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Served with Carrot-Cumin Slaw (recipe below) or potato salad, this chicken dinner is perfect picnic fare. Leftover chicken makes a great lunch the next day.

This classic French sauce also makes an excellent topping for fish, such as seared salmon or trout. For four servings, steam 1 1/2 pounds trimmed asparagus until crisp-tender, toss with butter, and season with salt and pepper, as desired.

To serve this Mexican mainstay, ladle the hot soup into bowls, and then let everyone pick and choose from among the suggested garnishes.

This is so easy to make, and it’s a tasty, cheap comfort food dish. It’s a little bit like an open-face pot pie, and the combo of roasted sweet potato and pastry, with a little hit of nutmeg, tips it just a tiny bit in the direction of dessert. This cannot be a bad thing. This will feed four for dinner, or eight if you are serving it as an appetizer.

This is a very safe (and, of course, tasty) pasta dish guaranteed to please those less adventurous eaters. It is also good for you less-experienced cooks. It really is simple to make and almost impossible to ruin.

We use vegetable bouillon cubes to add to the flavor in a lot of our recipes, and they really make all the difference here, adding body and depth to this risotto. Don’t get too concerned about size when you are cutting up the butternut squash. If you have different-sized pieces the smaller ones will soften as they cook and mix in, enhancing the creaminess, and the larger pieces will retain their shape, giving the risotto more texture.

One day I was looking through my cupboard trying to decide what I would have for dinner and came upon a can of coconut milk. The truth is, I only bought it because it sounded fun and exotic, but I had no idea what to make with it. After a little more digging I came up with the coconut-curry combination and the rest, as they say, is history. All right, that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it is very tasty-—definitely impress-your-date material.

Here we came up with a new way to do ravioli with wonton wrappers. It’s quick and simple but looks impressive and tastes like what you’d get in a five-star restaurant. The ravioli are sautéed in butter and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. It does not get much better than that. Serve it with (what else?) green salad and some rustic Italian bread like ciabatta.

I had never tried quinoa before testing this recipe, and my verdict is that the grain with the funny name is good. The combination of vegetables and quinoa is so delicious that I would be happy with a big bowl of just that. This is even better though, because stuffing it into the onion makes an awesome and impressive dish.

The first time I had gnocchi—sort of a cross between pasta and a dumpling— was in Venice, and it was great! So of course I had to try to make my own. Mine weren’t as spectacular, but after a few more tries, I got it. The key is to only add enough flour for the dough not to be sticky anymore; otherwise, they’ll be too heavy. When you boil them, you can tell whether the dough is okay. If the gnocchi start to feather and fall apart when you boil them, you need more flour. If they don’t float after 2 minutes, they have too much flour. This is another dish that works well with a nice green salad.

You can prepare this dish mostly in advance—which lets you focus on getting ready for your date rather than fussing around in the kitchen. I’d suggest you serve it with a green salad with balsamic or some other light vinaigrette.

My roommate recently made this for a party we were having and was surprised that something so tasty and fancy looking could be so easy to make. Everyone loved it and was impressed that she had made it. It travels well, too. Combined with a side salad, it makes for a nice lunch.

One taste of this and you will be hooked. The caramelized onions are so sweet that this could practically be a dessert. Other than the onions taking a while to caramelize, it’s so easy to put together, too. Be sure to let it cool completely, and then use a really sharp knife when cutting it so the squares come out clean.

In my family, I’m the sloppy joe guru. I stand there for a ridiculously long time adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that, getting the taste just right. Needless to say, I was skeptical about a veggie version. What are sloppy joes without the beef? Well, I can tell you with confidence that they are amazing. In fact, no one even realizes that they don’t have meat in them.

This version of vegetarian chili uses textured vegetable protein as a substitute for the ground beef. Although it looks a little like granola in its dry form, it absorbs the flavor of whatever you put in the dish, so in the end even meat eaters don’t realize it’s not really beef.

I have loved pad Thai ever since high school when my friends and I found this great Thai restaurant that we went to every chance we got. I have found that making it at home is a more than satisfactory substitute (and, of course, way cheaper). I like to make it spicier and add a little soy sauce, so start out with the recipe here, and then add your own personal touch—that’s what cooking is all about anyway! You’ll see that the recipe calls for vegetarian fish sauce, which may seem like a funny concept, but you can find it online or at some Asian markets (where you can also pick up the rice noodles).

Although this isn’t chile rellenos in their traditional form, it’s actually even better because it’s way easier and just as tasty. This is good for parties because you can make everything ahead of time, then just put the casserole in the oven and reheat the rice before serving.

I used to be very apprehensive about different ethnic foods until I studied abroad. The first time I had a tagine was in France and I wondered where it had been all my life! That first tagine was the furthest thing from being vegetarian-friendly, as it came with every kind of meat you can imagine, but an all-vegetable version is just as good. This is a great meal for when you have friends coming over or to take to a potluck.

As a college student, you probably donate a large portion of your money to the local pizza chain, especially since it’s an easy vegetarian option when you don’t feel like cooking. Making your own pizza allows you to be a bit more creative and is way cheaper. This is a perfect version in my book, because you don’t have to wait for the crust to rise. Try some soy pepperoni and see if your nonveggie friends notice the difference, or just stick to vegetables.

This version of lasagna is really unbeatable, with lots of mushrooms, spinach, and cheese. Use no-cook (or no-boil) lasagna noodles so you don’t have to cook them beforehand—they absorb the liquid in the filling and cook as the lasagna bakes. If you’re having people over, you can assemble it in advance and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready bake it. Serve it with a big salad and garlic bread, and you can practically feed your whole neighborhood.