Nut Free

Apples cooked in orange juice and flavored with fresh ginger and spices—the combination smells as delicious as it tastes! Serve the chutney with roast pork, chicken, or turkey.

Even if you’ve never made pickles before, don’t hesitate to try this recipe. It is so easy! Just let the cucumbers simmer in a flavorful liquid, then cool and refrigerate them. The flavor of these pickles really brightens lean grilled burgers or your favorite potato salad or tuna salad recipe.

These quick-fix pickles have the traditional flavor you expect but only 1 milligram of sodium, a tremendous saving compared to commercial pickles of the same variety.

A popular dish in the Lone Star State, where it is called Texas Caviar, this flavorful salad is sure to become a favorite in your household, too.

Add some zing to your food, but without the sodium usually found in bottled chili sauce. Drizzle this chili sauce on Spicy Baked Fish (page 103) or use it to make shrimp cocktail.

Couscous, a quick-cooking Moroccan staple, gets a Mediterranean makeover with fresh lemon juice, oregano, mint, and feta.

Try this in your own favorite chili recipe, our Chili (page 190), or Eggplant Mexicana (page 244).

It won’t take you long to do the actual preparation for this aromatic bread. During its resting and baking times, you can take a walk, fix dinner, or just relax.

Use this spicy mix in Zesty Oven-Fried Potatoes (page 250) and any other recipes that call for Creole or Cajun seasoning blends.

Crisp, colorful vegetables are the highlights of this salad. Try it for a summertime picnic for a group or for the next family reunion.

This pretty, quick-to-prepare, and divine-tasting salad is perfect for potlucks and summer lunches. Vary the vegetables and try other vinaigrettes in this chapter (pages 96–97) for different flavors.

A tangy yogurt-based orange sauce and a drizzle of raspberry spread dress up mango slices for an attractive dish that is terrific as a salad or a dessert.

Get back to basics, and take pleasure in baking your own nourishing bread.

Serve this delightful Indian-inspired raita (RI-tah) to cool down a spicy entrée or use it to top Wine-Poached Salmon (page 109).

Banana, cranberries, and orange zest give this bread a lively flavor that will get your day off to just the right start.

A sprinkling of crumbled feta tops this very tasty mix of fresh spinach, sweet grape tomatoes, artichokes, and basil.

Because it doesn’t contain mayonnaise, this slaw is a good picnic dish. It keeps well in the refrigerator for several days, so you can make it in advance.

Lemon-scented muffins with plump blueberries really hit the spot for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Homemade corn muffins make mealtime special. Try them with Lima Bean Soup with Ham Bits and Crisp Sage (page 70) or Pecan-Crusted Catfish with Zesty Tartar Sauce (page 106). Any leftover muffins are super for a grab-and-go snack.

Use seasonal fruit so you can serve this salad with its mildly sweet and tart dressing year-round.