Recipe Sifter

Four-melon salad with cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, and crenshaw balls tossed with pistachios, celery, and a honey-mint sour cream dressing spiked with orange liqueur.

Classic split pea soup with smoked ham, carrots, celery, and onion. Dried peas simmer until they break down into a thick, hearty soup with chunks of smoky ham.

Louisiana crawfish pie with the Cajun holy trinity, butter, crawfish tails, and green onions, baked in a double-crust pastry. Bayou comfort food at its best.

Tex-Mex chicken salad with picante-simmered chicken breast, creamy avocado, smoky bacon, and a cumin-spiked sour cream dressing. Bold Southwest flavor served cold on crisp lettuce.

Split pea and lentil soup with onions, celery, carrots and rosemary, simmered in a vegetable stock built right in the pot. A high-protein, oil-free vegan soup ready in under an hour.

Slow cooker ham and bean soup with diced ham, a leftover ham bone, dried beans, and chopped vegetables seasoned with onion soup mix and Italian herbs. Set it and forget it for 7 hours.

Curried lentils and vegetables simmered with fresh ginger, curry powder, carrots, and celery. Low-fat, high-protein, and served with a cool yogurt-tomato topping.

Sauteed shrimp with a curried banana sauce made from pureed bananas, apple, curry powder, cardamom, and ginger simmered in chicken stock. An elegant fusion dish.

Ham steak cabbage soup with V-8, tomato, celery, and onion, simmered slow into a hearty hug-in-a-bowl. Low-calorie, low-carb pantry-friendly soup that tastes like a much bigger pot of stew.

Oysters and wild rice casserole, a Southern holiday-style bake with plump oysters, nutty wild rice, sage, thyme, and a buttery Ritz cracker topping.

Authentic Singapore-style fried noodles with curry powder, dried shrimp, barbecued pork, bean sprouts, and egg shreds. A wok-tossed hawker classic loaded with smoky, spicy flavor.

Miss Hulling's chicken pot pie made from scratch with a whole stewing hen simmered into rich broth, loaded with potatoes and carrots, and topped with golden pastry. Old-fashioned comfort food done right.

Mixed fruit salad with apples, bananas, pineapple, and raisins in a light lemon-mayo dressing. A low-calorie, diabetic-friendly side dish with a celery crunch.

Vegan gumbo with okra, corn, crushed tomatoes, and the Cajun holy trinity sautéed in water instead of oil. A quick 30-minute plant-based soup that's full of Southern flavor.

Impossible beef and tomato pie: a crustless Bisquick-batter pie with cooked beef, tomatoes, onion, celery, and Swiss cheese. Bakes its own crust as it sets.

Florida bouillabaisse: a Gulf Coast riff on the French classic with fish, shrimp, crab, clams, and softshell turtle in a saffron-tomato broth. Wine, herbs, and white bread for sopping. Feeds a crowd.