Recipe Sifter

Red chile pesto clams with ancho and dried red chiles, roasted garlic, pine nuts, and oregano blended into a smoky, spicy pesto spooned over steamed clams. A Mexican-Italian fusion seafood bowl.

Red chili nightmare: a wild Mexican-style red chili with beef, sausage, pinto beans, almonds, sesame, chocolate, and a dozen green chiles. Mole-inspired, fiery, and not for the timid.

Molded red pepper couscous ring filled with steamed vegetables and topped with a cool dill yogurt sauce. Stunning vegetarian buffet centerpiece that cuts like a savory cake.

Red potato colcannon keeps the skins on, steams the potatoes, and mashes them with browned cabbage and onion softened in milk. Irish comfort food done lighter.

Reese cookies: no-bake peanut butter bars with a graham cracker base and melted chocolate top. The homemade chocolate-peanut butter cup bar that tastes identical to the wrapped classic.

Refrigerator mocha torte layers graham crackers between rich chocolate-coffee buttercream in a loaf pan, chilled until firm. No-bake icebox cake with sliceable mocha layers. Serves 10.

Renaissance pizza layers a slow-simmered carrot-onion tomato sauce with sauteed broccoli, cauliflower, and mushrooms on a rectangular cake-flour crust. Fully vegetarian.

Red lentil dal with a garlic and jalapeno tadka, cumin seeds, garam masala, and turmeric. A simple, spicy Indian comfort dish ready in about an hour.

Reverse chocolate chunk cookies flip the classic: a deep, cocoa-rich chocolate dough studded with creamy white chocolate chunks. Fudgy, brownie-like cookies with a striking dark-and-white contrast.

Caribbean-style rice and peas gets a vegan upgrade with cubed tempeh, coconut-toasted brown rice, black-eyed peas, and cinnamon. A hearty plant-based main with island flavor.

Rice pudding tart with red wine-poached pears fanned on top, finished under the broiler for a caramelized sugar crust. An elegant dessert that can be made ahead.

Roasted eggplant with chilies, fresh ginger, tomato, and coriander. Indian-style baingan bharta cousin with smoky charred flesh and a serious chili kick.

The garlic and rosemary infused olive oil adds the herby and garlicky taste into the chicken under roasting; lentils and olives give the enough fibre and minerals to your daily nutrition. Serve it with roasted potatoes, salad greens.

Roasting concentrates flavors without adding fat and lends a buttery-soft texture.

Roasted vegetable soup that starts with a from-scratch stock: carrots, onions, leeks and tomatoes roasted until deeply browned, then simmered into a rich broth. Built into a hearty vegan soup with potatoes, zucchini, pasta and peas.

Broccoli and white bean soup with stewed tomatoes, oregano, rosemary, and Parmesan stirred in at the end. A hearty, Italian-inspired vegetarian soup ready in under an hour.