Dairy Free

A healthy dose of olive oil gives this rosemary-infused bread a rich, moist crumb and pale golden hue; it also helps it keep a little better than other European-style breads. Among other things, this is a wonderful and unconventional loaf for sandwiches.

Of course, you can just roast a chunk of pork loin and spoon tapenade over it, but when you stuff the tapenade inside the roast, it will look all swirled and magical when sliced. It’s not that hard to do, really—two strategic cuts, a smear, a row of knotted strings—more basic butchery than brain surgery.

The best thing about this salad is how it comes together in no time at all. Asian rice noodles generally cook more quickly than wheat noodles and with the addition of the precut coleslaw mix the prep time is very minimal.

An earthy-yet-light spread that's great with crudité or on sandwiches and toast.

Knowing you have a bubbling hot breakfast waiting for you on a chilly morning makes getting out of bed so much easier.

Rasam, as prepared in most homes in Southern India, uses either tamarind or tomatoes as the base. It is a piquant broth poured over steaming hot rice. In our home—both in Kerala and America—rasam was a staple part of everyday meals. One night when I was a teenager, I was out to dinner with my brother Tom in New York City’s Little Italy and ate mussels cooked in a light tomato broth very reminiscent of rasam. I couldn’t wait to get home, buy fresh mussels, and cook them in rasam. This dish has made its rounds in my kitchens for close to three decades now. Make sure to have some fresh crusty bread to soak up the tomato-mussel broth.

Kohlrabi has a muted flavor and crunchy texture similar to a broccoli stem, which is something to keep in mind for this pickles recipe.

This cassoulet is filled to the brim with white beans, lamb, garlic sausage, and smoked sausage (and breadcrumbs), but you can make yours with pork or ham, goat, or duck. Whatever you use, keep the proportions similar to those listed below, and you can’t lose.

This recipe is a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, especially when prepared and eaten outdoors, in warm weather, with bread and unconscionable quantities of Italian or Spanish rosé, ideally in Sardinia or at least with Sardinians. Female lobsters, with their delicious red roe, are a must. Ask your fishmonger, or look for animals with broad tails and soft, translucent feelers that cross at the tips.

I‘ve substituted sage here for the more commonly-used dill, to keep the soup’s flavor more in line with Thanksgiving. If it’s post-holiday time and you have leftover turkey meat, feel free to add it to the soup in hunks, about 5 to 10 minutes before serving, to warm it through without overcooking it. You can use neutral oil in place of the chicken fat, or even melted butter, if you don’t keep a kosher kitchen and/or want to make your ancestors turn over in their graves.

Elevating the humble onion: Roasting them in their skins retains their natural sugars, and they get meltingly soft without disintegrating.

Get all the garlicky, herby flavors of classic Italian Porchetta in a roast chicken.

The crunchy, salty, sesame-drenched celery sticks at Bar Goto in New York are so good, you’ll forget they’re made from vegetables.

If you really want to go all out, you can brown the lamb in a wood-burning oven (erm, if you've got one handy) where it could absorb smoky flavors. For the rest of us mere mortals, that step for this recipe can be done in a hot oven.

Sticky rice is worth using for this porridge-y, comforting chicken soup recipe; it releases lots of creamy starches and helps builds nice body as it cooks.

Tarator is usually made with tahini, but the base for this recipe is almonds. It serves as both a binder for the rice cakes and as a sauce.

The ingredient list for a curry can be a little daunting with all those spices, but the technique isn’t very far from a pasta sauce: you just toast the whole spices and then move on to a sort of sofrito of onion, garlic, and ginger. From that flavor base, you add tomatoes and whatever veggies you desire. At the end, a quick chutney, really just a rough chopped blend of herbs and coconut, gives the stew a bright pop of flavor (the way a few torn basil leaves make that tomato sauce sing).

This green pesto owes its intense and powerful flavor to the use of kombu. It’s such an easy recipe that you can experiment with the ingredients as much as you like. The arugula and basil, for instance, can be substituted with any leafy green of your choice. And the pine nuts can be replaced by any other type of nut, such as cashews or hazelnuts. You can even use sunflower seeds! Serve the pesto on crackers, on a grilled vegetable sandwich, or with a bowl of pasta.

Medrich's version of these golden orange yam and coconut cookies from Spain is delicate and flavorful.

Serve these luscious butterscotch-glazed apples with Cinnamon-Oat Crumble Topping for a quick apple crisp, atop pancakes or a Dutch Baby for a delicious fall-flavored breakfast, or alongside our Build-Your-Own Thanksgiving Pie Bar.