Layered pastas, hand-rolled dumplings, your own smoked salmon: these are the kinds of projects you take on when you have a bit of extra time on your hands.
Reliable cabbage is cooked in the punchy sauce and then combined with store-bought baked tofu and roasted cashews for a salad that can also be eaten with rice.
The tofu is crunchy on the outside, in part thanks to a panko-studded exterior, and squishy-in-a-good-way on the inside. It also comes together in 20 minutes.
Cool off with this easy zaru soba recipe: a Japanese dish of chewy buckwheat noodles served with chilled mentsuyu dipping sauce, daikon, nori, and scallions.
Cabbage is the unsung hero of the winter kitchen—available anywhere, long-lasting in the fridge, and super-affordable. It’s also an excellent partner for pasta.
Oyster mushrooms are a strong all-rounder in the kitchen, seeming to straddle both plant and meat worlds in what they look and taste like when cooked. Here they’re coated in a marinade my mother used to use when cooking Chinese food at home—honey, soy, garlic and ginger—and roasted until golden, crisp, and juicy.