BLACK-EYED PEAS Regular supermarket stuff is fine for soups where these beans play a supporting role. If you are serving them straight, say with just olive oil and salt, then search out a fancier brand like Rancho Gordo.
BRAGG LIQUID AMINOS Similar to soy sauce, and senza glutine, as the Italians would say. It’s also total hippie natural food store stuff. Hard-griddled tofu deglazed with Bragg Liquid Aminos tastes eerily like grilled chicken.
BROCCOLI RABE A bitter green that bears almost no resemblance to actual broccoli. It has leaves and flowers and stalks that all taste slightly different, which is part of the fun. To put it in musical terms, rabe has a clean attack, and a satisfying decay.
CANE SUGAR, UNBLEACHED We use this as a 1:1 swap out for granulated white sugar. Sometimes (although not across the board) bone char is used in purifying and whitening sugar industrially. It’s an old-fashioned practice that is getting phased out. Use cane sugar and you are in the clear, though.
CANNED TOMATOES We use high-quality imported Italian tomatoes almost exclusively. They just taste better. You can also score some cans from New Jersey, an underrated tomato-growing locale. Buy the whole ones and run them through a food mill to activate your inner nonna.
CHICKPEA CAN LIQUID Someone (no one knows exactly who) discovered a few years ago that the thick sludge usually discarded from a can of chickpeas can be useful for all sorts of things. You can add sugar and whip it into a stable meringue; you can use it as an egg substitute for leavening and emulsifying. We still do not totally understand how or why it works, but it thickens up our vegan mayo like a champ.
COCONUT MILK Look for real coconut milk, not coconut water, and not fake coconut milk that’s just coconut extract and water thickened with xanthan gum.
COCONUT OIL We use it for vegan baking. It will impart a slight coconut flavor, but it’s the closest thing to butter we have found, and it makes for a flaky and/or tender cookie or crust. It is solid when cold.
DEXTROSE We use this in our sorbet bases. It’s a type of sugar that’s less sweet than cane sugar, comes powdered, and aids with the creamy texture that is a hallmark of a finessed sorbet.
FAVA BEANS One of the most delicious, expensive, and pain-in-the-ass beans to deal with. They require multiple peeling sessions, but when they are at their spring peak, they are worth all the extra time and very low yield. For an off-season soup, find some decent frozen ones that are already peeled and ready to go, and you will be fine.
FENUGREEK A seed used a lot in Southeast Asian and Ethiopian cooking. Visually, it looks very similar to the boxed candy Nerds. It tastes slightly like maple syrup with a curried edge (which makes sense, considering its ubiquity in curry powders).
FRESH KELP Not the easiest thing to get your hands on, but when you can, then seize the opportunity. It’s not gross, and it’s doesn’t taste like stuff to sprinkle in a fish tank. Fresh kelp has a clean oceanic flavor, is outrageously nutritious, has a textural bounty of chew, and is one of the most sustainable food sources around.
GOLDEN BALSAMIC VINEGAR Less cloying than cheap grocery store dark balsamic, less expensive than fancy balsamic, but still adds tartness and sweetness. We are particularly fond of deglazing a hot pan of fried tofu or vegetables with golden balsamic.
HALLOUMI Look for a vegetable rennet version, meaning it was coagulated without a cow’s stomach lining, and is therefore vegetarian. It’s a firm cheese that holds up well when fried or griddled. Brined tofu can replace this if you are looking for a vegan alternative.
KOHLRABI A biennial brassica that’s related to cabbage and turnips and can be eaten cooked or raw. It’s always at the greenmarket in NYC—full of leaves and stems (both very edible) in the summer, and crated up in rooty mounds in the winter.
KOREAN CHILE FLAKES A mild chile used traditionally in kimchi preparations. We use it when we want some fragrant heat, but don’t want to go overboard with the spicing.
LABNE A strained kefir cheese very similar to Greek yogurt. If you are looking for a vegan alternative, there are a few ace coconut and cashew yogurts available at your local natural foods shop.
MALT VINEGAR Imparts a formidable boardwalk French fry flavor. It is not gluten-free though, so be sure to use it only when that isn’t an issue.
MALT VINEGAR POWDER Available from a reputable spice purveyor. It adds a salt-and-vinegar potato chip quality, but no moisture.
NONMODIFIED POTATO STARCH We use this as a binder for the Superiority Burger. We initially used eggs, but a slurry of water and potato starch works splendidly and, let’s face it, eggs are questionably vegetarian, right?
NUTRITIONAL YEAST Available in powder and flakes, imparts a cheesy flavor to things, it’s totally vegan, and is also a good source of vitamin B12, which is more commonly found only in mammal flesh.
OLIVE OIL The best sauce. Use it liberally. A blended cheaper oil is fine for frying and sautéing, and a more expensive specimen is to use as a finishing sauce.
PARSLEY We like both kinds (curly and Italian flat-leaf) for different applications. Parsley is funny; it seems like it’s just hanging around not doing anything. But take it away and boy, do you miss it.
POLENTA We use Anson Mills Spin Rossa della Valsugana Polenta Integrale polenta exclusively. It is nothing like instant polenta, and doesn’t take that much longer to cook. It has an irregular grain and cooks into a luscious corn pudding that can be served very soft or left to harden slightly so it can be sliced into wedges and browned in a hot pan.
POMEGRANATE MOLASSES A thick, sticky syrup that also has a pleasing tartness. Good when combined with opposing flavors. We griddle jalapeños and cover with pomegranate molasses, allowing the peppers to both thin the syrup, reduce the sweetness by releasing water, and add a bracing heat.
RAW CASHEWS Available at a reliable health food store or online. Make sure to stick your nose in the can or bag and really take a big whiff. If it smells off or sour, don’t use the nuts. They should smell like nothing, in a good way.
SEASONED RICE WINE VINEGAR This is rice wine vinegar with sugar and salt already added. We refer to it as Superiority fish sauce even though it tastes and acts nothing like fish sauce. A few drops in a salad or warm vegetable dish can zap the whole thing back to life.
SHISO Also known as perilla, this is one of our favorite herbs. It is used copiously in Japanese cuisine and has a flavor that straddles mint and basil while tasting wholly like itself. It adds a brightness in appropriately complementary flavor applications.
TAHINI Sesame paste. We use it a lot for sauces and even to coat and roast vegetables. A lot of tahini is rancid tasting. Look for slightly more expensive stuff. We use gallons and gallons of the Soom brand.
TAMARI Very similar to soy sauce, but often contains no wheat, therefore making it suitable for gluten-free preparations. We find the flavor to be deeper and richer than soy sauce. Also, tamari is total old-school health food store stuff so we are hooked.
TAMARIND Typically used in tropical climate (where it grows) cuisines as a sweetener. It is available frozen, dried, and in extract forms. All of these are pretty good, the extract being the least messy.
TOFU Soybean curd. The cheap stuff tastes weird. The pricier stuff tastes much better. A lot of people will tell you they hate tofu, which means they have probably been exposed to only the cheap stuff.
TOMATO PASTE We use the imported Italian stuff that comes in a toothpaste tube; it’s more expensive than normal supermarket canned paste, and is worth every extra dollar. We usually fry it in olive oil until it morphs from bright red to a brownish brick red in order to caramelize the natural sugars and develop a lot of extra flavor.
TURBINADO SUGAR Coarse-grained organic sugar. Very texturally rewarding.
WONDRA FLOUR This is pre-gelatinized flour that has already been cooked so it doesn’t need the long periods of cooking time required by raw flour. We use it to get very crisp French fried onions to top our Sloppy Dave sandwich.
YUBA The skin that forms on soymilk when it is gently heated, not unlike milk skin. Fresh, this is chewy and satisfying and can be flavored and griddled to taste like just about anything. It’s also available dried, which more often than not tastes like chemicals.