Fennel

Typically steamed or sautéed, fresh mustard greens are also great raw and simply dressed. "I like the strength they give to salads," says de Pue.

This is a winning-contestant recipe from Season Four of FOX's MasterChef. The recipe calls for making homemade stock—using bones from game hens, chickens, or pigeons—to cook the farro in, but if you're short on time, you can substitute purchased low-sodium chicken broth.

This is a great technique if you want to serve a mixture of vegetables, like a stir-fry, with your grilled meat or fish. Start the vegetables 10 to 15 minutes before you grill your main course, so that they can get a head start. Move them to a cooler part of the grill to keep warm once they’re done. Grill baskets of all shapes and sizes are available in grocery stores or cooking shops.

The flavor of the spiced pickled fennel really pops with the sweet tomatoes.

Serve the shrimp on toast to soak up the delicious pickling liquid.

Editor's Note: This recipe goes with Daniel Humm and Will Guidara's Manhattan Clam Chowder .

Risotto only sounds intimidating—if you can stir, you can make it. Poaching the eggs ahead of time should quell any lingering performance anxiety.

"Adding citrus segments takes chickpeas to another level. And I use the fennel bulb, stalks, and fronds in this dish so nothing goes to waste." —Sue Li, recipe developer

Chopped lemon pulp and peel are added to the couscous for a complex bittersweet flavor.

Want to build big flavor fast? Jarred marinara gives you a head start. Be sure to doctor it a bit for a homemade taste. Here we use fennel seeds and sliced fennel to serve with flounder.

Oranges, fennel, and toasted hazelnuts perk up red and yellow beets in this versatile salad from Chef Alfred Portale of the long-beloved Gotham Bar and Grill in New York City. Equal parts rustic and refined, with an eye-catching mix of colors and sophisticated blend of ingredients, this salad is perfect as a dinner-party starter or main-course accompaniment. Try grilling the beets, instead of roasting, to add yet another layer of flavor.

This broth, the backbone of many of our soup recipes and an ingredient in many others, was developed with brain health in mind. It includes onions, fennel, parsley, oregano, and rosemary, all of which contain antioxidants, as well as parsnips, which are a good source of folic acid. The recipe uses water as liquid, but you can start with chicken stock or fish stock to make an especially flavorful broth that would be great for sipping on its own.

Braising the fennel and simmering the potatoes in cream before assembling the gratin infuses them with extra flavor.

Crispy around the edges and soft in the center, this side dish—laced with fennel, onions, and slow-cooked kale—will please everyone at the table.

Cookbook author and cooking teacher James Peterson created this recipe exclusively for Epicurious. The repeated caramelization of the vegetables is the secret to the gravy's surprisingly rich flavor. For more of Peterson's gravy-making advice, including how to thicken with a roux and avoid lumps, see our Gravy Primer.

Mixing visually striking black barley with raw and cooked vegetables creates lots of flavors and textures. Feel free to substitute the more readily available pearl barley instead.

Using fennel three ways—bulb, fronds, and pollen (or seeds)—adds great depth of flavor to this quick dish.

A generous handful of mint leaves adds a tongue-tingling surprise, reinforcing this salad's zesty freshness.

Shrimp have glutamic acid, the main taste component of umami. And at only 119 calories per 4-ounce serving, the little fellas are quite the low-cal catch.