Avocado

Saturday snack. From Golden Door in Escondido, California. Adapted from The Golden Door Cooks Light & Easy (Gibbs-Smith), out in May, this dip sheds calories by subbing asparagus for some avocado.

It's healthy, tasty and, yes, a full meal. This fiber-packed (12 whole grams — almost half your daily dose!), meal-sized salad comes from Gabrielle Hamilton, chef and owner of Prune, a tiny New York City restaurant that's wowing diners with natural, wholesome food that tastes delicious. Bonus for you home cooks: This dish is also quick to fix. Just chop, toss, then chow.

The healthiest take-it-anywhere lunch.

This sandwich's secret ingredient is sweet potato, and the result is delicious, not your worn-out turkey on wheat. The recipe, adapted from the new cookbook Vegetarian Sandwiches by Paulette Mitchell (Chronicle Books), is super easy. (Boiling a potato is the only cooking required.) It's low in fat and loaded with fiber and beta-carotene — definitely a win-win dinner.

Vinegar, soy, Sherry, and maple syrup create a wonderfully balanced glaze for this mackerel; it takes on a beautiful caramel sheen during cooking.

Katy Hees of Santa Fe, New Mexico, writes: "Eating local, fresh, organic food is important to me. It doesn't get much more local than the eggs I use, which come from our own chickens. I came up with my fried eggs on toast recipe as a great way to dress them up for dinner."

Editor's note: This recipe was included with two others from our roundup of great cookbooks for Dad. There are more than 80 varieties of the avocado fruit, with the Hass variety responsible for 85 percent of production. The Hass avocado was discovered by a California postman named Rudolf Hass. Avocados are rich in unsaturated fats, contain no cholesterol, and are packed with dietary fiber and vitamins such as folic acid, A, B6, C, thiamin, and riboflavin. And for good measure, this salsa adds honey, mango, strawberries, and citrus juices to complete the healthy affair.

A bold medley of cumin, cayenne, corn, and cilantro ups the flavor here. Great with: Grilled-fish tacos, steak fajitas, or chipotle-rubbed chicken.

The dense, velvety texture of avocados produces a gelato of exceptional smoothness, with no added cream or egg. Though avocado may seem unusual as a sweet, it's commonly used as a dessert ingredient in Latin America. We call for a crushed vitamin C tablet here, which is the trick to retaining the bright green color of the avocados without affecting their flavor.

Crema — a Mexican cultured heavy cream similar to sour cream — is often drizzled over enchiladas and tostadas and added to side dishes and sauces. Here it lends a tangy balance to rich avocado and sweet corn.

The combination of garam masala — a blend of sweet and hot spices — and a light sugar syrup adds so much flavor to this refreshing salad that no oil is necessary. The spice blend subtly enhances the natural sweetness of the pear and the avocado, while lending an aromatic note. If Asian pears are not available in your area, you can substitute another firm-ripe pear variety.

Low-fat and low-cal, this dish tastes lively and bright.

A salsa this simple lives or dies by the quality of the ingredients—ripe avocado, luscious tomato, and a sweet, crunchy ear of corn. Most of my corn salsa recipes call for grilled corn. This one features the succulent crunch of raw corn to reinforce the sweetness of the fresh avocado.