Bean and Legume

The Moroccan theme continues with this delicious salad and the vegetable kebabs .

"On Saturday mornings I like to go to the farmers' market near my house and buy whatever produce is at its peak," writes Justin Kulongowski of Portland, Maine. "One weekend I came home with all the ingredients to make this great salad."

This salad was inspired by a couple of dishes our food editors encountered at restaurants in Rome.

This recipe offers a prime example of cooking à la minute because the entire dish can be prepared and executed very quickly. (It also uses few enough ingredients that you could purchase all of them in the express lane of your local supermarket on the way home from work.) After sautéeing the halibut, the fish is removed from the pan, which is then deglazed with white wine and fresh lemon juice. Butter is swirled in gradually to yield a rich, flavorful sauce — punctuated by scallions, capers, and diced tomato — that is simply poured over the fish; its pleasing citric acidity and buttery richness make it a perfect foil for the halibut.

I came up with this recipe one day when I was boiling a big old hen for chicken soup and had plenty of meat left over, but if you don't care to fool with that, the casserole can easily be made with a nicely roasted chicken picked up in a deli or supermarket.

Complete the menu with a tomato and red onion salad, sourdough bread, and poached pears (or canned) with raspberry sauce.

This recipe was inspired by a dish that a group of our food editors enjoyed at Chez Maître Paul, a Paris bistro. As the name suggests, poulet à la fermière contains a farmwife's bounty—chicken, cheese, vegetables, and herbs.

Small, slender green beans can stand in for the haricots verts, a petite French variety, in this easy classic.

This lovely side can be made a day ahead.

The simplest of preparations and a sprinkling of fleur de sel — a delicate sea salt — are the only enhancements these naturally crisp sweet peas need. Fleur de sel is sold at cookware stores, specialty foods stores, and some supermarkets.

Foster's variation on a simple Tuscan classic might be considered heresy to purists, but our customers are crazy about the addition of olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach. It's a great dish for summer buffets. The salad can be made a day in advance; serve it lightly chilled or at room temperature.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 40 min

A dollop of yogurt adds a creamy richness and cuts the heat of the chiles.