Martha Stewart told us the 5 recipes she thinks everyone should learn how to make

• Martha Stewart told Business Insider the recipes she believes everyone should learn to make. 
• Stewart wants her apple pie and lemon meringue pie to be part of her legacy. 
• She also recommends learning how to make her mother Big Martha's pierogies.  

Martha Stewart has given us dozens of cookbooks and thousands upon thousands of recipes.

So, where do you start when you want to cook like the lifestyle icon?

While Stewart was promoting her partnership with Pure Leaf in November 2023, we asked which recipes she believes everyone should learn to make.

Stewart happily obliged — and gave us five.

Martha Stewart hopes her apple pie will be part of her legacy

Apple pie was the first recipe Stewart named for us, and she recommends everyone learn how to master her all-butter pie crust (also known as a pâte brisée).

"If you know how to make my pâte brisée, you'll always know how to make a good pie," she told Business Insider.

Stewart demonstrated how to make pâte brisée on her TikTok. You can also find recipes for both her pâte brisée and her old-fashioned apple pie on MarthaStewart.com.

Stewart also counts lemon meringue pie among her favorites

Stewart recommends that home cooks learn how to make one of her lemon meringues.

"The mile-high lemon meringue pie is very delicious," she said. "And my upside-down lemon meringue pie has a meringue crust, and the lemon is in the crust and then topped with whipped cream. I think you'll find it very enticing."

Stewart's upside-down lemon meringue pie was actually inspired by a recipe for "lemon angel pie" made by her recipe tester's grandmother, Josephine Rege. Stewart has shared recipes for both the upside-down lemon meringue pie and the mile-high lemon meringue pie on her site.

Stewart recommends everyone learn how to make her mother's pierogies

Stewart's first inspiration in the kitchen was her mother, Martha Kostyra, also known as "Big Martha." (She spills more details about her family in the new Netflix documentary, "Martha.")

According to Stewart's website, Big Martha taught her how to make many traditional Polish recipes, including kielbasa, stuffed cabbage, and several different types of pierogies.

Pierogies are Stewart's favorite comfort food, and she's shared recipes for making the basic dough, as well as many of her mother's sweet and savory variations.

"If you learn how to make that dough, you can make pierogies filled with potato or cabbage or fruit, you can do cherry — those are my favorites," she told BI.

Stewart swears by this simple salad vinaigrette

"If you know how to make my vinaigrette, every salad will taste delicious," she said.

Stewart's favorite vinaigrette features olive oil, white wine or rice wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of sugar. To make it, just throw the ingredients in a mason jar and give it a few shakes.

Stewart also recommends drizzling the vinaigrette over dishes including rice pilaf, steamed green beans, baked chicken, and fish.

And Stewart starts every morning with her favorite green juice

Stewart has been drinking her morning green juice for over a decade, and she believes it's the secret to her glowing skin. You can find the full recipe on her website.

Stewart cut out alcohol and continued to drink her green juice every day while preparing for her historic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover.

"Alcohol is really bad for you in quantity. It's just not the best thing in the world to take in," she told Insider. "But I'm not a big drinker anyway, so it wasn't a big sacrifice."

Stewart said her juice features celery, cucumber, fresh spinach leaves, "a little bit of mint and parsley," a "tiny piece of ginger," a peeled orange, and "you can add a pear if you like."

"If you had my green juice every day, you would just feel great all the time," she added.