Laotian

This Laotian-style rice salad is crunchy, spicy, sour, and bright. Store-bought red curry paste and skillet-crisped rice keep it fast and weeknight friendly.

Delightfully soft yet chewy Thai sticky rice is traditionally prepared in a bamboo basket set over a metal pot of boiling water, but you can easily replicate the method at home with a saucepan and a fine-mesh sieve.

Lara Lee’s meat-free version of the Laotian and Thai dish combines smoked tofu with pops of crunchy sesame seeds and a kick of lime dressing.

The curry and ground pork reference the origins of the dish, while the brussels sprouts and leeks are a nod to the local ingredients of Georgia, from chef Parnass Savang of Talat Market.

Don’t even think about tossing, stirring, or shaking that pan until the mushrooms are golden brown and crisp.

Larb will not only fill your belly, it will teach you how to balance sweet, sour, salty, spicy, funky, and umami flavors.

Cauliflower might not be a traditional ingredient in larb recipes, but the toasted rice powder is.

Larb is hailed as the national dish of Laos. Traditionally the salad starts with extremely finely chopped lean meat or fish and is seasoned with lime juice, chiles, fish sauce, and toasted ground rice. This recipe calls for ground lamb, a fattier protein than what’s usually used, and subs ground peanuts as a nod to the texture of the rice.