30 Minutes or Less

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A salad of baby greens and raspberry vinaigrette and some pencil-thin breadsticks go well with the pasta. End the dinner with orange sherbet, Swedish butter cookies and, perhaps, a shot of aquavit.

Leaping off the backs of onion-soup-mix boxes and showing up at cocktail parties everywhere, Lipton’s sour cream-and-onion dip took the country by storm. Convenient and quick, the dip also tasted great on potato chips, without which, in the fifties anyway, it wasn’t a party. These days it isn’t a party without little toasts topped by something Mediterranean-hence this zesty update.

To offset its bitterness, the endive is caramelized with sugar in this recipe.

Reduced-fat cream cheese gives this dish a nice texture. Put out some sliced melon with grapes, and offer coffee and orange juice.

Transform flounder fillets into an elegant dinner with this classic French technique.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Start with hearts of romaine topped with balsamic dressing and diced feta cheese, and pass whole grain bread. Have chocolate cupcakes afterward.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Ghee Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 30 min

"I've always taken a scientific, as well as an artistic, approach to food," writes Mark Van Wye of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "My family dined out a lot when I was young, and I became an adventurous eater. I would try anything and everything, and eventually I'd attempt to re-create those restaurant dishes at home. I never asked for recipes; I liked the detective work and the sense of discovery as I experimented with ingredients, just as a novice painter learns by copying the masters." Look for green peppercorns where capers and pickles are sold in the supermarket. (They're also good in salad dressings.)

Called "French pasta" at the restaurant, this Provençal-style special (using no butter and a minimum of oil) is typical of Méteigner's light French fare.