Recipe Sifter

The classic Italian tomato sauce, great for any pasta dish or to add flavor any Italian style dish.

Mexican escabeche-style pickled vegetables with carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, jalapeños, and olives in a tangy herbed vinegar brine. Chill overnight and serve as a zesty side.

Note: 15 bean mixtures are available packaged in supermarkets and health food stores. If you prefer, make your own by combining equal amounts of dried blackeyed peas, red kidney beans, white kidney beans (cannellini), green lentils, split peas, black beans, yellow split peas, navy beans, cranberry (Roman, shell, or shell out) beans, great Northern beans, pinto beans, small white limas, red lentils, cow peas (field peas), and pink beans. Avoid using beans such as garbanzos and large lima beans, as these take longer to cook than other varities.

Smoky chipotle tomatillo salsa with charred tomatillos, pureed chipotles in adobo, red onion and cilantro. Tart, smoky and vegan, with a deep building heat that's a world above any jar.

Hearty lentil soup with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, and oregano in chicken broth. A dump-and-simmer recipe that feeds 10 with almost no active cooking time.

Oysters Mosca: chopped fresh oysters cooked down with garlic, scallions, lemon, and Romano cheese, then spooned into puff pastry shells. The classic Italian-Creole New Orleans appetizer from the legendary Mosca's restaurant.

This soup came out so tasty and flavorful. The pan-fried tortilla strips added some nice crunch, and I also served the soup with some sour cream, Monterey Jack cheese, cilantro and scallions. It was an easy, light yet tasty soup.

Roasted winter squash and chicken thighs braise with prunes, garlic, cinnamon, and fresh orange into a North African-leaning one-pan dinner. Sweet, savory, and built for cold weather.

Oven-baked eggplant slices coated in seasoned egg whites and crushed corn flakes. Crispy without frying, no oil needed, and just as good cold as hot.

Sweet, sour and salty chunks of beef roast just melted in my mouth. The spices added just right amount of yumminess. The sauce was so flavourful too. My plate was clean in the end, because I couldn't leave anything behind. Yum!

A garden vegetable spaghetti sauce loaded with peppers, zucchini, and summer squash, slow-simmered with garlic and a big handful of herbs. A meatless, freezer-friendly marinara for using up the garden.

TVP granules sautéed with garlic, peppers, and onions simmer in tangy tomato paste spiked with oregano and cayenne for a protein-packed vegetarian sloppy joe filling.

Chunky California beef and bean chili made with cubed round steak, scratch-cooked beans and fresh-toasted cumin. Three peppers and a jalapeño build layered heat in this lean, hearty bowl.

Serve in buns or as a main course, hot or cold. Can be frozen.

Vegetarian party pate made from pinto beans, TVP, and shiitake mushrooms with mirin and mace, baked in a water bath and served cold on crackers.

Pizza-flavored bread machine loaf packed with chopped pepperoni, provolone, and Parmesan. Oregano and garlic make the whole kitchen smell like a pizzeria.