Chile

In this take on Thai som tam, crisp, juicy apples replace green papaya for a crunchy, sweet, sour, and spicy salad that’s ready in 20 minutes.

Creamy roasted Japanese eggplant meets its delightfully textured match in this riff on Mexican salsa macha, made with cashews, garlic, and fresh Fresno chiles.

Summer means spicy, savory fruit salads made with whatever fresh produce you’ve got, plus lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, dried shrimp, and lots of red chiles.

Modeled after Hunan-style steamed fish, this fiery, fast, flavor-blasted weeknight-friendly dinner is rounded out with a cooling cucumber salad and steamed rice.

This smoky, chile-laden salsa works both as a marinade and glaze for grilled chicken thighs.

Chill out with this spicy beef noodle soup recipe that boasts both chile heat and a steaming broth. The two kinds of heat work in tandem to cool you down.

This refried-bean-slathered gordita with all the fixings is a Mazatlán specialty.

The corn ribs are great. The garlicky-spicy-aromatic-electrifying crispy breadcrumb mixture showered over the top? Unforgettable.

Crunchy fried onions transform a simple cabbage salad into a sensorial delight: hot and cold, crisp and soft, sweet and spicy.

Fast-cooking chicken thighs and convenient canned chipotle chiles come together for this streamlined version of traditional al pastor.

Once you mash avocado into raw kale, you might never eat the hearty leafy green any other way.

Nothing says “classy side dish” like anchovies draped over wedges of roasted squash and drizzled with a bright, herbaceous topping.

Plopped on a creamy tomato sauce, these peppers are a repeat-worthy one-dish dinner.

Refreshing gazpacho gets the salty-spicy nuoc cham treatment in this twist on the warm weather soup. Sesame oil provides nutty balance and helps curb the heat.

In this vibrant salad, crisp pear, ripe avocado, and crunchy lettuce are tossed in a lime dressing and dusted with Tajín.

Don’t toss those stale tortillas. Scramble them with eggs and give them a second chance at life.

The classic Argentine condiment gets reimagined with tart-sweet raspberries and spicy Calabrian chiles for a burst of summertime flavor.

Toss tomatoes in a simple preserved lemon, soy sauce, and chile marinade while you sear a well-marbled steak for a dinner for two in no time.

This impressive main is a breeze to make—the skin creates a natural nonstick barrier as it crisps up, so you’ll slide your tender fish right off the grill.

A savory medley wrapped up in fresh and delicate Vietnamese rice rolls.