Vegan

The words pea soup usually bring hearty dried split peas to mind, but this one—made with basil pesto and frozen green peas—has a fresh herbal sweetness.

Vietnamese-style rolls are a great addition to your summer repertoire: They require very little cooking and can be assembled at the kitchen table or out on the patio. Thanks to bean thread noodles and baked tofu, they make a substantial meal, but pickled vegetables and a trio of herbs keep each sauce-dipped bite light and cool.

This stir-fry is staggeringly simple. A drizzle of sesame oil gives a nutty-toasty boost to thinly sliced bok choy and cabbage.

Use one crust to make the pizza here. Chill the extra dough for up to four days or freeze for up to a month.

Serve over basmati rice.

These smoothies are light, delicious, and not too sweet. If you prefer a thicker smoothie, add 1/4 cup plain yogurt. Almond milk is a dairy-free product made from ground almonds; it's available at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and natural foods stores.

This recipe yields enough to make the "shortcakes," too.

This recipe is a tribute to the chickpea salad they sell at the prepared-foods counter at Zabar's market in New York City, which my wife, Beverly, and I have always enjoyed. The key to this recipe is letting the beans soak after they've cooked. Rather than seasoning the beans while they're cooking, which keeps them from softening, you season them after they've cooked and then give them time to absorb the salt and garlic. Ideally, this recipe should be made a day or so ahead of time to let the flavors develop even further. Alot of people use parsley as a "default herb" to garnish a dish without really thinking about whether another herb might work better. But the flavor of parsley here truly matters; it completes the balance of the salad.

There's character to spare in this layered flatbread, called msemmen in Arabic. The dough is rubbed with spiced oil, rolled into a spiral, flattened, and then cooked on a griddle, for a flakiness that's surprisingly substantial. Zadi likes pairing the flatbread with an acidic dish, which is why we recommend it with the <epi:recipelink id="241504"" target="_new">shrimp charmoula</epi:recipelink>; but, as he points out, the bread actually goes well with the entire meal, so plan on leaving it on the table from Start to finish.

"Ingredients are considered 'spices' in Algerian cooking," says Zadi, and this slaw illustrates his point, with olives contributing saltiness, carrots and sun-dried tomatoes adding sweetness, and fennel and parsley lending an incredible freshness. In the dead of winter, when vegetables are scarce, the clean flavors of this salad are as close as you're likely to get to a summertime farmers market.

If the idea of tomatoes and watermelon together sounds odd to you, this dish will be a revelation. There is a saying that what grows together goes together, and in this case it is true. If you think of tomatoes as a fruit, which they are botanically, this combination makes more sense. Seasonality, however, is the key. I make this salad only in the summer, when tomatoes, watermelon, and cucumbers are at their peak of flavor. Rich, creamy Hass avocadoes are included to lend a nice contrast of flavor and texture. I always toss this salad together before serving, but for the photo opposite I was inspired to create a painstaking mosaic of the ingredients. If you're so inclined, feel free, but don't say I didn't warn you—it takes a lot of time.

Like it or not, cucumbers and radishes have become virtually seasonless. Here, they provide a lively, refreshing counterpoint to the meal's overall richness. What's more, the whole dish can be put together in mere minutes.

Salads don't always need vinegar or lemon juice. A mix of Boston and Bibb lettuce, seasoned with only good olive oil and salt, goes well with the more piquant dishes in this menu.

Haroseth, a thick condiment of fruit, nuts, and wine, symbolizes the mortar the Israelites used in Egypt. Roberts's particular mix of almonds, pistachios, dates, and dried apricots, reflective of the Middle East, is outstanding (note that we prefer the sweet-tart complexity of California/Pacific apricots to the bland sweetness of Turkish ones). Enjoy leftover haroseth slathered on matzos or crackers; we discovered it's great with Manchego cheese as well.

This salsa verde, which balances a meal full of spiced dishes, would also complement anything from grilled steak to steamed vegetables.

Honey provides the sweet, and lemon juice the sour, in the Passover dish known as apio, which has origins in Turkey (the Ottoman Empire became a haven for Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition in 1492). As the celery cooks, it soaks up the braising liquid and becomes silky.

As a harbinger of spring, artichokes have a special place on the Passover table and in our hearts. One of Roberts's favorite ways to enjoy them is this elegant Roman preparation. (Rome is home to the oldest Jewish community in the Western world—the first Jews arrived in 161 b.c.e. as ambassadors from Judah Maccabee in Jerusalem.) The trimmed artichokes are braised in a lemony broth zinging with garlic and mint, which is later reduced to a satiny sauce.

An easy marinade of garlic, lemon, thyme, and a dollop of the North African hot sauce harissa make these green olives memorable. If you can, prepare the olives ahead—they improve with age.