12 conventional recipes

Golden curried rice cooked pilaf-style in butter with cumin, turmeric, ginger, and cayenne, then folded with diced ham and sweet green peas. A one-pot dinner that turns leftover ham into something special.

Easy Mexican chicken and rice baked together in one casserole with chicken bouillon, onion, and a top blanket of salsa. Boneless breasts steam moist over the rice while the salsa flavors everything.

Golden turmeric rice cooked with a bay leaf and a pinch of chili powder for warm color and subtle spice. A simple five-ingredient Indian-style side dish that pairs with curries, stews, and grilled meats.

One-skillet arroz con pollo with browned chicken legs and thighs simmered over turmeric-tinted rice, bell peppers, and scallions. Low-fat, low-calorie, and ready in 45 minutes.

A weeknight-friendly mushroom risotto made with converted rice, champagne, and cream of mushroom soup. Creamy, earthy, and on the table in 30 minutes with no constant stirring required.

A loaded Spanish paella with chicken, pork, shrimp, and calamari over saffron rice. This one-pan fiesta feeds 6 and comes together in under an hour.

Authentic Nova Scotia Rappie pie "rapure" in French, is a well-loved traditional Acadian dish. Unique to the region, it's not a pie in the conventional sense, but instead a delicious mix of potatoes and chicken.

A microwave version of the french classic Eggs Benedict. Easy to make version of Hollandaise sauce.

Yoghurt is a great tenderiser for chicken breast, which can be a little tough when cooked without marinating beforehand. Buy organic yoghurt if possible to avoid the traces of growth hormones and antibiotics commonly found in conventional dairy products.

This is a very simple recipe for roast chicken. Serve with roast vegetables and/or salad. If you opt for grains, choose whole grains such as brown rice instead of white, or mix brown and white rice together to increase the fiber content.

Choose wild salmon to reap the health benefits of this fatty fish. Wild salmon is easily identifiable as its flesh is bright red and contains very little fat (very thin white stripes in the flesh). Since wild salmon swim in the wild eating what nature intended them to eat, their nutritional profile is more complete. Farmed salmon, by comparison, are fed an unnatural diet of soy and corn (never found naturally growing in the ocean!) along with chicken and feather meal. This unnatural diet means that the nutritional content of farmed salmon is markedly different from the wild variety. In particular, its omega-3 fatty acid content is much lower. Farmed salmon also contain a lot more fat (since they can't swim around as freely) and are often carriers of toxic viruses.

Popular Chinese dish from the Sichuan region containing bean curd cooked in a spicy pepper and black bean sauce. Fermented black beans have long been used to boost digestion and support immune function. The process of fermentation also increases the vitamin B and omega-3 fatty acid content of the beans. Adding fermented foods to one’s diet is one of the best ways of creating a protective environment in the gut against harmful pathogenic bacteria and other organisms.