Vegetarian

This is our hands-down favorite way to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.

Tart, sour, and just as refreshing as ye olde cranberry sauce.

Vibrant greens, handfuls of fresh herbs, nuts for crunch, and horseradish for bite. Ingredients are suggestions; feel free to mix it up.

Warm spices and sweet dried fruit are a perfect pair for rich turkey meat.

Don't have a spice mill? You can use a blender or food processor for this one.

To learn how to cut endive into long, layered spears for an elegant look.

A colorful and spicy (but not fiery!) side breaks up all the heavy, rich dishes on the table.

These knobby-looking tubers (a.k.a. sunchokes) are sweet and nutty when browned. Balsamic vinegar smacks some sass into them.

Flip the script on a winter vegetable that's usually stewed: Collards are great when briefly sautéed.

You'll never be tempted to buy packaged again.

You will fight your own relatives for the bits of cheesy goodness stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Parsnip, a vegetable usually roasted or pureed, is crunchy, sweet, and delicious raw. Who knew?

I rarely rave about my own recipes, but this is one I can just go on and on about. It is the definition of freshness with its sweet-and-sour late-summer flavors, and it is also an utter delight to look at. But the most incredible thing about it is that it uses a few ingredients that I have been lovingly cooking with for many years, and believed I knew everything there was to know about, yet had never thought of mixing them in such a way. That is, until I traveled to Istanbul and came across a similar combination of fresh tomatoes and pomegranate seeds in a famous local kebab restaurant called Hamdi, right by the Spice Bazaar. It was a proper light-bulb moment when I realized how the two types of sweetness-the sharp, almost bitter sweetness of pomegranate and the savory, sunny sweetness of tomato-can complement each other so gloriously. I use four types of tomato here to make the salad more interesting visually and in flavor. You can easily use fewer, just as long as they are ripe and sweet.

The inspiration for this was Sarah's grandmother ("nan") Dulcie in Tasmania, who always used to add some honey to the pan before roasting her carrots. I'm not sure what Dulcie would have thought about a tahini yogurt sauce served alongside, but the sweetness of the carrots certainly welcomes it. Make this extra vibrant by using different-colored carrots.

This savory cake is packed with Parmesan and basil. Serve it in slices for brunch alongside a salad of fresh fruit or bitter greens.

This recipe—a rhapsody for sweet, bitter, and salty—is based on one from Ruth Reichl, published in Gourmet Today.