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Spicy recipes

Chilies used with intention, not as decoration. From quiet warmth to full firefighter-dinner territory — the heat always serves the dish.

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Spring Pea and Feta Couscous Salad with pearl couscous, peas and feta — Mediterranean recipe

🌊MediterraneanAdvanced

Salads

Spring Pea and Feta Couscous Salad

A bright, no-fuss salad that works as a side for grilled lamb or chicken, or holds its own as a light lunch. Pearl couscous — the round, pasta-like kind, not the fine-grain North African variety — gets toasted before cooking, which gives it a nutty depth that plain couscous lacks. Pickled shallots cut through the richness of the feta and keep the salad from tasting flat. Fresh mint is non-negotiable here: it's the ingredient that ties everything together and makes this taste like spring rather than just a bowl of starchy things.

25 min390 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

Stewed Fish with fish, tomato and garlic — Italy recipe

🇮🇹ItalyMedium

Fish and Seafood Dishes

Stewed Fish

This recipe combines the tenderness of fish with the flavor of Mediterranean herbs and spices, as well as the sourness of tomatoes and olives. Light yet rich and flavorful.

23 min200 kcal2 serves

🥑Keto⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

Sundubu Jjigae (Korean Soft Tofu Stew) with sundubu, kimchi and gochugaru — Korea recipe

🇰🇷KoreaMedium

Soups

Sundubu Jjigae (Korean Soft Tofu Stew)

One of the most popular Korean stews: silky unpressed soft tofu (sundubu) spooned in large chunks into a fiery gochugaru-and-anchovy broth with kimchi, pork belly, zucchini, and mushrooms. Eggs are cracked into the gently boiling stew at the end and soft-set in the bubbling broth in a minute or two. The stew arrives bubbling in a clay pot (ttukbaegi), surrounded by rice and banchan. Jjigae means stew in Korean; sundubu is unpressed, extra-soft tofu. The tofu gives no flavor of its own — it is a soft, silent canvas that absorbs the intensely seasoned broth and contrasts its silkiness against the spice and the chew of pork and vegetables.

35 min410 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Sushi Bake with sushi rice, imitation crab and Kewpie mayonnaise — Philippines recipe

🇵🇭PhilippinesMedium

Fish and Seafood Dishes

Sushi Bake

A deconstructed California roll served as a hot casserole: seasoned sushi rice under a baked layer of crab and creamy mayo, scooped onto squares of nori at the table. It is a modern fusion dish — it grew up in Hawaii as pan sushi and went viral from the Philippines in 2020 — rather than a traditional Japanese one. It feeds a crowd from a single dish and takes about 55 minutes, cooking the rice included.

55 min420 kcal6 serves

🌶️Spicy

🇺🇸USAAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Sweet & Spicy Garlic Bowl

Sweet potato with paprika and cinnamon, ground turkey with garlic and warm spices, cottage cheese, avocado, and garlic hot honey. Garlic appears three times here — in the sweet potato seasoning, in the turkey, and in the honey drizzle. That repetition is intentional.

35 min505 kcal4 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Sweet and Sour Pork with pork, pineapple and bell pepper — China recipe

🇨🇳ChinaAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Sweet and Sour Pork

A Cantonese classic — crispy cornstarch-coated pork pieces stir-fried with bell pepper, onion, carrot, and optional pineapple in a glossy tangy-sweet sauce of vinegar, ketchup, sugar, and soy sauce. The secret is high heat, small batches, and not overcrowding the wok.

65 min480 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy💪High protein

Tacos al Pastor with pork shoulder, dried guajillo chiles and achiote paste — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Tacos al Pastor

Tacos al pastor are thin slices of pork in a chile-and-achiote adobo, cooked beside caramelised pineapple and tucked into small corn tortillas. A trompo gives the original its moving flame and shaved edges; at home, a very hot skillet and patient batches get close where it counts. The meat needs acid, a little sweetness and real char, not a pile of wet sauce.

525 min610 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy💪High protein🌾Gluten-free

Tandoori Chicken with chicken, Greek yogurt and Kashmiri chilli powder — India recipe

🇮🇳IndiaMedium

Meat Dishes

Tandoori Chicken

Bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks scored deeply, marinated overnight in spiced yogurt, then cooked at high heat until the outside chars and the inside stays completely juicy. No sauce, no gravy — just the marinade working directly against the heat. The red-orange color comes from Kashmiri chilli powder, the flavor from ginger, garlic, garam masala, and kasuri methi. This is the dish that butter chicken and tikka masala are built on top of. On its own it's simpler and better. Serve with pickled onion, lime wedges, and mint chutney.

50 min340 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy💪High protein

Tempeh Stir-Fry with tempeh, soy sauce and sesame oil — Indonesia recipe

🇮🇩IndonesiaAdvanced

Vegetable and Mushroom Dishes

Tempeh Stir-Fry

Crispy-edged tempeh cubes and stir-fried vegetables in a savory-sweet soy, ginger, and garlic sauce. Tempeh is one of the few plant proteins that genuinely crisps when fried — the dense, fermented structure browns at the edges while staying chewy in the center, which is exactly what a stir-fry needs. The sauce caramelizes against the hot pan in the last minute of cooking, coating everything in a glossy layer. Serve over jasmine rice or soba noodles with sesame seeds and spring onion.

30 min420 kcal3 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan⚡Quick

Thai Green Curry (Gaeng Keow Wan) with chicken thighs or protein, coconut milk and green curry paste — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Meat Dishes

Thai Green Curry (Gaeng Keow Wan)

Gaeng keow wan (แกงเขียวหวาน) — literally 'sweet green curry' — is the most popular curry in Thailand, served everywhere from street stalls to fine restaurants. The green color comes from fresh green chillies in the paste; the 'sweet' in the name refers not to sugar but to the soft pastel shade of green. A quick-fried green curry paste forms the base, bloomed in the thick cream from coconut milk before the liquid is added. The balance is non-negotiable: spicy from the paste, rich from the coconut, salty from fish sauce, and a back note of sweetness from palm sugar. Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves are the aromatics that make it unmistakably Thai. Serve with jasmine rice and nothing else.

35 min420 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy💪High protein

Thai Red Curry (Gaeng Phet) with chicken thighs or beef, red curry paste and coconut milk — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Meat Dishes

Thai Red Curry (Gaeng Phet)

Gaeng Phet (แกงเผ็ด) — 'spicy curry' — is Thailand's most ubiquitous curry, found on every restaurant menu and in every home. Where green curry uses fresh chillies for a herbal brightness, red curry uses dried red chillies for a deeper, earthier, and more complex heat. The color comes from dried chilli skins; the richness comes from full-fat coconut milk with the cream reduced first to separate the oil before the paste is added — the authentic Thai technique that concentrates the aromatics. Popular with chicken, beef, pork, duck, or prawns. Thai eggplant and bamboo shoots are the classic vegetables; bell peppers and pumpkin are common additions.

30 min440 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Thai Satay with Peanut Sauce with chicken thighs, lemongrass and turmeric — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Thai Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay (สะเต๊ะ) arrived in Thailand from Indonesia via Malay traders and became one of the country's most beloved street foods. Thin strips of chicken or pork are marinated in lemongrass, turmeric, coconut milk, and warm spices, then threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled over charcoal until caramelized at the edges and fragrant throughout. The essential accompaniment is the satay sauce — a rich, sweet, slightly spicy peanut sauce made with roasted peanuts, red curry paste, and coconut milk — not the peanut butter version common elsewhere. In Thailand it is often served with a quick cucumber pickle to cut the richness and toasted white bread for dipping into the sauce.

45 min480 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy💪High protein

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