Lemon

This twilight-blue sweet-tart sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week. Made in a food processor, it’s thicker than when made in the blender.

This creamy (yet vegan) dessert can follow a meal from just about any cuisine: Caribbean, Indian, Mediterranean, West African, Asian, North American.…

We hope you have a microplane grater (see page 290), because the quality of the lemon zest makes a big difference.

A basic vinaigrette can be quickly made with only a few key ingredients found in the pantry.

Sour citrus and spicy peppercorns are perfect foils for salty feta. (See photo)

After you taste these perfectly seasoned potatoes, you’ll never go back to butter-drenched ones.

A side dish so good you’ll make it again and again. When the main dish is creamy and rich, these beans provide lightness and balance.

This is one of the fastest yet most delectable fish preparations. Flounder is a delicate fish, so you need to use care (a wide spatula helps) when turning it to cook on the second side.

This elegant herbed couscous is a lemon lover’s delight. We like it best made with all of the herbs. The flavor develops beautifully overnight in the refrigerator.

This delightfully tangy tofu pairs especially well with Greek or Italian dishes.

In Comfort Me with Apples, Ruth Reichl attributes the original recipe to Danny Kaye, but lemon and cream seems such a simple, natural combination that we suppose people were putting it on pasta long before Danny Kaye was born.

Lamb is an underappreciated and underutilized meat. It’s better for you than other red meats; it’s generally raised under healthier, more humane, and more sustainable conditions; it’s fragrant, lean, and tender; and it has that slightly funky quality that makes it interesting to work with. Here, we’ve rubbed it with chopped lemon confit and olives. While the recipe calls for oven-roasting, roasting it slowly on the grill would work beautifully, too. In keeping with the great tradition of day-after-holiday leftovers and sandwich making, we think Easter Monday is when you’ll want to be eating this one.

What self-respecting sandwich shop doesn’t carry a tuna sandwich? We admit that we almost didn’t. But when a magazine wanted to do an impromptu photo shoot before we opened, we had to improvise with ingredients already on hand at Craftbar. We seized a can of Sicilian tuna and added a few other items—and when we tasted the sandwich after the shoot, we realized we had a winner. Let go of the traditional tuna with lots of mayo—the mayonnaise masks the taste, a pity when using good tuna. Instead, use just a bit of lemon-flavored mayo on the bread, and season the tuna with lighter ingredients, such as the fronds of the fennel, similar in texture to dill but lending a fresher flavor to the fish.

Our regulars love this bright and flavorful vegan sandwich, especially in summer. It’s light yet absolutely satisfying. We like to cook our own chickpeas, but you can use canned—the chickpeas are a great vehicle for all of the vibrant flavors of the marinade. The red peppers provide a sweet counterpoint to the chickpeas; if you have the time, forgo the ones in the jar and roast your own (page 184). Then we add a low note (the Niçoise olives), and a high one (the confit), and finally the parsley (using whole leaves, not just a sprinkle). A final hint: toast the bread (just on the insides of the sandwich) for the perfect texture inside and out.

If ever we cross paths, there’s a 99 percent chance you’ll find me sipping a yerba mate tea. The South American beverage quickly became part of my routine once I discovered that it lifts my energy level without the highs and lows of coffee. Come summer, I ice it, stir in some Agave Lemonade (page 133), and relax with the day’s saving grace: the BabyCakes NYC version of an Arnold Palmer. If you’re confined to the kitchen and have a blender handy, toss in the ingredients, add ice, pulse for a minute or so, and sip your way through the afternoon.

Inspired by my daily “free lemonade” that I used to make at the old KFC in grade school, here’s a recipe so simple and refreshing that you’ll be shocked there are only four ingredients!

All right, pull the Stepford Wife ensemble out of mothballs and apply your signature color lipstick: It’s photo time! While the still-life aesthetic of this cupcake is its own reward, I swear on my highlights that the taste surpasses its beauty. Make sure to avoid overchopping your cherry chunks, and try for a nice, thick lemon zest—the added texture pairs neatly with the creamy frosting.