Brown Rice

Even brown-rice skeptics will enjoy this textural dish full of butter-browned nuts.

The brown rice in this side dish is full of fiber. (Cooked white has none.)

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Mark Bittman's book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Pita makes a wonderful crust for this stuck-pot recipe, but you can use tortillas or lavash instead (see the Stuck-Pot Rice and Beans with Tortilla Crust variation). This dish is quite complex in both flavor and texture, and the earthy lentils with lightly caramelized onions and sweet bits of dates or raisins are delicious. Use oil, and this becomes vegan.

Roasted red and green grapes add juicy flavor and refreshing tanginess to this satisfying pilaf-style dressing.

Sink your teeth into a ssäm, Korea's answer to a burrito. This recipe from David Chang, co-chef at Momofuku Ssäm Bar in New York City, trades tortillas for crisp lettuce to save calories and fat.

The recipe and introductory text below are from Alex Jamieson's book, The Great American Detox Diet.

Sunday dinner. From Golden Door in Escondido, California. Executive chef Michael Stroot loves this stir-fry because it's a showcase for his garden-fresh herbs and produce. And cooking the dish makes the kitchen smell fantastic. Serve it over fiber-rich brown rice.

Hello, New Orleans! Mark Twain once said, "New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin." Speaking nutritionally, meat-heavy jambalaya is a misdemeanor. But toss in chicken instead of andouille sausage and pick a leaner cut of ham — keep the shrimp, of course — and you can dine with a clear conscience. Use brown rice instead of white and be generous with the veggies, and one bowl will provide 4 grams of fiber and 20 essential vitamins and minerals. Pretty impressive for a Fat Tuesday feast.

There will be extra tamarind sauce: Drizzle it over vegetables, chicken, or fish; stir it into pilaf; or use it as a marinade.

Healthy bonus Vitamin C from the bell peppers, B6, and potassium from the tomatoes

Broccolini is a hybrid of broccoli and Chinese kale. You'll need to cook and cool the rice before you begin.

Ginger and sesame lend an Asian accent.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Smoky vegetables, corn and brown rice are dressed with citrus vinaigrette.

Some soups genuinely do inspire a devotion akin to love, and this is one of them. In the cold of winter, when Gourmet editors ponder the matter of what soup to cook up in a steamy Saturday morning kitchen to provide comfort all weekend long, they decide with remarkable frequency to make the following one. Those in the know also add about a pound of smoked sausage; even the best can be made better.