Cooking has returned in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and, just like Breath of the Wild there’s a whole bunch of scrumptious-sounding dishes and potent elixirs to find. Luckily, you don’t have to get the rarest ingredients in order to make some of the most useful recipes in the game. The following five recipes are incredibly useful not only when you’ve started your adventure through Hyrule, but even after you’ve become a seasoned explorer.
Sometimes all you need is a bunch of healing. Fried Wild Greens can do just that and for the insanely low price of five Hyrule Herbs. Said herbs are incredibly common, and throwing five in a pot will restore a whopping ten hearts. With how easy it is to throw together, this is one dish you’ll want to come back to well before and after you even have ten hearts to work with.
It might not heal a lot, but a single Staminoka Bass will restore an entire Stamina Wheel. Just one fish! With salt to taste, of course. Staminoka Bass aren’t too common all over Hyrule, but they can be found fairly easily in the West Necluda river that runs between the towering Dueling Peaks. Again, this won’t be your recipe for staying alive in a fight, but it will certainly help with any lengthy Paraglider flights or mountain climbing.
Should you find yourself braving the dark underbelly of Hyrule known as the Depths, you’ll want a powerful dish that can restore any Cracked Hearts. For this, you can combine one or two Sundelions with some Hylian Rice to put some pep back in your step. Sundelions are most easily found on the floating Sky Islands, and Hylian Rice can be purchased in Lookout Landing, Hateno Village, or simply farmed by chopping up grass near Hateno Village. This recipe takes a bit more work to throw together, but it’ll be worth it to keep those Cracked Hearts away.
Speaking of the Depths, it’s pretty hard to see down there most of the time. For that, you’ll want a Bright Fish Skewer made from Glowing Cave Fish to give your body its own glowing power. The more Glowing Cave Fish you can throw in the pot, the better. These bioluminescent critters are easily found in caves and wells all over Hyrule, and they’re incredibly easy to catch thanks to them living in small bodies of cave water. It’s true that throwing Brightbloom Seeds can be used to navigate the Depths as well, but with a Bright Fish Skewer you won’t need to stop and manually light your way nearly as much.
While you’re gathering ingredients in caves, keep an eye out for Sticky Frogs and Lizards so that you can create some Sticky Elixir. It doesn’t eliminate slipping when wall-climbing, but it does make climbing while wet much easier. Throw those Frogs and or Lizards into a brew with a few monster parts and you’ll be good to go!