Rice & Grains

Creamy, cheesy polenta tops a chunky mixture of vegetables in this hearty casserole.

When it’s time to put logs in the fireplace, it’s also time to fire up a big pot of this chili, flavored with lots of cumin and brightened with lemon juice.

Oregano, shallots, and lemon juice enhance the vegetables in this barley-based dish. You can replace the chard with other greens, such as spinach, turnip greens, or collard greens, if you prefer, adjusting the cooking time as needed.

Enjoy a combination of nutritious vegetables and a whole grain all in one easy side dish. It goes equally well with Broiled Sirloin with Chile-Roasted Onions (page 176), Herb Chicken with Panko-Pecan Crust (page 148), or Wine-Poached Salmon (page 109).

Is this recipe for a side dish or a dessert? It’s your call—either way provides a serving of fruit for each diner. You might want to make a double batch of the walnut crunch and use the extra to top fat-free yogurt or hot cereal for breakfast.

Quinoa, an excellent source of protein that counts toward your whole-grain goal, is the base for this citrusy side. Be sure to use fresh mint leaves—dried mint won’t provide the flavor boost you want for this dish.

This dish is an excellent accompaniment to almost any Asian entrée, such as Chicken with Ginger and Snow Peas (page 157) or Pacific Rim Flank Steak (page 180). Add some chicken, shrimp, beef, or pork cooked without salt to transform this into a main dish.

Full of mushrooms and carrots, this dish tastes great with Herbed Fillet of Sole (page 118).

This salad gets its flavor from cumin, jalapeño, lime juice—and, surprisingly, a touch of honey.

This main-dish salad, topped with a sesame-wasabi dressing, is an interesting combination of colors, textures, aromas, and flavors.

These muffins boast more nutrition than a high-calorie snack bar. Pack two muffins in your lunchbox, and share your heart-healthy treat with a friend.

A garden of vegetables teams up with barley and lean chicken to make this “souper” nutritious. The cooking water from the chicken serves as a flavorful low-salt base for the soup.

Fresh asparagus and dill turn this soup into a flavorful celebration of spring.

With this recipe in your repertoire, you’ll be tempted to start a weekend tradition of serving waffles for a special breakfast treat. Double the recipe when you have guests or so you’ll have waffles to freeze for quick breakfasts later on.

Assemble the ingredients for this oatmeal in the slow cooker before you go to sleep, and a heart-healthy breakfast reminiscent of apple pie will await you in the morning. Unless you have a large family, you’ll even have enough left over for another breakfast later in the week.

Here’s how to have a quick cup of soup that won’t eat up your sodium limit for the day. Keep this mixture on hand at work for an easy lunch or take it on a camping trip—in fact, you can use it wherever boiling water is available.

A combination of mango, cantaloupe, and banana creates a taste of paradise with just the swirling of the blender.

Bananas are a good source of potassium, which is an important nutrient for lowering blood pressure. These bananas, enhanced with brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract, crown brown rice pudding, which is served barely warm.

Many dense cakes such as pound cake can be grilled with great success. The grilling lightly toasts the cake and adds depth to the flavor. Here, Joanne Weir shares her favorite Mediterranean version, grilled polenta cake topped with seasonal berries tossed in a fruit sauce. Note: Make the cake a day in advance, and the berry compote several hours in advance so the flavors have time to blend.

This colorful tart uses leftover cooked risotto for the crust, in this case risotto milanese, the classic that is infused with saffron. Any leftover risotto you have can be frozen and saved for this purpose. You can cube pancetta and roast in the oven until rendered of fat and slightly crisp, then add that to the filling of the tart. Smoked poultry such as chicken or duck is great as well.