Some days the craving for home arrives with tides and salt attached. Growing up, my mother and grandmother’s seafood stew was the dish of special Sundays — mussels, shrimp and firm white fish simmered...

Arroz de marisco regularly makes lists of the seven wonders of Portuguese food, and one pot explains why: rice simmered in a garlicky tomato broth until plump, then crowned with shrimp, mussels, clams and...

Salada russa — Portugal’s take on the Russian Olivier salad — is the creamy, diced-vegetable salad that no Portuguese summer table, barbecue or festa buffet is complete without. Ours adds tuna, because of course...

Caldeirada de bacalhau applies the great Portuguese fisherman’s-stew method to the king of fish: salt cod layered raw with potatoes, onions, tomatoes and peppers, doused with olive oil and white wine, and left to...

Bolos de arroz are the tall, sugar-crusted rice muffins standing at attention in every Portuguese pastry case — humble next to the pastéis de nata, but ask any Portuguese person about their childhood breakfast...

Kohlsuppe — German cabbage soup — has a public relations problem: it sounds austere, and it is anything but. Done properly, it is a deeply savory bowl of tender cabbage and vegetables in a...

Celery and leek soup is proof that the quietest vegetables make some of the best soups: sweet leeks, savory celery and potatoes blended into something light, clean and quietly addictive. It follows the Mediterranean...

Pumpkin and leek soup is the gentler, more aromatic sibling of my pumpkin-potato version: leeks bring a sweet, oniony softness that flatters pumpkin better than almost anything else in the vegetable drawer. The Mediterranean...

This beet and carrot soup is the most photogenic member of the Portuguese soup rotation: ruby-red, silky smooth, and built on the national formula — olive oil, onion, garlic, a potato for body, and...

Canh củ dền — Vietnamese beet soup — is the most beautiful bowl in the canh family: pork ribs simmered with beet wedges until the broth turns ruby-red and gently sweet, finished with fish...