A little spicy, a little sweet, a little salty, chewy Chinese noodles with cucumbers, peppers, and scallions coated in a chunky peanut sauce is a tasty, filling meal that's hard to get tired of. This version is made with far fewer noodles and many more vegetables. Indeed, it's now more of a vegetable salad with a few noodles added in for textural contrast.

There are all kinds of variations on the dish that you'll find in Chinese restaurants in the U.S. Some go the ultra-authentic, hardcore traditional route, while others remove some or even all of the heat from the dish, instead replacing it with a creamy sesame (or even peanut butter!) based sauce. To me, picking one version of dan dan noodles as the best is kinda like choosing my favorite Beatles album: It's a constantly shifting debate, even with myself. Best plan is to just pick a path and run with it. This time I'm going for the more traditional approach. Obviously, modifying it for my vegan needs is going to alter that approach in practice (though not in spirit).

If you were so inclined, you could do as the street vendors of Chengdu did: make the aromatics and sauce base in larger batches, store them together in a sealed container in the fridge, and have them ready to go at moment's notice whenever you want a quick snack. All you have to do is cook the noodles, add some starchy cooking liquid to the sauce base, pour it on top, and you're good to go. Due to its high oil, salt, and acid content, the pre-made and mixed sauce should stay good in a sealed container in the fridge for several weeks at least.

Dan Dan noodles are an ultra-simple dish of cold or warm noodles placed in a bowl with a ladleful of highly seasoned sauce poured on top. In this vegan version, starch-laden noodle water is used in place of chicken stock to bind the sauce to the noodles, and dry-fried mushrooms are used to give the meatiness and texture usually imparted by pork. It's finished off with fermented chili bean paste, black vinegar, pickled mustard root, and plenty of hot chili oil. Gentlemen, start your slurpring.

Anyone who's spent a significant amount of time in or around New York City should be intimately familiar with scallion pancakes, the flaky, savory disks studded with chopped scallions and fried. We use a laminated dough here (much as you would if making puff pastry) to create layer upon layer of very thin sheets of flavorful pastry. Frying them in oil is traditional; for a puffier, crispier experience, try cooking them on the grill .

Here's another recipe in my quest to take the cute and cuddly animals out of all of my favorite foods in a no-BS, as-delicious-as-the-real-thing, good-enough-for-anyone kind of way. I'm particularly happy with this one, which makes sense, as it's a logical extension of my vegan mapo tofu recipe. I'm talking about the other great pillar of cheap-and-easy Sichuan cuisine: dan dan noodles.

Smoked low and slow on the grill, this chicken marinated with Scotch bonnet peppers puréed with other fresh aromatics and spices tastes incredible. It's an 11 1/2-hour process (about 10 of those hours are hands-off while the chicken marinates), but the flavor is beyond worth the effort.

It's not easy making a vegan burger that doesn't come out mushy or bland or just plain boring. This one combines chickpeas, cashews, and barley along with fresh vegetables to form a complex, satisfying patty that will behave just like meat on the griddle or grill.

Tailgating staple, vegan-style, with Vegetarian Bean Chili served on top of fritos with Pickled Red Onions , jalapeños, and avocado. A sprinkle of fresh cilantro, a scattering of sliced scallions, and a squeeze of lime all add freshness.

Colorful bell peppers—red, yellow, or orange—cooling cucumbers, and bean sprouts are the base of this vegetable salad with noodles. It gets heat from ground chili sauce in the dressing, plus optional Thai bird chiles that you add to the fresh vegetables.

Done right, takeout fried rice is a thing of satisfying, well-balanced beauty. But it's frequently served clumpy and over-sauced, or, worse, bland and oily. Making it at home gives you more control over the final dish, plus it's a great way to use up leftovers. Our approach busts a few myths—no, your rice doesn't have to be medium-grain, or day-old, click for source that matter. While this version calls for vegetables, like carrots and peas, you can easily bulk it up with pork , kimchi and Spam , Thai-style crab , chicken, or your protein and garnishes of choice.

This take on fried rice looks to the sea for inspiration—we make the dish with fresh crab (if you can get it; use canned if you can't) and season it with fish sauce. We tend to prefer jasmine, medium-grain white, or sushi rice for this and all our fried rice recipes. Long-grain rice works, but it doesn't get the same chewy-tender texture as shorter varieties.

Grind a combination of beef and smoky, spicy Cajun andouille sausage for burger patties. Grill, then top with blue cheese and a sauce of mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard, parsley, lemon juice, cayenne, horseradish, and garlic for the most spicy and flavorful burgers.