Vegan

This can be a great dish all year round, if you choose the best fruits available. The addition of mint adds a bright, refreshing flavor to the sweetness of the fruit.

In Philippine cuisine, dark, fairly harsh soy sauce is favored, but it's often combined with sugar to create a syrupy dressing for vegetables. The added garlic gives this sweet and salty sauce a pleasant kick. This recipe originally accompanied Lumpia Rolls .

Dashi is a traditional Asian stock. The recipe is simple—the only ingredients are dried kelp (seaweed) and flakes of dried bonito, a type of fish. However, both ingredients are packed with flavor, creating a rich, aromatic broth.

These are very similar to crêpes—the staple of Brittany—but thinner and more delicate (and the filling is like nothing you'll find in the French tradition).

The traditional Egyptian breakfast of dried fava beans is also the national dish, eaten at all times of the day, in the fields, in village mud-houses, and in the cities. Restaurants serve it as a mezze, and it is sold in the streets. Vendors put the beans in large, round, narrow-necked vessels, which they bury through the night in the dying embers of the public baths. Ful medames is pre-Ottoman and pre-Islamic. It is probably as old as the Pharaohs. According to an Arab saying: “Beans have satisfied even the Pharaohs.” Egyptians gleefully tell you that the little brown beans have been found in pharaonic tombs and have been made to germinate. There are fields of them, and promotional explanations on fake papyrus by the Ministry of Agriculture. Of course, they could have been put there by tomb robbers. There are many types of dried fava beans—small, middle-sized, and large, all of which can be used—and there are very good-quality canned ones. Most expatriates are happy with canned ones, which they improve on with flavorings and trimmings. These need to be turned into a pan with their juice and cooked for 15 minutes.

Make this salad for lunch but serve it hot at dinner first. To give kids extra protein at lunch, add 1/2 cup finely chopped cold cooked chicken and round it out with a small whole-wheat roll and an apple.

You can ease the kids into fall (and school) with this Cuban-inspired salad made with sweet late summer corn and protein-packed black beans. To make it even more of a main dish, toss in some shredded cooked chicken, thinly sliced and cut-up grilled steak, or barbecued pork or shrimp. Add a few bits of fresh basil or baby spinach just before packing.

Soundtrack: "Sankofa" by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Tony Allen from Allen Chop Up and "Sankofa" by Cassandra Wilson from Blue Light 'Til Dawn This recipe was the seed of Vegan Soul Kitchen... a brand new classic, if you will, dedicated to my home city in the mid-South—Memphis, Tennessee.

Ma'Dear, my maternal grandmother, would sun-brew gallon jars full of Sweet Goodness on sweltering hot summer days. Recollections of those containers full of cinnamon-colored tea sitting on her back porch bring back sweet memories of simpler days. This version will satisfy the snootiest of Sweet Tea connoisseurs (read: my mom) and won't give drinkers an insulin spike since it is sweetened with agave nectar.

While bean fritters are thought to have their origin in Nigeria, one can find them throughout West Africa. Inspired by the Black-Eyed Pea Fritters served at the Gambian-Cameroonian restaurant Bennachin in New Orleans, I whipped up this dish.

Black-eyed peas can replace the chickpeas, if desired. For a lighter soup, the rice can be omitted.

This rich Belizean pudding, or pone, is delicious warm or chilled.

Soundtrack: "Hot Lava" by Kudu from Death of the Party This is my attempt to replicate the oh-so-slammin' hot sauce at the Senegalese restaurant Joloff, my favorite eatery in New York City. This version is only slightly hot, but if you really want that fire add one more habanero chile.

This unusual slaw is a delicious accompaniment to any Mexican- or Southwestern-style entrée.

Flour and water—can it get any more basic? After a few minutes of kneading, the dough magically comes together into a smooth, supple ball. Fettuccine is the goal here, but Chun also likes to cut the pasta into free-form "rags" to serve with a wild-mushroom sauce.

After such a substantial meal, you'll want to keep things light for dessert. A little fancier than a fruit salad yet almost as easy, this cool combination of musky cantaloupe and honeydew gets an unexpected fillip from icy granita. Don’t worry if the granita melts faster than you expect—it will slump into a lovely sauce over the fruit.

Versions of this casual dish are found throughout Peru, often crowned with a steak and a fried egg. Cooks flip the mixture of beans and rice frequently while it fries so that the exterior develops a crisp, browned crust. We've simplified the technique, but have no fear— you will still end up with lots of delectable crunchy bits. Although it is served here as a side dish, tacu tacu also makes a satisfying vegetarian supper alongside a green salad.

Indigenous to the Andes, quinoa was called the mother grain by the Incas, who considered the plant sacred. And while much has been made of quinoa's nutritional properties, its fluffy texture and nuttiness in this recipe are a revelation. Because it comes together quickly and is full of bright flavors, this salad is sure to become a summer staple. It's worth seeking out the fresh hearts of palm, which have a vibrant snap, but if you cannot find them, do not substitute canned; instead, use chayote (see cooks’ note, below).

The trick to french fries is double-frying. First, flash-fry the potatoes to eliminate moisture, then fry them again to ensure crispness. Eating them with mayonnaise will take you to Europe.