In this summery beef salad, pieces of grilled, marinated flank steak and charred red onions are tossed with a mound of spicy greens, avocado and a tangy lime-spiked dressing. Keep the flank steak on the rare side — this lean cut is best when still very juicy — then slice it thinly against the grain for the most tender meat.

The rich flavor of this lightly creamy chowder comes from slow-simmered corn cobs. After the kernels are removed, the cobs go into the slow cooker along with the potatoes and aromatics, where they infuse the broth as it slow-cooks. The corn kernels are added at the very end, so that they retain their fresh, poppy sweetness. Canned green chiles lend mild heat and tons of mellow, peppery flavor to go along with the sharper jalapeño. (If you come across fire-roasted canned green chiles, snap those up.) The miso adds a sweet-savory note that reinforces the corn flavor; but if you don’t have it on hand, add about two additional teaspoons of salt.

David Tania

Conventional wisdom holds that pork ribs taste best when cooked outdoors on a grill or smoker. Conventional wisdom hasn’t experienced the sweet-sour balsamic-glazed St. Louis-cut spare ribs at Animal in Los Angeles. The restaurant’s chefs, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, prepare them in a way that most barbecue purists would never order, much less eat: baked in the oven. Here, their recipe has been adapted for the home cook. —Steven Raichlen

Using maple syrup and honey instead of the usual corn syrup in pecan pie makes for a complex and richly flavored confection that’s still wonderfully gooey in the center. This recipe also has double the amount of pecans compared with most recipes, giving it plenty of crunch. You can bake it the day before serving; it keeps very well at room temperature for at least 24 hours. It also freezes reasonably well for up to 3 months, though the crust won’t be quite as flaky.

The traditional Israeli sandwich known as sabich features fried eggplant that’s tucked into pitas and topped with sliced hard-boiled eggs, chopped tomato-cucumber salad, pickles, tahini sauce and sometimes shredded cabbage. This weeknight recipe turns the popular sandwich into a one-bowl meal that is prepared on a sheet pan. Eggplant and chickpeas are roasted side by side; the eggplant becomes tender and creamy while the chickpeas turn golden and crispy. Canned chickpeas do double duty: Some are a part of the roast, while the remaining beans transform into a luscious, garlicky tahini sauce. The eggplant mixture is served on top of rice in this recipe, but all sorts of grains would work, including bulgur, farro and quinoa.

Start your slow cooker in the morning and by dinnertime, you’ll have deeply spiced black beans that just need a quick blend to become a velvety and vegan black bean soup. While not essential, a smidgen of baking soda helps the beans soften so they end up almost fudgy. Blending some of the beans with their liquid gives the soup body; for a very smooth soup, purée the whole mixture. A little vinegar and a flourish of toppings keep it from being one-note. Leftovers will thicken overnight, so thin as needed with water or turn them into refried beans.

Martha Rose Schulman

This version from the chef Jamie Oliver’s new book “Ultimate Veg” (Flatiron Books, 2020) combines black beans, rye bread, fresh mushrooms and ground coriander. Mr. Oliver tops his burgers with tangy yogurt, mangoes and salsa, but these crisp, oven-roasted patties are equally delicious with just lettuce and ketchup. —The New York Times

Cooking pasta the way you would make risotto may sound new and hip. But it’s at least old enough to have been demonstrated to me in Rome in 1976, and I imagine as old as pasta itself. In this method, the liquid is minimized: there’s no need for a gallon per pound of pasta. The liquid is added gradually to the pasta, which absorbs it completely and thereby retains its starch. This makes the pasta creamy and rich; it also gains the flavor of the stock. You can use pretty much any pasta shape you like, but timing will vary depending on size. This approach may seem like more work than making pasta in the ordinary way. But as the making of the “sauce” is integrated into the pasta-cooking, it really becomes a one-dish meal — as interesting as risotto, and even a bit quicker. Here is a combination of gemelli with mushrooms and chicken to get you started.  

This salad is meant to be served at room temperature. Feel free to make it up to 2 hours ahead. Also great if you add some basil at the end.

Susie Middleton

Prep: 20 min Cook: 30 min

We love the Italian trick of gently simmering pork and chicken breasts in milk, not water, to produce meat that is tender and succulent. Before poaching, we pounded the breasts until they were ½ inch thick, which keeps the cooking quick and even. If your chicken breasts have tenderloins attached, remove them before pounding; they can be reserved for another use, such as stir-frying. While the chicken rests, make a simple tarragon sauce in the food processor to add both flavor and color. Serve with buttered egg noodles, boiled potatoes or toasted pearl couscous tossed with fruity extra-virgin olive oil and lemon.

For layers of flavor, we use both whole toasted coriander and cumin seeds for the broth, and ground spices sauteed in with the onions. The soup's heat hinged on the jalapenos. For more heat, use serranos or include the chilies' seeds. If you can’t find fresh tomatillos, you can substitute a can of tomatillos or diced tomatoes, drained. The broth and chicken can be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated separately before proceeding. However, shred the chicken while it's still warm. We liked garnishing the soup with chopped avocado, sliced jalapenos, crumbled queso fresco and fried tortilla strips.

Ana Sortun's Turkish flatbread topped with ground meat (typically lamb, though beef works, too) seasoned with tomatoes, bell pepper and spices. Though lahmajoun often is very thin, hers are thicker and more substantial, with a soft yet chewy crust; the generous topping melds with the dough during baking. Sortun prefers to hand-chop the ingredients for the topping, combining them on the cutting board and running a knife over them until they’re well integrated; this method yields a rustic texture. If, however, you favor speed, the topping can be made in a food processor; see the instructions below. The common way to eat lahmajoun is to squeeze on some juice from a lemon wedge and roll up the flatbread. This recipe makes smallish lahmajoun with thicker-than-typical crusts, so feel free to cut them for serving or simply fold them in half for easier eating, but be sure to offer lemon wedges on the side.

Other vegetables are often added to add heft to the final dish. Common additions are potatoes and carrots, but eggplant, zucchini or artichokes can be included depending on the season and what you have at hand. Just remember that these additions are supposed to accent the dish and not take over. Typical to Greek cuisine, the vegetables are braised in the tomato sauce until they are meltingly soft and turn sweet. Depending on the vegetable used, this can take up to an hour. Part of the braise is done with the pot covered so that the steam can cook the vegetables evenly and the rest of the cooking time is done with the lid off, so that all the water can evaporate. You should be left at the end with just the peas luxuriously bathed in the olive oil/tomato sauce. The dish is best served at room temperature and will taste even better the next day. Serve it with some feta on the side for an extra salty bite and good crusty bread.

Reprinted from Tacolicious, by Sara Deseran and Joe Hargave, Copyright © 2014, published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House LLC. Photographs copyright © 2014 by Alex Farnum. Sara Deseran is the co-owner of restaurant Tacolicious and Chino with her husband Joe Hargrave, as well as the editor-at-large at San Francisco magazine. The author of three cookbooks, she has contributed to Food & Wine, Sunset Magazine, and Food Arts and has a forthcoming blog about life in the restaurant industry at saradeseran.com. Tacolicious has three locations in San Francisco and a third in Palo Alto, California, as well as a stand at the legendary Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Inspired by the Lebanese dish yakhnet sabanekh, this hearty, homey stew of ground beef and spinach, plus a few alliums and spices for flavoring, comes together quickly and easily. Toasted nuts (almonds are great, pine nuts even better) sprinkled on just before serving add rich flavor and textural contrast. We prefer to use fresh baby spinach for its silky texture, but frozen spinach works well, too (you’ll need two 1-pound bags). Just thaw it, drain it in a colander and, if it’s still very wet, pat it dry with paper towels. This stew is great with rice and vermicelli pilaf, with a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes alongside.

Sicily is known for its pistachios, so it’s no surprise that the colorful, subtly sweet nuts feature heavily in the region's cuisine. This recipe is our take on a pistachio- and tomato-dressed pasta taught to us by Doriana Gesualdi, owner of Sicilia in Tavola, a stone-arched trattoria in Siracusa. With lemon zest and mint as accent ingredients, the flavors are fresh and bright. Just about any variety of pasta worked well, but we particularly liked long strands, such as linguine and spaghetti. Don't use raw pistachios; opt for roasted, as they don't require toasting before chopping. Either salted or unsalted worked well.

The chunky, rustic texture of the bread makes for a range of crisped and tender bits. For a twist: Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth if you want the stuffing to be vegetarian; switch up the type of bread (corn bread and challah are both great options); add sausage (brown 1 pound of crumbled sausage in the pan before adding the onions and celery); or add dried fruit (1/2 cup unsweetened dried cranberries are nice). Make Ahead: The stuffing can be reheated, covered, in a 300-degree oven until warmed through; uncover for the last 10 minutes of oven time.

Browning the aromatics—ginger and shallots—and briefly cooking a few tablespoons of hoisin sauce, develops a solid flavor base for this simple soup. You can use flat, wide rice sticks or thin rice vermicelli. Either way, cook the noodles according to the package directions, then immediately divide them among individual bowls; if left to stand, the drained noodles may stick together. If you like, serve with lime wedges and Sriracha hot sauce.

I added some sautéed mushrooms, and used leeks instead of onions

By David Tanis