The Perfect Pantry®

Recipe for bok choy stir-fry with ginger and garlic

When I'm lucky enough to get to an Asian market (the closest is nearly 20 miles away), I steer my cart right to the produce aisles to stock up on things the grocery store in my village doesn't carry: choy sum, lemongrass, fresh bean sprouts, and my favorite baby bok choy, a miniature Chinese cabbage. You can make this stir-fry with grown-up bok choy, by trimming the head through the root into smaller wedges, but if you can find the babies, you'll love the sweeter flavor and more delicate texture. Choose heads with either white or a pale green stalks; the taste is the same, so buy whichever color coordinates with the rest of your dinner. This recipe utilizes one of my lazy-girl techniques for wok cooking: pan steaming, the same method used to make potstickers. Rather than blanching the bok choy in a separate pot, I stir-fry in the wok, then toss in a small amount of water and slap a lid on to catch the steam. The tender baby bok choy heads cook quickly this way, while absorbing the flavors of the sauce -- and I only have to wash one pan.

Recipe for vegan butternut squash and chickpea stew

When the aroma of cinnamon fills the house, I follow my nose to the kitchen, expecting to discover muffins or baked apples in the oven. Sometimes, the intoxicating smell of cinnamon comes from something even better: a savory, Moroccan-inspired vegan butternut squash and chickpea stew in a tomato sauce infused with cinnamon and coriander. A hint of smoky-hot harissa, the assertive North African pepper paste, balances the sweetness of the squash, and seems absolutely necessary here. (Kathy, my spicy-food-averse cooking assistant, loved the gentle heat, so you know it's not too spicy.) Make this stew up to three days ahead, or freeze it; like most stews, it's even better on the second day. Serve over couscous or rice, as the centerpiece of a vegan meal, or as a side dish with grilled lamb or fish.

Recipe for kale salad with mushrooms and mustard vinaigrette

Perhaps I should start a feature called I don't love (fill in the blank), but I'm trying it again. I've pledged to eat more dark leafy greens this year, and that doesn't come naturally to me. Spinach is about the darkest I go; the rest I find too bitter, unless they are cooked beyond recognition or boiled to death in soup. Kale is everywhere these days, and though I might well be the last person to try kale chips, I am jumping on the raw kale bandwagon with glee, thanks to this kale salad with mushrooms and mustard vinaigrette. This version adds the smoky saltiness of bacon; I made a vegetarian version (no bacon, more olive oil) for the recent holidays, and it was equally irresistible. I'm crossing kale off my I don't love list. I now, officially, love raw kale.

Recipe for oven-roasted carrots

True confession: I don't love cooked carrots. I like them raw, crunchy, dipped into something like hummus or ranch dressing. Cooked carrots don't float my boat. Post-Thanksgiving I discovered an unopened two-pound bag wedged in the back of my refrigerator. I thought about sending those carrots straight to the compost pile, but instead I decided to try cooking them the way I cook potatoes: tossed in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted until their natural sweetness came to the surface and formed a little bit of a crust. Know what? It worked! Call them carrot home fries, if that makes sense: soft on the inside, crusty on the outside, with just enough salt. These oven-roasted carrots are truly the best cooked carrots I've ever tasted.