Yogurt

A creamy blend of ripe avocados, cucumbers, yogurt, lime juice—and a bit of jalapeño—make this soup bright, spicy, and satisfying. Have we mentioned it only takes ten minutes?

Complete this meatless dinner with a salad of red leaf lettuce and sliced Asian pears. Pass a basket of warm pita bread. For dessert, top split bananas with brown sugar and coconut and broil until caramelized.

This recipe adapts traditional Indian tandoori cooking for a barbecue. The chicken needs to marinate overnight, so start this one day ahead.

The sauce is a twist on raita, the cooling yogurt side dish served with spicy foods. Like all the best buffet dishes, the eggplant is equally good warm or at room temperature.

Drained nonfat yogurt—rather than mayonnaise or sour cream—provides the creamy texture. Start making this dip a day ahead, and try it with apple or pear slices.

Just about every book we've ever seen on southwest cooking includes a recipe for one of the spicy cornbreads of the region. Once you've tasted one, you'll know why — they are really delicious. This version is more of a pudding than a bread because it is quite moist and cheesy in texture. It makes a wonderful side dish to replace potatoes or rice, or it is quite satisfying eaten as a light entrée or lunch with a salad of fresh young greens.

Serve this entrée with steamed white rice and warm pita rounds.

The raita — a type of Indian yogurt sauce — makes a terrific dip for the rolls. A cilantro raita seemed right for this global menu because cilantro is one of the most widely used herbs in the world.

These are great with maple syrup, honey, marmalade, or even cottage cheese.

Easy to make and absolutely delicious. Pour a good Cabernet Sauvignon with this.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less, but requires additional unattended time.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Fools are traditionally prepared with pureed fruit mixed with whipped cream, or egg custard, or a combination of the two. (The term fool probably comes from the French fouler, meaning "to crush.") They seem to be especially successful when made with sharply flavored garden produce like rhubarb, gooseberries, and black currants, which still have enough bite to be interesting when blended with cream. But strawberries, which are much easier to find, also work quite nicely. Strawberry fool is best when the fruit is mashed rather than pureed, resulting in a more appealing texture. Serve it with cookies.

There's no easier dessert than fresh fruit. But for something a little more spirited, we topped it with some store-bought lemon curd lightened with yogurt and flavored with crème de cassis. This simple dessert is a snap to prepare.

For a heartier sandwich, coarsely chopped avocado can be stirred into the yogurt.