105 plate recipes

Summer succotash with fresh corn, lima beans, zucchini, and grape tomatoes topped with seared sea scallops and a bright parsley drizzle. A seasonal one-pan main that eats like a cookout on a plate.

Tarragon chicken salad dressed in a light yogurt sauce built on a white wine, shallot, and fresh tarragon reduction, then plated with new potatoes and crisp green beans. A composed, mayo-free chicken salad.

Dominican red beans and rice (habichuelas con arroz), small red beans simmered with cumin, garlic, a touch of sugar, and vinegar, spooned over fluffy rice. A naturally vegan plate, great with avocado and plantains.

Turkey legs braised in a rich mole sauce built from chocolate, peanut butter, raisins, ground chile, and warm spices. This authentic Mexican mole delivers deep, layered flavor that will have you licking the plate clean.

Upside-down apple coffee cake with a sticky brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecan base under a tender sour cream batter. Flip it onto a plate and watch breakfast become the best part of everyone's morning.

Thin-pounded veal scallops seared golden, then plated with warm avocado slices and a silky vermouth-lemon butter sauce. A retro Italian gem that feels surprisingly modern, ready in under an hour for 6 to 8.

Butternut squash soup with honey and a roasted barley risotto center, a restaurant-plated autumn soup where creamy risotto sits in the middle of a pool of silky squash soup. Elegant fall entertaining in a bowl.

Pan-seared chicken breast sliced thin and plated with fresh kiwi and melon, drizzled in a triple-mustard honey cream sauce. An elegant yet easy dinner or appetizer that looks straight out of a fine dining kitchen.

Mandel-Halbmonde are German almond crescents: buttery shortbread cookies shaped like half-moons, baked pale, then rolled twice in powdered sugar. The kind of melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookie every German bakery puts on the holiday plate.

Green bean bundles tied with blanched leek ribbons and steamed until bright, served over two silky sweet pepper sauces (one red, one yellow) perfumed with white wine and basil. A dinner party side that looks painterly on the plate.

Nothing is more fascinating and delicious than eating at the open- air street hawker centers in Asia, particularly in Singapore. Each stall serves a specialty, typically an honest, unpretentious, home-style dish for $1 to $3 a plate. This rice noodle dish is hawker food at its best. If done right, its fragrance will tell you how good it's going to be as soon as it arrives at your table.

Banana cinnamon waffles with mashed banana and applesauce in place of fat. Low-fat, egg-white only batter for a fluffy, lightly sweet weekend breakfast.

Irish pumpkin pie made with stout or Guinness beer in place of evaporated milk, cinnamon, fresh ginger, and pumpkin puree. A boozy holiday twist on the Thanksgiving classic.

Low-fat banana bread loaded with bran flakes and applesauce in place of oil, no eggs and no butter required. A high-fiber loaf with old-fashioned banana flavor.

Fat-free banana muffins use mashed bananas, dark corn syrup, and egg whites in place of butter or oil. A moist breakfast muffin with cinnamon and skim milk, no added fat.

Fat-free pumpkin bran muffins use canned pumpkin and shredded wheat cereal in place of butter or oil. Sweetened with corn syrup and raisins, these spiced fall muffins are guilt-free breakfast.