Recipe Sifter

Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and arugula tossed in a quick shallot and garlic sauce with red pepper flakes. A peppery, vegan pasta dinner ready in under an hour.

Triple-chocolate bundt cake made with chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding, sour cream, and chocolate chips. A dense, ultra-moist semi-homemade cake with fudgy pockets of melted chips.

Fat-free apple cake made with applesauce instead of butter or oil, loaded with diced Granny Smith apples, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Freezer-friendly.

Shrimp pulao cooks basmati rice in ginger-infused shrimp stock with coconut, cardamom, cumin, and red chili. A simple South Indian one-pot seafood rice ready in 30 minutes.

Ham bone and bean soup made from leftover holiday ham scraps simmered with beans, onion, garlic, and a homemade aromatic stock. A thrifty, waste-nothing soup that turns a spent ham bone into dinner.

Fat-free chewy chocolate cookies made with cocoa powder, corn syrup, and egg whites instead of butter. Soft, fudgy, and intensely chocolatey with zero added fat.

Ground beef chili with kidney beans, tomato sauce, celery, green pepper, and scallions simmered until thick. A classic weeknight chili topped with cheddar, lettuce, and tortilla chips.

Vegan-friendly tofu vegetable pot pie with zucchini, peppers, Swiss chard, corn, peas, and carrots under a golden biscuit crust. Hearty and plant-based.

Peanut butter and milk chocolate jumbles loaded with chopped chocolate bar pieces. A chewy drop cookie with a rich peanut butter base and melty chocolate chunks.

Deep-fried fruit cookies with a jelly center, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, then dusted in powdered sugar. Crispy outside, jammy inside.

Salmon stuffed with arugula, garlic, honey-glazed carrot, and red currants, basted with white wine and finished with a crisp schmaltz-fried skin. A peppery, sweet-tart centerpiece fish dish worth the extra prep.

Refrigerator pickles in a cold dill-and-garlic brine, ready in three days. The no-canning, no-fermenting method that lets you keep adding cucumbers as you eat from the jar.

Crispy deep-fried dessert wontons with three tropical fillings: coconut-lemon, macadamia-ginger, and banana-honey. Hand-rolled dough twisted like candy wrappers and dusted in powdered sugar.

Chocolate spritz cookies made with melted semi-sweet chocolate chips in the dough, pressed through a cookie press and topped with red cinnamon candies. Makes about 7 1/2 dozen.

This is another popular salad from my old country, Ukraine.

Pistachio butter cookies piped through a star tip and topped with chopped pistachios. Rich, buttery spritz-style cookies with a delicate crumb and elegant bakery presentation.