Herbs & Spices

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from David Bouley, Mario Lohninger, and Melissa Clark's book East of Paris: The New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube. Lohninger also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Lohninger and Austrian cooking, click here. Spätzle are tiny dumplings that you make by passing a thin batter through a colander (or a spätzle maker) into a pot of boiling water. You can serve them simply boiled and drained, topped with melted butter and poppy seeds, or fried with onions and cheese as we do here. This is a rich mountain-style skiers' dish that will really keep you going.

The olive-oil-glazed potatoes make a perfect accompaniment to this dish.

The prototype for this wonderfully tangy sorbet was discovered in Hua Hin, Thailand, where we tasted a hibiscus sorbet made by chef David Bedinghaus at the Anantara Resort & Spa.

Heat the pizza stone and prepare the eggplant and other pizza toppings in this recipe while the pizza dough is rising.

In the past two years, half of our food editors have traveled to Spain, where they tried a variety of croquetas (ham, fish, and vegetable) that left a very positive impression. Serve these potato croquetas with any combination of dried sausage, olives, nuts, and cheese.

Alioli, a very popular Spanish sauce, goes well with almost anything—from grilled meat to vegetables to seafood. Although the authentic version is an emulsion of garlic and oil, eggs are commonly added (especially in restaurants) because they make the sauce less fragile and easier to whip up. We've made ours even easier by using store-bought mayonnaise. This recipe is an accompaniment for Potato Croquetas .

Chef Anne-Sophie Pic serves this chutney, topped with a skewer of rabbit liver and kidney, alongside the Savory Rosemary Shortbreads . We recommend pairing it with steak, lamb, pork, or a full-flavored fish such as salmon, bluefish, or mackerel.

The flaky dill biscuit crusts that top these creamy pies look impressive, but they're surprisingly easy to make.

This crab dish is as much of a treat as digging in to a good book: It's adapted from a scene in the novel The Hours and featured in The Book Club Cookbook (Tarcher/Putnam), which pairs recipes with great reads. The casserole offers lean protein and doses of vitamin A and folate. Plus, Self substituted soymilk for cream and replaced butter with olive oil, giving this storybook recipe a healthy ending.

Sunday dinner. From Golden Door in Escondido, California. Executive chef Michael Stroot loves this stir-fry because it's a showcase for his garden-fresh herbs and produce. And cooking the dish makes the kitchen smell fantastic. Serve it over fiber-rich brown rice.

A healthier fish stick (the secret is in the skewer!)
Feeling Zen at Tao, the trendy Asian eatery in New York City, is a major challenge — even with the center-stage 16-foot Buddha. The movie theater turned hot spot packs in hundreds of diners each night (and it's a favorite of P. Diddy and the New York Giants). But executive chef Sam Hazen's miso-marinated sea bass satay may be as close to inner peace as you can get while you're sitting at a dinner table. And let us enlighten you: This delectable lowfat dish is packed with protein, vitamin A and folate.

To round out the meal: 1 cup lowfat pudding

You can stuff five or six healthy vegetables into salsa (tomatoes, peppers, scallions, garlic, corn, whatever else is left in the crisper bin) then use that salsa five or six different ways (on fish, on chicken, in a burrito or, of course, on a delicious corn chip. You can make salsa in minutes. It keeps forever. It is the antidote to any of your vegetable woes!

It's healthy, tasty and, yes, a full meal. This fiber-packed (12 whole grams — almost half your daily dose!), meal-sized salad comes from Gabrielle Hamilton, chef and owner of Prune, a tiny New York City restaurant that's wowing diners with natural, wholesome food that tastes delicious. Bonus for you home cooks: This dish is also quick to fix. Just chop, toss, then chow.

Want to feel alert and energized? Repeat after us: protein, protein, protein. Here's a way to get lots of it, with very little saturated fat. (For an equally high-energy vegetarian version of this dish, substitute 12 ounces firm tofu, drained and cut in 1-inch cubes, for the shrimp.)