1,006 serving recipes

This no-cook banana bread dip blends ripe mashed bananas with warm cinnamon, nutmeg, and quick oats for a creamy, scoopable treat ready in 10 minutes flat. Serve with fruit, pound cake cubes, or vanilla wafers.

Hearty chicken soup simmered with white wine, tomato sauce, potatoes, carrots, and green pepper. A whole chicken boiled tender and chunked back into a rich, veggie-loaded broth. Serve with garlic bread for a full meal.

Slow-cooked chili beans with dried black beans and black-eyed peas simmered with a ham hock in chicken broth. Soaked overnight, then oven-braised low and slow. Serve on their own or add to chili.

Fried turtle meat simmered in a dark roux-based tomato sauce with mushrooms, shallots, bell pepper, lemon peel, and cayenne, served over hot rice. An authentic Louisiana Cajun dish that's as wild as the bayou itself.

La sabana: a Mexican restaurant classic of paper-thin beef filet pounded to the size of a plate, flash-seared with lime, and served with refried beans and salsa. Four seconds on the griddle, no more.

Chilled pappa al pomodoro with crab meat crostini, a Tuscan bread-and-tomato soup served cold with a lemony crab-topped baguette float. An elegant no-cook summer appetizer that turns stale bread into something special.

Chili-rubbed sirloin steak: a quick four-ingredient weeknight dinner ready in 15 minutes. Garlic and chili powder pressed into the meat form a bold dry crust under high heat, sliced and served with cool salsa.

Grilled prawns with fresh coriander: quickly marinated in soy, rice wine, and sesame oil, then broiled or barbecued and served with a bright cilantro-ginger-rice vinegar dipping sauce. Clean, punchy Chinese-style shrimp in 30 minutes.

Plum tuna, canned tuna warmed in a sweet-tangy plum jam sauce spiked with ginger, garlic and soy, served over rice with nuts, parsley and coconut on top. A retro pantry dinner that cooks in 30 minutes.

Fresh figs poached in port and creme de cassis, the wine reduced to a glossy syrup, served over vanilla frozen yogurt. An elegant, low-fat dessert with deep berry and fig flavor from just a few ingredients.

Old-fashioned buttermilk gingerbread with a streusel-style crumb topping built from the same dough. Molasses, ginger, and cinnamon meet a tangy buttermilk batter for a soft, warm-spiced cake. Serve warm with whipped cream or baked apple.

Summer vegetable spaghetti tossed with zucchini, yellow squash and green beans in a light tomato sauce with a pinch of chili powder. Low in fat, no oil needed, and just as good served cold as a pasta salad.

Oxtail soup simmered until the meat falls off the bone, then finished with potatoes, mixed vegetables, and tomato paste for a rich, hearty bowl. A classic stick-to-your-ribs soup served as is or ladled over white rice.

Roasted chicken seasoned with celery salt, onion salt, and seasoned salt, then baked covered until juicy and finished uncovered for golden skin. A make-ahead win that yields two birds: serve one tonight, debone the other for the week.

These deliciously cheesy tartlets are great at many occasions. Handy appetizer or tasty breakfast. Make them in advance, put in the refrigerator or freezer, reheat before eating them; so these yummy tartlets can be also served at lunch or dinner.

While Schwartz describes the name for this Israeli dish as slightly pretentious, he notes that it won a cooking competition and found its way onto the menus of five star hotels. He recommends serving it over a bed or bulgur pilaf.