Vegetable

"I totally ripped this off from my mom." —Allie Lewis Clapp, food editor

An aggressively seasoned marinade delivers big flavor.

When it comes to buying feta, you've got choices. We love the firm texture and sheep's-milk tang of Bulgarian or Greek.

"A crunchy, cheesy topping gives squash big flavor and texture." —Chris Morocco, associate food editor

Pair this summery side dish with grilled pork chops or flank steak, or chop and fold it into couscous for a light meal.

This riff on gazpacho gets unexpected sweetness—and great color— from the addition of cherries and a peach.

Warm spices, supersweet Sun Gold tomatoes, and a short cooking time reinvent the ordinary marinara.

Fresher and more vibrant than the jarred stuff, this easy-to-make relish is good on hot dogs, burgers, and grilled sausages.

Chef Josh Keeler brings out the best in vegetables with…meat. He drizzles a vinaigrette made with cured soppressata over a rotating cast of seasonal produce, like okra and green beans. "It adds a bit of acidity, fat, and richness without overpowering the dish," he says. And it makes a strong case for using meat in a supporting role to veggies, not the other way around.

We love the shades of green you get from using one color of heirlooms, but this salad is equally delicious with any tomatoes you like.

The flavor of the spiced pickled fennel really pops with the sweet tomatoes.

How do you make grilled corn taste even better? Douse it in flavorful herb butter.

With tongue in cheek, I call this chicken "unfried." That's because I am well known for fried chicken, which may be the crown jewel of southern cooking but is a dish I avoid these days. I like unfried chicken just as much. The chicken is soaked in tangy buttermilk and then coated with flavorful breading, just like fried chicken. The difference is that it's baked. This dish was on the menu at LYFE Kitchen. I first prepared it when Oprah's movie Beloved opened. One of the many lessons I learned from Oprah is to offer people a choice at meals, and one of those choices should be a healthy one. To this day I honor that lesson in my home and my restaurants.

Editor's note: Serve this sauce with Michael Chiarello's Grilled Pasta with Grilled Meatballs . Grilling the tomatoes and roasting the red pepper gives this sauce an underlying flavor that I really like. I tend to double this recipe and freeze what I don't need. I'm always glad to have this sauce on hand. It's best to grill tomatoes over charcoal or a wood fire that's about 30 minutes past its hottest point. I like to use a plancha but you can use a cast-iron pan or grill the tomatoes directly on the grill rack.

Effort Level: Plan Ahead While olives come in a diverse range of colors, shapes, and flavors, they all have a common denominator: a salty, tangy brine, that perks up milder ingredients like fish, chicken, and greens. So I challenged myself to find a low-sodium olive substitute for an olive-heavy dish. And I found the answer in pickled beets. Get ready to pucker up.

Between the bacon (around 200mg of sodium per slice) and the scallops (over 330mg per 3 ounces), the classic dish is too salty for me to enjoy. But when the bacon is replaced with smoky zucchini ribbons and the scallops are swapped out for halibut rounds, you have a whimsical reinterpretation that actually tastes equally thrilling. I used smoked paprika and cumin to mimic the smoky fl avor of bacon and I decided to glaze the halibut rounds in honey and sugar to mimic the natural sweetness of scallops. The curry is purely for color and to balance the sweetness of the fish, and the spinach pasta lends a rich backdrop for the yellow-tinted "scallops."

Long before I discovered my love of sashimi, I fell in love with the viscous, sweet taste of teriyaki. With anywhere from 300 to 700mg of sodium per tablespoon, however, teriyaki chicken from the local takeout is now out of the question. So, to meet my cravings, I let go of the original dish and focused on finding a substitute with a similar color, thick coating, and unique flavor. The low-sodium answer lay in tamarind paste—a sweet and tart concentrate made from tamarind seed pods. It is popular in Indian, Middle Eastern, and East Asian cuisines, and can even be found in Worcestershire sauce. Its acidic properties help tenderize meat, and in Ayurvedic medicine it is said to have heart-protecting properties. Or in Western medicine speak, it may help lower bad cholesterol. While it is no teriyaki, this tamarind sauce sure makes a convincing look-alike. The savory sweetness of the tamarind will delight your palate. If you have any leftover herbs in your kitchen, like mint, cilantro, or even some green onion, dice and sprinkle them over the chicken at the end for some extra color and cool flavor. And to make a traditional bento presentation, serve with a slice of orange and crisp lettuce salad.