Gluten Free

If you love lemon candy that has some honest pucker to it, these are for you. There's nothing wimpy about them. For a more traditional take on marshmallows, see our recipe for Homemade Marshmallows . And see Make Your Own Marshmallows for additional recipes and tips.

Jumbo shrimp. Airline food. Boneless ribs. Fuzzy logic. Some words just don't seem to belong together. I'm betting you'd say healthy brownie falls into that category. Au contraire! How do I know that isn't the case? Because there was a lot of "yumming" in my kitchen as a gaggle of brownie aficionados devoured these. Refined white sugar out; Grade B maple syrup in. See ya white flour; hello almond flour and brown rice flour. Fare-thee-well butter; come-on-down olive oil! Add dark chocolate, walnuts, and cinnamon, and the result is a decadent culinary oxymoron for the ages.

For these soda fountain–inspired marshmallows, we added chocolate-malt syrup to our classic marshmallow recipe. The result is a squishy, chewy take on a chocolate malted milkshake that won't melt (unless you roast them over a fire) if you decide to take them camping. See Make Your Own Marshmallows for more recipes and tips.

And who, pray tell, is this exotic culinary adventuress named Bella? My eight-year-old Portuguese water dog. For a long time now, she's loved carrots. She literally comes running every time she hears the carrot peeler come out of the drawer. My husband and I thought, "Hmm, that's different for a dog," and played the approving parents. Recently, she's expanded her palate to sweet potatoes. No sooner do they hit the counter than she's singing and dancing around my feet. I quarter and square off the potatoes and fling the ends at her, and she's been known to get some serious hang time as she leaps for them. Seriously, Air Bud's got nothing on Bella. Maybe she heard about how healthful sweet potatoes are: their natural sweetness is perfectly balanced with high fiber content, slowing the rush of sugar into the bloodstream, which is great for the vascular system, and for mood. My experience says that's true; whenever I make this salad, Bella's awfully happy.

Healers have touted saffron's medicinal properties since the days of Hippocrates, and Cleopatra claimed that it was an aphrodisiac. Its scarcity (it takes some four thousand crocus blossoms to create an ounce of saffron) and the belief that it could be used to treat everything from wounds to the plague even caused the Austrians to go to war over the spice during the Dark Ages. This is at least one feudal folk myth that modern science has corroborated. Studies have shown that saffron has outstanding antibacterial and antiviral properties and also aids digestion. People sometimes balk at saffron's cost, but it isn't unreasonable when you consider its potency; this recipe calls for only 1/8 teaspoon, and as you'll see, a little goes a long way. This pilaf is a delightful and gorgeous dish. The rice is sautéed before cooking to avoid that sticky, gummy consistency, and ginger, parsley, and lemon zest add zing. Prepare ahead: Soak the rice in cool water and the juice of half a lemon for 8 hours or overnight before cooking; this will make its nutrients more available and decrease the cooking time. If you don't have time to soak the rice, add an extra 1/4 cup of broth and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Fans of candied grapefruit peel will love the chewy bits of candied zest in these marshmallows. For a more traditional take on marshmallows, see our recipe for Homemade Marshmallows . And see Make Your Own Marshmallows for additional recipes and tips.

These vanilla bean–speckled marshmallows have a more pronounced vanilla flavor than our classic Homemade Marshmallows , plus an adults-only hint of bourbon. See Make Your Own Marshmallows for more recipes and tips.

I didn't think it was possible to love artichokes more than I already did until I lived in Italy. There they harvest artichokes in both spring and fall, and that abundance graces their cuisine. Artichokes also enhance their health, as they stimulate the gallbladder to produce bile, which escorts toxins out of the body and also helps break down fats in the diet. Here, artichoke hearts are combined with chicken, chickpeas, and olives to create a rich, nourishing stew, seasoned with a potpourri of heady and healthful spices, including turmeric, cumin, coriander, and mint. For a wonderful pairing, serve it over Brown Rice Pilaf with Saffron and Ginger .

This is our tried-and-true no-fail recipe for classic marshmallows. You won't believe how easy it is to make these soft, sweet treats at home. Once you make the basic recipe, check out the cook's notes for tips on adding different flavors, colors, and mix-ins, as well as how to cut marshmallows into different shapes using cookie cutters. See Make Your Own Marshmallows for more recipes and tips.

Your brunch guests will never know this is diet-friendly. Steak, lentils and an egg deliver 30 grams of metabolism-revving protein per serving.

I wanted to include this Baron family recipe because it underscores how rooted in poverty Jewish cuisine is. This is a traditional spread to be served on crackers or toast, an easy and inexpensive canapé. It shows off the versatility of the egg, the power of schmaltz to enrich, the forcefulness of the gribenes to flavor, and the power of the onion. Onion and egg, that's it. In its plainest form—egg, sautéed onion, gribenes, schmaltz, salt and pepper—it's good but very plain. Arthur Schwartz's version, chopped by hand and mashed slightly with a fork, is even plainer-eggs, schmaltz, salt and pepper, enlivened with raw onion. That said, its greatness lies in this simplicity. Lois is going to get a little huffy, but I've fallen back on my habit of giving this a little sparkle with some minced shallot macerated in lemon, a kick with cayenne, a little more depth of flavor with fish sauce, and a nice crunch from some diced celery folded in-but it's up to you. No matter how you make it, it goes great on water crackers, matzo, thinly sliced toast, and would be a great garnish for a green, leafy salad. For a more fanciful canapé, combine it with chopped liver. This recipe can be doubled.

This sausage uses chicken and schmaltz, along with plentiful sage, garlic, ginger and pepper. And salt of course—sausage needs salt. My optimal salt level is 1.75 percent, so I multiply the weight of the meat (in ounces or grams) by 0.0175 to get that amount of the salt needed (also in ounces or grams). If you like less salt take it back to 1.5%. This seasoning makes a great breakfast sausage as well as an excellent grilling sausage. If you have a sausage stuffer and like to link sausage, by all means stuff this sausage into casing. I like to cook this in patties and cook them either in a sauté pan or on the grill. The schmaltz can be replaced with pork fat or pork belly, if you have access to thighs but not schmaltz, but I think it's most intensely flavored using chicken fat. I'm fanatical about keeping sausage fixings cold all the way through the making, and I'm especially crazy about it here, because chicken fat is pourable at room temperature. Thus it's important to keep everything—the fat, the meat, even the seasonings—close to frozen while you're making this. I freeze the fat, cut it in chunks and then grind it frozen. After grinding this can be mixed by hand using a stiff spatula, dough spatula or wooden spoon, but a standing mixer with the paddle attachment works best. Either way, make sure the mixing bowl is cold.

"Yogurt lightens this riff on hummus. It's fantastic with pita chips or crudités." —Chris Morocco, associate food editor

Serve the salmon with raita, which gets a peppery twist from the addition of grated daikon radish.

If your Marcona almonds haven't already been oiled and salted, add another 1 tablespoon oil when toasting.

This braise gets its deep flavor and color from dried New Mexico chiles. Find them in the produce section.

Sweet and citrusy with a touch of heat, this side dish would also be a great match for roast chicken or pork.

Ask for the smallest lamb your butcher has (like those from New Zealand), or buy a 3 1/2-4-pound piece of a leg.

This dish is a perfect side for roast chicken; or crumble feta on top for a vegetarian lunch. Quinoa freezes well, so cook a big batch, let cool, and freeze in resealable plastic bags until ready to use.

A twist on bananas Foster, this parfait is made with rye instead of rum and finished with caramelized-maple pecans. The parfaits can be made ahead and look great layered in freezer-proof rocks glasses or mason jars.