Browse recipes

Soda chanh: lime juice and sugar syrup in a tall glass, topped with soda water and stirred at the table. Three ingredients, correctly assembled.

Bruised lemongrass and ginger simmered into a fragrant, faintly citrus syrup, then chilled and lengthened with lime. Clean and grassy rather than sweet.

Split mung beans simmered soft, then finished with coconut milk and a little sugar until the whole pot turns creamy. A sweet, gentle breakfast eaten across Southeast Asia, warm or at room temperature.

Marinated tempeh grilled until the edges blacken, served with a thick peanut sauce for dipping. Nutty, smoky and very high in protein.

A no-cook peanut, lime and soy sauce whisked in the bowl, tossed through noodles with cold cucumber ribbons. Fifteen minutes, and better slightly under-dressed than over.

Shan tofu: chickpea flour whisked into water, cooked until it thickens like polenta, then poured out to set into a silken, faintly yellow block. No soy, no coagulant, no pressing. Sliced and dressed, it is nothing like the tofu you know.

Rice noodles tossed in a sweet-sour-salty tamarind sauce with crisp tofu, beansprouts and a heap of crushed peanuts. Everything happens in about four minutes, so get organized first.

Cool rice noodles under a pile of herbs, raw vegetables and crisp tofu, with a sharp lime-and-chili dressing poured over just before eating. A hot-weather dinner that never feels heavy.

Salty, sour, sweet and hot in roughly equal measure, loosened to a pourable cream. It takes five minutes and improves almost anything it lands on.

Warm coconut-sweetened glutinous rice with cold ripe mango and a salty coconut sauce poured over. The salt is what makes it.

A fragrant, coconut-rich curry that comes together in the time it takes to cook rice. Sweet, salty, sour and hot, all balanced in one pan.

Green curry paste fried in thick coconut cream until it splits and turns fragrant, then loosened into a fresh, hot, herby curry with eggplant, beans and tofu.

Bananas simmered in coconut milk with palm sugar and pandan until the syrup goes thick and caramel-brown. A bowlful of warm comfort.

A cold-noodle bowl built for lunch: crisp lemongrass tofu, rice noodles, herbs and a sharp lime dressing. Assembles from the fridge in minutes once the tofu is done.

A clear, aromatic broth built by charring onion and ginger and steeping it with star anise and cinnamon, poured over rice noodles and tofu with a plate of herbs to add at the table.

A composed salad of blanched vegetables, potato, fried tofu and tempeh under a thick, sweet-savory peanut sauce. Substantial enough to be dinner.