red chiles ground coarse with salt, sharpened with a little vinegar. No garlic, no shallot, just heat and fruit.
Salsa Verde
Tomatillos, serranos, onion and garlic charred over live fire until blistered, then blended coarse with cilantro. Tart, smoky and loose enough to spoon over tacos.
Roasted Broccolini with Chile and Lemon
Broccolini roasted on a preheated sheet pan until the stems are tender and the leafy tips char, then finished off the heat with chile flake and lemon zest and juice.
Pimento Cheese Dip
The Southern spread: sharp cheddar grated by hand so it stays in strands, bound with mayonnaise and pimentos and seasoned with mustard and cayenne. Ready in the time it takes to grate the cheese.
Overnight Oats with Berries
Rolled oats and chia seeds soaked cold in almond milk until they thicken to a soft pudding, then topped with fresh berries. Ten minutes of work the night before, no cooking.
Orange and Olive Salad
A Moroccan first-course salad of cold orange rounds with salty oil-cured olives and sharp raw onion, dressed with cumin and cinnamon. It comes together in one bowl and no heat.
Miso Soup with Tofu
Kombu dashi loosened with barley miso off the heat, with silken tofu and wakame. The two rules that decide it: pull the kombu before it boils, and never boil the soup once the miso is in.
Mango Lassi
Ripe mango blended with whole-milk yogurt, a little sugar and cardamom into a thick pourable drink. The mango does most of the sweetening, so use fruit that is soft and fragrant.
Jicama and Citrus Salad
Cold jicama batons and orange rounds under lime juice, ground chile, and salt. The jicama stays snappy and faintly sweet, which is the whole point of serving it raw.
Haydari Yogurt Dip
A thick Turkish meze of strained yogurt whipped with raw garlic, dill and mint, finished with a spoonful of warm chile butter poured over the top.
Greek Yogurt with Honey and Walnuts
Thick strained yogurt under toasted walnuts and a spoonful of honey. Four ingredients, no cooking, and the contrast between cold tart yogurt and warm honey is the whole point.
Goma-ae Sesame Spinach
Blanched spinach squeezed dry and dressed with toasted sesame seeds ground to a coarse paste with soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Nutty and lightly sweet, served at room temperature in small portions.
Gambas al Ajillo
Shrimp cooked fast in olive oil infused with sliced garlic and dried chile, then deglazed with dry sherry. The oil doubles as the sauce, so serve it with bread or rice to catch it.
Fried Sweet Plantains
Blackened-ripe plantains cut on a long bias and shallow-fried until the sugars caramelize into dark lacy edges around a custardy center. Salt and cayenne go on while they are still hot.
French Baguette
Flour, water, salt and a pinch of yeast fermented overnight, then shaped, slashed and baked with steam. The long rise is what gives the open crumb and blistered crust.
Chile Lime Pepitas
Hulled pumpkin seeds toasted in a skillet until they puff and pop, then tossed off the heat with lime juice, ancho chile and salt so the seasoning dries onto them.
Caprese Panini
Fresh mozzarella, ripe tomato and basil pressed between oiled slices of ciabatta until the crust is ridged and the cheese just slumps. Salting the tomato first keeps the bread from going soggy.