Root Vegetable

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Mediterranean classics, check out the video classes.

Cookbook author and cooking teacher James Peterson created this recipe exclusively for Epicurious. The repeated caramelization of the vegetables is the secret to the gravy's surprisingly rich flavor. For more of Peterson's gravy-making advice, including how to thicken with a roux and avoid lumps, see our Gravy Primer.

Figs are abundant in Jerusalem and many trees, bearing the most delectable fruit, actually belong to no one, so anybody can help themselves. Summer months are always tinted with the smell of wild herbs and ripe figs. The mother of Sami's childhood neighbor and friend, Jabbar, used her roof to dry the glut of figs (and tomatoes) in the hot summer sun, spending hours cleaning and sorting them meticulously. Poor Um Jabbar Sami and her son never wasted time and used to sneak up to her roof regularly, stealing her figs at their peak and causing havoc. This wasn't enough for Jabbar, though. The boy had such a sweet tooth that he always carried around with him an old match box full of sugar cubes, just in case. Unfortunately, this habit had clear ramifications, evident in his "charming" smile. This unusual combination of fresh fruit and roasted vegetables is one of the most popular at Ottolenghi. It wholly depends, though, on the figs being sweet, moist, and perfectly ripe. Go for plump fruit with an irregular shape and a slighty split bottom. Pressing against the skin should result in some resistance but not much. Try to smell the sweetness. The balsamic reduction is very effective here, both for the look and for rounding up the flavors. To save you from making it, you can look for products such as balsamic cream or glaze.

This is the kind of over-the-top meal guests will talk about for days afterward, and it's actually much easier to prepare than it might seem. Lobster, ground pork, and a host of Asian condiments create a riot of complementary flavors.

Lentils and fresh and dried mushrooms give this vegetarian casserole its meaty character. You can prepare most of it in advance and bake it just before your guests arrive.

Add Sherry vinegar right to the baking dish to turn the juices from the roasted vegetables into a simple, vibrant vinaigrette.

Salting and pressing vegetables draws out moisture and makes them snappy. Sake and seasoned rice vinegar infuse these pickles with mild, cocktail-friendly flavors.

If you're looking for fresh hits of color and crunch for the buffet, here's your answer.

Roasting the onions and shallots takes this dip way out of the box.

After we make a batch of this romesco sauce, we put it on things like eggs, grilled cheese, and turkey sandwiches. We find any excuse we can think of to dunk and cover stuff in the incredibly versatile and tasty romesco.

Our dad makes these every year on Hanukkah. And he makes a huge mess. He puts newspapers on the floor, uses every burner, and the whole house smells bad for a week. But they are super delicious and we had to include them in our book. We make them almost every weekend. We had our dad test the recipe.

Rae: This is an old-timey High Holiday vegetable side dish, sweetened with honey and raisins or prunes and, sadly, often simmered to mushy blandness. To get past that problem, roast the carrots first, to brown them and coax out their natural sweetness, and then bring everything together on the stove top at the end. Sunflower seeds add a nutty note to the chewy prunes and raisins.

Rae: What I love about our updated version of this peasant soup is that it's based on an actual beet broth—not beef stock, as in a lot of Russian borschts, and not even vegetable stock to which beets have been added. This is a really beet-y, and surprisingly hearty, borscht. And it's completely vegetarian.

I make tomato sauce often. I make a batch to use that same night, and freeze what is left over to pull out and cook with when I want to throw something together quickly, like a grilled pizza or a pasta. A ricer or food mill is an inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment and there are many sizes. This is the best way to puree this sauce.

I love using baby carrots in assorted colors. Thumbelina carrots, which are little and stubby, are great for roasting. I use red, orange, yellow, and white carrots for the ribbons, which make this salad so vibrant. Even just the orange variety next to the green of the avocado and mizuna makes a beautiful and colorful salad. Toasting whole cumin seeds and then grinding them in a mortar and pestle or an electric spice grinder is essential for the great taste of this vinaigrette. If you don't have either way of grinding spices, you can substitute cumin powder. This salad rocks from the contrast between the soft texture and caramelized sweetness of the roasted carrots and their raw and crunchy counterparts.

On one of my first trips to India, at a bus stop in Poona, there was a street stand where the vendor was roasting potatoes over charcoal, chopping them, and tossing them with curry spices and crispy onions. He served the mixture wrapped in a piece of newspaper. It was amazing, and it inspired this dish.
There are so many curry spice mixtures from around the world. This recipe employs one of the most common. You can use either yams or sweet potatoes in this recipe.

The secret to great French fries is to fry them twice: once at a lower temperature to cook the potato through, then again at a higher temperature to brown them. We're also giving you five reasons to leave the ketchup in the fridge, with homemade dipping-sauce recipes for Sour Cream and Onion Dip , Saffron Mayonnaise , Ginger-Sesame Sauce , Roasted Red Pepper–Walnut Dip , and Chipotle-Tomatillo Sauce . Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for Burger Bash. Menu also includes Bacon-Cheddar Burgers with Caramelized Onions and Strawberry Cheesecake Milkshake.

In our never-ending quest for the best burger, we think we've hit on an outstanding version that requires nothing more than a trip to the supermarket and a short sojourn in the freezer for the bacon. Sure, there are those DIY purists who are going to buy several different beef cuts from a high-end butcher—if not butcher the beef themselves from their own grass-fed steer—then coarsely grind it with their own sterilized meat grinder, but most of us just want an easy recipe for a really great backyard burger.
Burger-meisters might be shocked, but this burger does best by being cooked a bit more slowly, over indirect heat. So sit back, pop open a cold one, and let these burgers baste themselves into a sublime place. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for Burger Bash. Menu also includes Homemade French Fries with Five Dipping Sauces and Strawberry Cheesecake Milkshake.

Ditch the store-bought seasoning packet in favor of this DIY version that combines slowly caramelized onions with tangy sour cream.

This spiced-up Asian-inspired sauce is perfect for dipping French fries or crudité, or for drizzling over seared chicken or fish.