Weeknight Meals

I make this salad most often in the winter and early spring months, when there aren’t a lot of vegetables in the market. The olives and cheese make it a bit more substantial than most green salads. Sherry vinegar is the special ingredient in the versatile dressing. It’s Spain’s version of balsamic vinegar and it’s less acidic than other vinegars with a mellow, sweet-and-sour taste that is just perfect with more delicate greens.

When I make a salad I like to bring in lots of different textures and flavors. This one has citrus for zing, herbs for freshness, and nuts for crunch. The citrus vinaigrette cuts through the raw spinach flavor.

Little fried balls of Gorgonzola turn a boring green salad into a mouthful of joy. For convenience, you can prepare and chill the cheese balls overnight so they are very firm before you fry them. To test the temperature of your oil, drop a small piece of bread into the pot. If it sinks to the bottom, the oil is not hot enough; if it rises slowly to the top and turns golden brown, it’s just right for frying.

I love this sweet syrup. It’s similar to chocolate sauce; in fact, beyond the antipasto platter, you could even use it as a dessert topping, drizzled over ice cream or berries.

Sablefish’s succulent texture and high oil content make it an exceptional choice for steaming. In this recipe, the fish is steamed in parchment-paper packets (en papillote), which seal in moisture and flavor.

Sweet yellow peppers are exceptionally rich in vitamin C. Serve the soup either hot for a comforting wintertime meal, or chilled in the warm-weather months.

Roasting offers an easy, no-fuss way to quickly prepare asparagus. Reducing the balsamic vinegar before drizzling it over the vegetables concentrates its flavor to mimic aged varieties. Serve the dish for lunch or along with a green salad for a light dinner.

This aromatic stew can be made with other types of fish, including haddock or regular cod, but sablefish delivers higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. A whole-wheat baguette is good for sopping up the broth.

These patties are inspired by the Middle Eastern dish kibbe, most often made of ground lamb and bulgur wheat. The combination of turkey and quinoa is particularly rich in protein, with a chewy texture that contrasts nicely with the crisp cucumber and red-onion slices, and the creamy tahini dressing served alongside.

In this heart-healthy wilted salad, the spinach contributes folate, and pecans help lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

Like Italian panzanella, this salad—a specialty of the eastern Mediterranean—pairs fresh vegetables and bread. The combination of vegetables, beans, and herbs is excellent for reducing high cholesterol.

Blanching is a good way to cook vegetables so they retain most of their nutrients. In this Japanese preparation, spinach is quickly wilted in boiling water, then plunged into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking.

Amaranth is a small herb seed, not a cereal grain, that tastes a bit peppery and is rich in protein and high in fiber. Here, it is toasted until it pops, much like popcorn. The lemon juice is not only for flavor; it also keeps the apples from turning brown.

This salad’s simple appearance belies its delicious combination of Mexicaninspired flavors. Studded with corn, pumpkin seeds, and red peppers, it makes a substantial lunch on its own, or a side dish for dinner.

The eye-popping combination of hues in this salad is sure to perk up the appetite, which in turn stimulates digestive enzymes. Pairing grapefruit and avocado also delivers nutritionally: Red grapefruit contains lycopene—which may help lower risk of heart disease and pancreatic, lung, and prostate cancers—and the antioxidant is best absorbed when eaten with healthy fat, such as that contained in avocado.

This sauce tastes great over pasta, fish, or grilled chicken—and is packed with beneficial lycopene from the cooked tomatoes.

Although more commonly cooked, brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, and kale also make delicious raw salads, as long as they’re thinly sliced. This salad—which combines two of the vegetables—serves as a particularly nice fall or winter first course, when it’s hard to find flavorful leaf lettuces.

Kiwifruit, lime juice, chiles, and cilantro make a tropical—and antioxidant-rich—accompaniment to simple seared shrimp; you can also use the relish to top grilled fish, or as a healthy dip with tortilla chips. Serve the shrimp and relish with black lentils and whole-wheat naan (Indian flatbread), as shown, or with brown rice and tortillas.

In this simple dish that originated in the northeast of Italy, olive oil serves as both a key ingredient and a garnish.

Traditional Japanese soba noodles can be made of wheat or buckwheat, a fruit seed related to rhubarb that’s loaded with manganese and the antioxidants quercetin and kaempferol. Because the seed is also gluten free, buckwheat noodles are a good choice for those with gluten sensitivities.