Orange

Serve this dish with a platter of mixed garden tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt.

To make this recipe in advance, dice the beet and prepare as directed in step 1, and refrigerate it in the liquid, covered, up to 1 day.

Mâche, or lamb’s lettuce, is a tender, nutty green. If it’s unavailable, try watercress as a delicious substitute.

The raw onions in this recipe become milder the longer they stay in the orange juice and vinegar mixture. For a strong onion flavor, let them soak for about 10 minutes; to make them more mellow, marinate for up to 4 hours.

If fresh is unavailable, look for packages of prewashed baby spinach. Blood oranges are named for their vivid red-streaked flesh.

Oranges are an excellent source of vitamin C. For maximum health benefits, cut or juice them just before serving. Vitamins A and C and iron are also provided by baby spinach.

What makes this version of rye different from the more popular German and deli ryes is the use of licorice-flavored aniseeds and fennel seeds, along with orange peel and a touch of cardamom. Nutritionists are now quantifying the therapeutic benefits of orange peel, licorice-flavored spices, and bitters as digestive aids that various traditional cultures have espoused for centuries. By making the bread with a combination of wild-yeast starter and commercial yeast, this formula creates an even more complexly flavored version of the bread than the more customary versions leavened only by commercial yeast. The lactic acid not only conditions the flour, predigesting it to an extent, but it also gives it a longer shelf life and better flavor. Think of this bread as a baked version of anisette.

When you look at recipes for European holiday breads like panettone, stollen, tsoureki, and christopsomo, it seems as if they are all related, often sharing similar ingredients and proportions of fat and sugar. Often, the main difference is in the shaping and in the history and symbolism of each bread. But heaven help any of us if we propose that thought to someone who grew up with any of those breads. I once made stollen, panettone, and kulich (Russian Easter bread) from a recipe for multipurpose holiday bread for a group of chefs and explained my theory of their similarities. Later, one of the American chefs told me I had offended some of the Germans who grew up on stollen and who were adamant that stollen is nothing like panettone. So I will resist the temptation to call this formula a multipurpose holiday bread (though I have made many types of bread from it) and instead limit it to its application as Dresden stollen. Dresden is considered the spiritual home of this traditional Christmas bread. The bread symbolizes the blanket of the baby Jesus, and the colored fruits represent the gifts of the Magi. As in nearly every festival bread, the story aspect of this loaf is culturally important, for it is a way parents teach their children about their heritage. When such a story is accompanied by the flavor memory of a particular food, you have a tool much more powerful than didactic or pedagogical teaching. I’m convinced this must be the reason I offended those Germans that day when I implied that a stollen was like a panettone. Perhaps in taste and ingredients, yes, but never in association.

Quinoa, an excellent source of protein that counts toward your whole-grain goal, is the base for this citrusy side. Be sure to use fresh mint leaves—dried mint won’t provide the flavor boost you want for this dish.

Instead of making the traditional recipe for this southern holiday favorite, give our version a try. It tastes just as good but is much lower in sodium and contains no saturated fat.

Cooking the squash in a nonstick skillet gives it a caramelized crust that heightens its sweetness, which in turn is complemented by a light glaze of orange.

Easy to make, this topping turns ordinary fat-free vanilla yogurt or ice cream into something special. Instead of using syrup on our Pancakes (page 290), try this as a less-sugary, healthier alternative.

A tangy yogurt-based orange sauce and a drizzle of raspberry spread dress up mango slices for an attractive dish that is terrific as a salad or a dessert.

Banana, cranberries, and orange zest give this bread a lively flavor that will get your day off to just the right start.

Use seasonal fruit so you can serve this salad with its mildly sweet and tart dressing year-round.

These smoky flavored olives are always the first thing to disappear off an antipasti platter or hors d’oeuvres spread. The brightness of the orange zest enhances the earthy flavors of the olives; you can use freshly squeezed orange juice if you don’t have zest. I love to serve these straight from the oven, still warm.