Food Processor

The tiniest latkes on the menu, these are flavored with creamy cauliflower and spicy Aleppo pepper (a Syrian seasoning). Serve them with the aioli or just sprinkle them with za'atar.

his upscale take on pimiento cheese is smoky and sweet, thanks to paprika and piquillos.

Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice mix that includes sesame seeds, sumac, dried thyme, and dried marjoram. It’s available at specialty foods stores and Middle Eastern markets and from adrianascaravan.com.

An easy, elegant entrée that's perfect for a holiday dinner with friends.

Try to buy ripe tomatoes or let them ripen in a paper bag with an apple for two days.

Peaches are already tender and ambrosial at this time of year, so imagine how deep their sweetness becomes after a trip to the oven concentrates their lusciousness even further. Streusel topping adds a delightful crispness.

As a wake-up call to his taste buds, food editor Ian Knauer adds a dollop of this vibrant, garlicky hot sauce to his egg sandwich (it often finds its way onto his lunch and dinner plates, too). Its versatility is the key—any variety or combination of chiles will produce a different yet full-flavored, lip-tingling sauce.

Layer store-bought vanilla ice cream with peanut butter, caramel sauce, and a peanut–graham cracker crust for the ultimate summer dessert indulgence.

Soybeans replace potatoes in this clever take on skordalia (a garlicky Greek dip). It's perfect with the grilled chicken.

The trick to these poppers is squeezing as much liquid out of the grated zucchini as possible. This helps create a firm but light batter that can be easily rolled into balls and fried.

Sprinkle with crystallized ginger or sliced scallions.

Dressing up jarred eggplant and canned tuna results in an incredibly lusty lunch. An easy tomato and mint salad spooned on top adds just the right touch of fresh acidity.

This supple homemade dough rolls beautifully into a solid base and laces into a pretty lattice top.

Drawing her inspiration from the Caribbean, food editor Lillian Chou stirred lightly sweetened coconut milk into roasted sweet potatoes.

Before the storm of desserts comes the palate-cleansing calm. This playful, snowy mound of savory celery with hints of green apple and tarragon refreshes after the preceding spread. Counterintuitive as it may seem, taking a break before dessert¿to eat a pre-dessert¿will help you enjoy the sweet abundance that awaits.

With just a touch of sugar, this tender crust cradles the pastry cream and glazed-pear filling especially well.

Your guests will wonder what makes this purée so silky. You can either look away demurely, hoarding your secret, or confess that it’s parsnips. Here, the floral subtlety of these ivory tubers is bolstered by the bite of whole Brussels sprouts leaves.

Two holiday traditions—the nut bowl and the cheese plate—unite in these refined cheese balls. Lily-pad-like parsley leaves add a herbaceous note echoed in the surprising (and surprisingly good) combination of rosemary and coriander in the center of the cheese. These diminutive marbles coated with sweet buttered pecans are just the right size, making them neat to eat.

We took a regular apple-pie recipe and sweetened the filling with Mexican piloncillo, an unrefined brown sugar. What a difference a sugar makes. This one has a lot of character and adds syrupy molasses notes to a blend of sweet and tart apples.

This type of beef can have more omega-3 fatty acids, which may curb inflammation in the body, than that from conventional cattle. And the cows are often more ecologically and humanely raised.