Nut Free

These vanilla bean–speckled marshmallows have a more pronounced vanilla flavor than our classic Homemade Marshmallows , plus an adults-only hint of bourbon. See Make Your Own Marshmallows for more recipes and tips.

I didn't think it was possible to love artichokes more than I already did until I lived in Italy. There they harvest artichokes in both spring and fall, and that abundance graces their cuisine. Artichokes also enhance their health, as they stimulate the gallbladder to produce bile, which escorts toxins out of the body and also helps break down fats in the diet. Here, artichoke hearts are combined with chicken, chickpeas, and olives to create a rich, nourishing stew, seasoned with a potpourri of heady and healthful spices, including turmeric, cumin, coriander, and mint. For a wonderful pairing, serve it over Brown Rice Pilaf with Saffron and Ginger .

This is our tried-and-true no-fail recipe for classic marshmallows. You won't believe how easy it is to make these soft, sweet treats at home. Once you make the basic recipe, check out the cook's notes for tips on adding different flavors, colors, and mix-ins, as well as how to cut marshmallows into different shapes using cookie cutters. See Make Your Own Marshmallows for more recipes and tips.

Sweeten movie night by whipping up a batch of these treats for your friends. Cherries and oat flour add fiber to make them extra filling.

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.

Brioche is a special bread because of its delicate crumb, richness and flavor. The traditional fat used is butter, but other cultures use lard. I propose one very good reason for using schmaltz instead of either: flavor! This is a delicious savory bread that makes superb dinner rolls to serve with chicken or turkey, a simple salad, chicken soup, or anything, really. As far as I'm concerned, this version is out of the park (my assistant Emilia started it, I finished it, Marlene tested it and confirmed). You need to make it the day before you bake it, but it's a really simple preparation. It can be baked free-form, in individual ramekins, or in a loaf or terrine mold. Marlene made nifty "bubble top" rolls by filling muffin cups with three 1-ounce/30-gram balls, a technique she picked up from Dorie Greenspan's excellent book Around My French Table. I had my first bite while it was still warm from the oven, with a little extra schmaltz and a sprinkling of Maldon sea salt. Heavenly. If you bake it in a rectangular mold, slice it and toast it, delicious. This from Marlene: "OK, I want to say I was skeptical of this at the beginning. The dough smelled chickeny, not only while it was rising but also while it was baking. However, these totally rocked. There was no hint of chicken in the taste or the smell in the final product. The crust is the best I've ever produced. It was crisp, almost flaky, like biscuits. The crumb was delicate and soft."

I wanted to include this Baron family recipe because it underscores how rooted in poverty Jewish cuisine is. This is a traditional spread to be served on crackers or toast, an easy and inexpensive canapé. It shows off the versatility of the egg, the power of schmaltz to enrich, the forcefulness of the gribenes to flavor, and the power of the onion. Onion and egg, that's it. In its plainest form—egg, sautéed onion, gribenes, schmaltz, salt and pepper—it's good but very plain. Arthur Schwartz's version, chopped by hand and mashed slightly with a fork, is even plainer-eggs, schmaltz, salt and pepper, enlivened with raw onion. That said, its greatness lies in this simplicity. Lois is going to get a little huffy, but I've fallen back on my habit of giving this a little sparkle with some minced shallot macerated in lemon, a kick with cayenne, a little more depth of flavor with fish sauce, and a nice crunch from some diced celery folded in-but it's up to you. No matter how you make it, it goes great on water crackers, matzo, thinly sliced toast, and would be a great garnish for a green, leafy salad. For a more fanciful canapé, combine it with chopped liver. This recipe can be doubled.

This is an old favorite and was, apart form pancakes, the only way my children would eat eggs. They called them 'poofle' eggs, although I can't remember why. They are known by many other names, some more logical than others, including knothole eggs, bird’s nest, Hollywood eggs, and one-eyed Jack.

That's right, schmaltz oatmeal cookies. We had to have something sweet! The schmaltz does have a great effect here—it doesn't make the cookie taste like chicken, but it does give it a savory depth to balance the sweetness. So using schmaltz in a cookie turns out to be a fascinating and useful example of balancing sweet with a savory ingredient. I love the tart, dense dried cherries in these cookies, but this recipe is a great all-purpose vehicle for whatever garnish you want to give them—raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, pecans or a mixture of any or all of the above.

This sausage uses chicken and schmaltz, along with plentiful sage, garlic, ginger and pepper. And salt of course—sausage needs salt. My optimal salt level is 1.75 percent, so I multiply the weight of the meat (in ounces or grams) by 0.0175 to get that amount of the salt needed (also in ounces or grams). If you like less salt take it back to 1.5%. This seasoning makes a great breakfast sausage as well as an excellent grilling sausage. If you have a sausage stuffer and like to link sausage, by all means stuff this sausage into casing. I like to cook this in patties and cook them either in a sauté pan or on the grill. The schmaltz can be replaced with pork fat or pork belly, if you have access to thighs but not schmaltz, but I think it's most intensely flavored using chicken fat. I'm fanatical about keeping sausage fixings cold all the way through the making, and I'm especially crazy about it here, because chicken fat is pourable at room temperature. Thus it's important to keep everything—the fat, the meat, even the seasonings—close to frozen while you're making this. I freeze the fat, cut it in chunks and then grind it frozen. After grinding this can be mixed by hand using a stiff spatula, dough spatula or wooden spoon, but a standing mixer with the paddle attachment works best. Either way, make sure the mixing bowl is cold.

Around the Chinese New Year, Chinatown bakeries fill up with tins of butter cookies, waiting to be given as gifts to relatives. Of course, they're still sold and eaten year-round, and once you have just one of these bite-size cookies, it's hard to stop. They're a tad less sweet than American cookies, but their rich butteriness makes them irresistible.

Lo mein is a noodle dish that often is confused with chow mein, and many Chinese restaurants further the confusion by using the two names interchangeably. The dishes are similar, both featuring noodles mixed with stir-fried meat and vegetables and a savory sauce. But whereas chow mein refers to parboiled and stir-fried noodles, lo mein refers to noodles that are fully cooked separately and quickly tossed with sauce in the wok. The roast pork in this recipe is char siu, the same gorgeous reddish-brown pork often displayed and sold in Chinatown shop windows. Instead of buying the pork ready-made, you can also roast your own at home. For the egg noodles, you can use any that are thin and round; spaghetti will also work.

"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.

This braise gets its deep flavor and color from dried New Mexico chiles. Find them in the produce section.

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

The fact that these fries are healthier is almost beside the point—baked fries are great in their own right, and who's crazy enough to deep-fry on a weeknight anyway? These potatoes get a dusting of spices before roasting for extra flavor.

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