1,108 pasteli recipes

Homemade tahini from scratch with just toasted sesame seeds and oil. Smooth, nutty paste for hummus, baba ganoush, salad dressings, and Middle Eastern cooking. Keeps for months in the fridge.

A quick Indian chickpea curry with a blended paste of ginger, garlic, cumin, and dried chilies simmered with tomatoes and warming spices. Vegan, 30 minutes, deeply fragrant.

Thai-style chicken curry simmered in coconut milk with a homemade paste of bird's eye chiles, ginger, toasted rice, cashews, and warm spices. Layered, fragrant, and built from scratch.

South Indian-style aloo baingan: potatoes and eggplant simmered with a fresh ginger-coconut-chili paste, mustard seeds, asafetida, and toasted spices in ghee. A vegetarian curry full of layered aromatics.

Traditional Passover haroset with grated apples, walnuts, hazelnuts, and sweet kosher wine blended into a thick, nutty paste. A 10-minute no-cook recipe for the Seder table.

An Italian chocolate hazelnut cake from Turin with homemade gianduja paste, whipped chocolate cream filling, apricot jam, and a brandy-liqueur soak. A show-stopping patisserie-level dessert.

South Indian vegetable kurma with eggplant, carrots, peas, beans, and potatoes in a fresh coconut-chili-poppy seed paste. A fragrant vegetarian curry finished with tomatoes and yogurt.

Authentic Texas chili con carne with cubed beef (no beans), simmered in a paste of rehydrated ancho and pequin chiles. Slow-simmered for 90 minutes of deep, smoky heat.

Smoky, spicy black bean pesto made with ham hock, jalapeños, garlic, and cilantro stems. A thick, spreadable paste for tacos, chips, or as a bold side dish. Makes 3 cups.

Masaledar sem, Indian-style spiced green beans simmered with ginger-garlic paste, cumin, coriander, and tomato. Vegan side dish that delivers big flavor from pantry spices in under 30 minutes.

Harira, the traditional Moroccan soup with lamb, chickpeas, broad beans, saffron, and a velvety tomato-herb base thickened with an overnight flour paste. A slow-simmered bowl with deep, layered spice.

Slow-simmered chicken and okra gumbo with a medium-brown roux, fresh tomatoes, and onions. The okra cooks down past the slime stage into a thick, velvety Louisiana classic served over rice.

Tandoori tofu brochettes marinate extra-firm tofu overnight in a saffron yogurt tandoori spice paste, then grill on skewers with red onion, mushrooms, peppers, and cherry tomatoes. A vegan twist on classic tandoori cooking.

Moroccan dess b'l-besla: lentils simmered with caramelized onions, garlic, cumin and a pinch of cinnamon in a fragrant North African spice paste. Vegetarian, deeply spiced and ready in just over an hour.

Hazelnut double chunk cookies with toasted hazelnuts, chopped semi-sweet and white chocolate, and a splash of Frangelico. Half the nuts are ground into a paste that makes the dough incredibly rich and nutty.

Fried chicken breasts rubbed in ancho peppers: chicken slathered in a rich ancho chile paste, then dredged in a chili-spiked cornmeal coating for a shatteringly crisp, Southwestern-spiced crust. A bold twist on classic fried chicken.