Bean and Legume

This would be nice with warm tortillas.

Offer pita bread alongside.

Green beans go upscale in this fresh take on a favorite Thanksgiving dish.

Chris Gavenda, Wildwood, Mo.
For those of you who may not know, the tortilla chips form a crispy crust on the bottom of the casserole.

"As a kid, I'd accompany my mother to her job at the racetrack, where she would lead the horses out to the starting gate," writes Michael Hunter of Studio City, California. "Eventually I was helping out in the stalls, and when I got older, I became a jockey. My mother was also the person who, in a roundabout way, inspired my other passion: cooking. I'd come home from school, and she would have prepared something from a box or can. I didn't always like what was on the dinner table, so one day I asked her to buy me a cookbook. Pretty soon I was making dinner for us almost every night. Now, after seventeen years of racing horses and cooking for family and friends, I'm making the jump to professional cooking." These beans are particularly delicious with Michael's Sugar-Seared Salmon with Cream Sauce.

This is a refined version of classic split pea soup. It has a thinner consistency than other recipes (though it's still very hearty), and the addition of frozen peas brightens up the flavor.

Sephardim (Jews of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean extraction) eat peas during Passover; those from eastern European Jewish backgrounds do not. Feel free to omit the peas — the soup is just as delicious without them. It's important to use a flavorful chicken stock for this recipe, so if you have a stash of homemade stock in your freezer, this is the time to use it. Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 4 hr (includes making stock)

This dip was inspired by a recipe for bissara, a garlicky purée from Egypt made from dried broad beans, in Claudia Roden's Mediterranean Cookery.

These can be made one day before serving.

Serve this flavorful dish with corn bread or crusty French bread.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Contrary to what their name suggests, the color of "red" lentils is actually closer to orange. You can also use brown lentils, but the results will be different. Red lentils fall apart as they cook, creating a creamier base, whereas brown ones hold their shape (and take a little longer to cook).