Dairy

Brining the chickens tenderizes the meat and keeps it moist. The flavorful pan juices are used to make croutons and a robust dressing for the peppery watercress.

Meatless doesn't mean dainty. When making a veggie-centric sandwich, load up on aggressive flavors and contrasting textures, and be sure to add something substantial to sink your teeth into, like roasted vegetables, sliced hardboiled eggs, or mashed beans. This vegetarian powerhouse from Brooklyn's Saltie balances salty feta and olives with a salad-like mix of fresh herbs. Plenty of pickled, vinegary ingredients (this one uses capers and pickled beets, but any pickled veg would work) keep the full-flavored components bright.

No tandoor oven? We didn't think so. Any heavy-bottomed skillet will get the job done.

When working with big flavors, you don't need big quantities. "There's something to be said for restraint," says chef Chris Kuziemko of Chicago's Publican Quality Meats, a butcher shop that uses house-cured meat to make incredible sandwiches. Take his lead and swap the grocery store cold cuts for a special cured meat like soppressata or prosciutto, and indulge in a quality cheese. You'll build something beautiful without having to supersize. Just be sure to balance all the bold notes: In this pulled-back panino, Kuziemko uses a sharp provolone to cut the fat and the slightly sweet flavor of the coppa, and honey to temper the spicy-bitter broccoli rabe pesto. Because when no single ingredient dominates, each one can shine.

The pork for this Southern-inspired pasta sauce is studded with garlic, which infuses the meat while it roasts.

Parmigiano-Reggiano adds salty, nutty richness to this ratatouille, which rivals the best oven versions. To speed preparation, feel free to skip the first step of salting and rinsing the eggplant and zucchini (this process draws off any bitter juices). Instead, just remove any particularly seedy and brown parts of the eggplant, or use smaller Japanese eggplants (which also do not need to be peeled). For pizzazz, add chickpeas and pitted, chopped oil-cured black olives. To make this dish vegan, swap in olive oil for the butter and skip the cheese (adding olives will make up for cheese's saltiness). When reheating the polenta, add liquid (such as chicken stock or milk), then adjust the seasoning if necessary with more salt, pepper, and butter.

Your brunch guests will never know this is diet-friendly. Steak, lentils and an egg deliver 30 grams of metabolism-revving protein per serving.

Even your dude will love this skinny pie. (He can bring the beer.)

Low-cal 'shrooms up the heartiness factor of these patties, for burgers that are backyard barbecue-worthy.

"Yogurt lightens this riff on hummus. It's fantastic with pita chips or crudités." —Chris Morocco, associate food editor

Serve the salmon with raita, which gets a peppery twist from the addition of grated daikon radish.

Tossing grated Parm into panko is the secret to crisper, better-tasting chicken cutlets.

Who doesn’t love chocolate cake? This one is moist, dense, rich, and naturally gluten-free.

The addition of celery root is a great twist on the familiar flavors in this dish.

Top off this tangy lemon cake with a jammy apricot-and-lemon glaze for extra sweetness.

Packed with vegetables and white beans, this is the kind of wholesome one-pot meal you need to ward off winter blues.

There's nothing as delightful as a towering stack of fluffy pancakes. Unless those pancakes happen to be reminiscent of your favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream. The green food coloring here is optional but adds nicely to the appeal.

These are no ordinary corn dogs. The fragrant buttermilk-cornmeal batter is laced with a hint of honey, spices, and delicious crumbles of bacon.

This fun Brazilian street food is traditionally formed into the shape of a drumstick to represent the main filling ingredient: chicken. In fact, coxinha (pronounced co-SHEEN-ya) means "little chicken drumsticks" in Portuguese. We like to make them extra mini for snacking.

This harkens to those beloved jam-filled cookies that have been favorites in cookie jars for generations. This savory twist embellishes the dough with Parmesan cheese, the jam in question made with tomato and tart cherries. The jam recipe makes more than is needed for this batch of cookies, but it's not practical to make in smaller quantities. Extra will keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Spread it on turkey or ham sandwiches, slather it on chicken breasts before baking, or serve as an accompaniment to cheese. You can use dried cranberries in place of the dried tart cherries, if you like. For a short-cut version, you could nix making the jam here and simply use prepared plum or fig jam, or another minimally sweet jam.