Vegan

While the restaurant serves the ultra-spicy salsa alongside hummus, tsatsiki, and baba ghanouj, chef Eric Leyden suggests it as a lively accompaniment to meats and hearty lentil or tomato soups.

Feathery carrot tops, the often discarded exclamation point to this popular vegetable, have a sprightly bitterness—almost a cross between radicchio and parsley—that makes them an intriguing accent to a crisp, cumin- scented slaw. Although it's wonderful made with regular orange carrots, you could also showcase the rainbow of offerings (in shades of scarlet, burgundy, and yellow) that beckon at farmers markets.

Sweet-tart pineapple is wonderful with pork, as are collard greens. The two together, plus a healthy dose of vinegar, morph into something that's utterly surprising and utterly delicious. It both complements and cuts the richness of the meat.

The French have a saying, "You must watch what you're cooking like milk on the stove," referring, of course, to the fact that milk can boil over in a flash. Case in point: Garlic chips are sweet and nutty when cooked just right, but let them go just a little too long, and they become burnt and acrid.

This fresh salsa was dreamed up when we were testing our Salt-Crust Chicken . It's also wonderful with fresh cod, corvina, branzino, and striped bass. It was invented by Lucía Soria, who, while still in her twenties, went from being a cook in my restaurant in Buenos Aires to the manager of Hotel Restaurant Garzon in Uruguay and my second-in-command at important events such as the inaugural dinner for Argentina's president.

Nearly all of chef Kyle Caporicci's sweets come with their very own ice cream pairings: carrot cake with root beer ice cream; mango-kiwi cheesecake with mint. And in the case of this exotic fruit salad, the topping is a refreshing sake granita and pear sorbet.

Pack carrot and celery sticks along with this lemony hummus.

Try serving the jam with goat cheese, pistachios, and m&âche.

[These ingredients are available at health food stores.]

In Ethiopia, the preparation of berbere takes days—chilies are dried in the sun for three days, then ground in a mortar and pestle, mixed with ground spices, and set in the sun to dry again—and it is usually made in huge amounts. Each Ethiopian family has its own recipe for this universal seasoning, with varying degrees of heat and spiciness. Traditionally, berbere is used to flavor Ethiopian stews, but I also like to use it as a rub for beef and lamb.

Here's a recipe for green soup. It's the easiest thing ever.

These tender, potent little orbs make a splendid Bloody Mary—esque addition to a beach-blanket picnic or a fancy cocktail party, and they tend to disappear in no time flat. Blanching them makes quick work of slipping off their skins.

The height of tomato season often coincides with some of summer's most blistering days. Defeat the heat with a fresh side dish of green beans cloaked in a cool, tomatoey sauce inspired by gazpacho.

The humble potato, given a little something extra, always elicits oohs and aahs. This is especially true when it's tossed with an herb-infused oil and cooked on the grill.

Radicchio adds streaks of scarlet and a pleasant bitterness to the usual Greek-salad suspects. A simple lemon and olive-oil dressing keeps things light and fresh.