31 Recipes to Make in March

While many recipes call for creaming the butter and sugar before adding the eggs, pastry chef Lee Lee Reid whips eggs and sugar together to aerate them, leading to the ultimate brownie consistency.

In this recipe, aromatic lamb and creamy chickpeas soften into a crispy, moist patty once cooked. "These pan-fried lamb and chickpea patties are an ode to my Gujarati Muslim heritage on my father's side," Sana Javeri Kadri of Diaspora Co. says. They're stuffed with onions and herbs, then cooked and served with big scoops of fresh green chutney and yogurt. To make them ahead of time, prepare the kebabs through step 4, then freeze for up to one month, thawing fully before proceeding.

Petals of red onion, nutty acorn squash, and pickled peperoncini tossed in a creamy Italian dressing make a hearty but not heavy side. Inspired by chef Scott Tacinelli's crispy sweet potatoes at Don Angie in New York, we're adding sumac to the dressing, giving it an herbal, lemony kick.

Grains of jasmine rice take on a toasty, crispy crust in this perfect pot of rice topped with salmon, bok choy, and corn. To achieve the crust at the bottom of the pot, use a squeeze bottle to drizzle oil around the edge of the pot, or apply it precisely with a spoon.

With whole pink peppercorns and fennel seeds, this simple braise is gently perfumed and aromatic with fresh spring flavors inspired by the braised fennel former Red Hook Tavern chef Allison Plumer served at the restaurant. Use a fresh, spicy sausage here to complement the creamy bean puree and sweet fennel.

Monkfish, with its tender, springy bite reminiscent of lobster, is firm and sweet enough to stand up to this lemony butter sauce enriched with white miso. Plenty of briny capers and caperberries help cut through the richness.

A creamy, savory black bean puree drenches enchiladas filled with queso fresco in this warming and hearty dish.

At New York City's Golden Diner, chef Samuel Yoo roasts dry-brined mushrooms to build big flavor into his crispy, cheesy quesadillas. "The taste is very similar to a meat-based Reuben, that's why we love it," Yoo says. Here, we've channeled his roasting technique to create a vegetarian Cuban, spiked with tangy pickles and mustard. Keeping the mushrooms uncovered during brining helps them release more liquid, leading to a more concentrated flavor.

The combination of cold, chewy homemade soba noodles with steaming-hot crispy duck and dashi-enriched dipping sauce is an unparalleled delight. Timing is key when making this dish—cook the soba just before you serve. Work ahead by steeping the dashi and seasoning the duck the night before or the morning of cooking. For the purest flavor, seek out hon mirin ("real mirin"), which has no added sweeteners or salt.

Chef Hillary Sterling's epic chicken gets its juiciness and deep flavor from brining, air drying, and marinating. The process is simple but does require some planning­—start at least a day ahead.

Fried sweets prepared and shared with loved ones are a mainstay of Phagwah, or Holi, a holiday celebrated by many in the South Asian diaspora each spring. Alica Ramkirpal-Senhouse, founder of the blog Alica's Pepperpot, learned to make these Indo-Caribbean coconut-stuffed fried handpies from her grandmother, Shelia. Freshly grated nutmeg and ginger are essential ingredients for the warmly spiced coconut filling. Serve them piping hot, soon after frying, for the best texture.

Sorghum, a nutritious and sustainable grain, adds a pleasantly chewy bite to this simple salad from Roxana Jullapat, the co-owner and baker of Los Angeles restaurant Friends & Family.

Cooked until fluffy and dry like couscous, fonio, a West African staple grain, keeps the meatballs tender while imparting a mildly nutty, earthy flavor. These meatballs are on the delicate side—let them chill before cooking, and sear them on all sides to help them hold together during the final simmer in the sauce.

"It's a roller-coaster flavor journey—sweet, sour, spicy, crunchy, soft, aromatic, floral, smoky, savory from the salt. So many things going on!" chef Ori Menashe says about a scallop aguachile he served at Bavel in Los Angeles. Our riff on his raw dish sends scallops to the skillet for a quick sear before bobbing in the spicy pomegranate reduction.

In traditional Ethiopian niter kebbeh (spiced clarified butter), whole spices, like nigella, coriander, and cardamom, are bloomed in clarified butter, or ghee, and then strained; here, chef Yohanis Gebreyesus leaves the toasted spices in to add texture to this simple but luxurious sauce for pasta made with earthy, fragrant teff. Don't skip on resting the dough—it prevents the pasta from cracking apart when rolling and boiling.

At Tzuco, in Chicago, the French onion soup arrives to the table piping hot, topped with a bubbling layer of Gruyère cheese. Hiding under the blanket of cheese, a thick slice of baguette soaks up a soup suffused with flavor from a mountain of jammy onions, balsamic vinegar, and bay leaves. French onion soups can lean quite beefy, but chef Carlos Gaytán uses a gentle base of chicken broth that allows the allium flavors to truly shine. Poblano chiles add a mild, vegetal heat and slight charred flavor. 

It's important not to weigh your pizza down with so many toppings that you end up with a soggy pie, so this pizza only requires a small amount of wild mushrooms. Choose whatever looks best at the market. That said, we love this pizza with a drizzle of Fancy Ranch dressing (which almost makes it a salad, right?) Fancy Ranch is a homemade ranch dressing gussied up with a few chopped briny anchovies. But why stop with just a drizzle when you can also serve the pizza with a small bowl of the dressing alongside for dipping?

This is coffee as a meditative process and tradition as opposed to a quick way to caffeinate. Slowly pouring the water over the grounds in a circular motion three different times pulls out the flavors of the beans and results in a drink unlike anything you'll find at a coffee cart. Try sipping this black before adding anything to it in order to fully experience the flavors.

A little extra hands-off pressing time firms up fresh ricotta into a block that can be cut into paneer-like cheese. Fried in ghee, the crispy, cheesy cubes transform into cheese croutons and are a perfect pair for the warm puree of chile-and-ginger-spiked spinach and cilantro.

Scallion pancakes are traditionally made with lard—the Chinese term for scallion pancakes, cong you bing, literally means "onion grease pancake." Oil isn't just the cooking medium for scallion pancakes, but an essential ingredient required for texture and flavor. For novelist Lan Samantha Chang, who shared this family recipe from her childhood, Crisco was the American shortening closest in consistency to what her father remembered from his own childhood in China. Here, a generous layer of the vegetable shortening not only helps incorporate the fresh scallions into the dough but also creates beautiful and delicious flaky layers. The other unusual thing about Chang's parents' recipe is that it requires the rolling out of two pancakes at once. Back in China, instead of making each bing by itself, her father's family cook would actually roll out an even larger rectangular pastry, making multiple "pancakes" at a time. Rolling out a larger batch of dough also creates more layers, yielding flaky and delicious scallion pancakes.

This velvety-smooth, berry-topped mousse requires very little time to make—it comes together in just 15 minutes, and then needs just an hour in the refrigerator to firm up. 

Spring onions are the sweetest alliums of the year, and they work well in this salad with first of-the-season asparagus and tender lettuces. Soy and ginger team up with sherry vinegar in the tangy dressing that's perfect with the rich, jammy egg yolks. If spring onions aren't available, you can substitute scallions.

A traditional Yemeni pastry, khaliat al nahl are sweet, cloud-like balls of dough that are filled with cream cheese and drenched in cardamom-infused honey before they are topped with crunchy white sesame seeds and black nigella seeds. Pair these Yemeni honeycomb buns with a strong cup of Yemeni coffee for a sweet breakfast or afternoon pick-me-up.

For this creative take on lasagna, chewy, tender Korean rice cakes are coated with a spicy sauce of sweet Italian sausage, fennel seeds, crushed red pepper flakes, gochujang, ssamjang, and kimchi. A caramelized, bubbly, stringy provolone topping helps temper the heat. Find tubular Korean rice cakes, which are sold partially cooked and vacuum-sealed, in the freezer section at Korean markets or online.

Take a little soppressata, some chopped Calabrian chiles, and a drizzle of hot honey, and you'll end up with the pizza of the moment. Calabrian chiles, fiery chiles from Italy, add heat and a distinctly fruity flavor to this pie. The hot honey mirrors the flavors of the chiles and adds a touch of sweetness.

A warming blend of cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg bring festive flavors to cookbook author and blogger Hetal Vasavada's tender, moist spiced carrot cake studded with golden raisins and crunchy pistachios. Brown butter ghee does double duty in this recipe: It enriches and flavors the cake batter, and the caramelized milk fat left over from making it adds a nutty flavor to the cream cheese frosting.

The traditional toad-in-the-hole consists of whole sausages cooked in an egg-and-flour batter. This recipe delivers a taste of the British classic but stars tender baby carrots and spring onions for a flavorful, vegetable-forward spring twist.

A simple marinade of Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and a little flour helps tenderize the generous slices of flank steak and their browning when cooked, while sweet yellow onions cook just enough to soften and gently brown without losing their bite.

These radish and turnip-topped tartines are a great way to use up radishes and turnips with their greens attached. The radish and turnip greens whipped with sweet butter, garlic, and lemon zest create a delicious, silky spread for the tartines, while the spicy, paper-thin radishes and turnips make the perfect topping. Finished with crunchy sea salt, these make a great appetizer or light lunch.

Muddled strawberries add a rosy red hue to bartender Shannon Tebay's Dream Catcher cocktail, a Negroni-inspired drink.

In these decadent fried chicken sandwiches from Hakim Sulaimani, proprietor of Yafa Cafe in Brooklyn, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are infused with golden color and warming flavors from a buttermilk brine seasoned with hawaij, a Yemeni spice mixture usually consisting of cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, cloves, and coriander. Nutmeg in the crunchy panko coating for the fried chicken further spices up the sandwich, as does the slightly smoky adobo chile and plum sauce. Fresh coleslaw and pickles add a crisp bite and a subtle vinegary punch.