A platter of ribs covered with Texas-style barbecue sauce, and a glass of extra sauce on the side.
Aimee Buxton
1 of 16

Texas-Style Barbecue Sauce

We’ve spent years testing Texas Style barbecue sauces, and this tomato-based version is our favorite by far. We keep the spices mild, but the depth of flavor is no less intense.
Homemade hummus sprinkled with paprika and drizzled with oil swirled on a grey plate.
Quentin Bacon
2 of 16

Homemade Hummus

This homemade hummus is easy to make, creamy, and exceptionally versatile. Chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and cumin. Need we say more?
A cast-iron skillet filled with chilaquiles on a wooden cutting board with a block of queso fresco and half a jalapeno beside it.
Christopher Hirsheimer
3 of 16

Chilaquiles

These chilaquiles are a quick, authentic, and very satisfying Mexican breakfast, made with day-old tortillas, eggs, and cheese.
A pot roast with potatoes and vegetables on a decorative platter with a serving fork on the platter and a napkin on the side.
Sara Remington
4 of 16

Easy Pot Roast, Potatoes, and Vegetables

This easy pot roast with potatoes and vegetables is quick to assemble and then made in the slow cooker or crock pot or simply slid into the oven. A simple classic with beef, carrots, potatoes, and red wine. Perhaps our best—and most comforting—Sunday supper.
A white bowl filled with slow cooker split pea soup on a napkin.
Ryan Szulc
5 of 16

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

Slow cooker split pea soup with ham is traditional winter comfort food made easy. Just toss everything in a Crock pot and walk away. You’re welcome.
A bowl of Cuban black bean soup with a wooden ladle next to a yellow plate filled with white rice.
Gentl & Hyers
6 of 16

Cuban Black Bean Soup

This Cuban black bean soup is made from scratch from dried black beans, peppers, onion, garlic, cumin, and vinegar. lt’s cheap, simple, and vegetarian.
Roasted red cabbage on a cooling rack set in a baking sheet.
Ed Anderson
7 of 16

Roasted Red Cabbage

Roasted red cabbage (actually, some would argue it looks more like PURPLE cabbage) is so incredibly easy—and surprisingly satisfying—to make in the oven. Simply toss with oil and cook.
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with potato chips with one bite gone and some chips scattered around it.
Robin Roemer
8 of 16

Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Potato Chip Sandwich

This peanut butter and jelly sandwich with potato chips is less of a recipe and more of us giving you permission to make something that’s already indulgent and satisfying even more so.
Two people reaching for traditional molletes on a platter with a bowl of salsa in the middle.
Todd Coleman
9 of 16

Traditional Molletes

This molletes is really more something you commit to memory than it is a recipe. It’s just refried beans on toast smothered with cheese and broiled until bubbly. Essentially Mexican grilled cheese.
Old frying pan with two leftover mashed potato cakes being turned by a spatula.
Jody Horton
10 of 16

Leftover Mashed Potato Cakes

Leftover mashed potato cakes are the answer to Post-Thanksgiving food glut in the fridge. Leftover mashed potatoes are formed into pucks, floured, dipped in egg, and coated with panko breadcrumbs. They’re then pan-fried to crisp, golden perfection.
Two stacks of cornmeal griddle cakes on a patterned plate.
Ellen Silverman
11 of 16

Cornmeal Griddle Cakes

These cornmeal griddle cakes are a simple Southern staple, made with a handful of inexpensive pantry ingredients including cornmeal, baking powder, salt, egg, and water. Entirely gluten-free and amazing at breakfast and beyond. Here’s how to make them.
A baking sheet lined with parchment and covered with easy roasted carrots and onions with burnt edges.
Carl Tremblay
12 of 16

Easy Roasted Carrots

These easy roasted carrots boast four ingredients–carrots, butter, salt, and pepper–and one simple and perfect technique for roasting them to magnificence, bringing out their earthy sweetness.
A thin circle of stretched pizza dough being tossed in the air.
Squire Fox
13 of 16

Jim Lahey’s Pizza Dough

Jim Lahey’s pizza dough allows you to create the sort of quality pizza crust at home that you’ve only ever experienced at the best of Italian bakeries and pizzerias. And it’s easier than you’d expect.
The ingredients for vegetable broth, including carrots, celery, bay leaves, and onions, in an enamel pot.
Erin Scott
14 of 16

Vegetable Broth

Vegetable broth is easily made with vegetable scraps collected throughout the week. It's an economical and easy way to make sure you always have vegetarian stock in the freezer.
Many prepared potato gnocchi on a floured kitchen towel, with a mound of gnocchi dough in the background.
Edward Park
15 of 16

Homemade Potato Gnocchi

These homemade potato gnocchi are the best version of this Italian classic we've ever had. They're made with russet potatoes, flour, egg, and salt and are like little pillows of potato heaven. Four ingredients. Ridiculously easy. Wonderfully inexpensive.
Five teaspoons, each topped with a swirl of homemade peanut butter.
Hilary McMullen
16 of 16

How to Make Homemade Peanut Butter

Make your own homemade peanut butter thanks to this nifty, easy technique that turns out creamy, healthy, tasty nut butter every time.



About David Leite

I count myself lucky to have received three James Beard Awards for my writing as well as for Leite’s Culinaria. My work has also appeared in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appรฉtit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Yankee, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and more.


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