Pomegranate

You need a palate-cleansing salad to balance the rich pork and hearty sides: This is it.

Wrap a mixture of spiced ground lamb and raw jasmine rice in layers of onion and bake in a low oven until the onions are fragrant and tender.

Use store-bought meringues and skip the first step, if you prefer.

Yes, you can treat parsley as a salad green, as long as your bunch isn't woody. Sweet molasses and tart sumac make it vibrant.

Affordable leg of lamb is a great way to break out of the usual beef-chicken-pork rut, especially when used in a quick-cooking but complex-tasting dish like this.

I love the crimson glow of juicy little pomegranate morsels. Mix with fresh winter lettuces, serve it European style after the entreé, and enjoy.

The tart sweetness of the pomegranate cuts through the richness of the lamb.

Make sure to use plain, unflavored rooibos tea, which will complement the other punch ingredients.

Muesli is my go-to breakfast. Pomegranate adds an appropriately seasonal touch.

Use this syrup in vinaigrettes, to glaze meats, and in place of grenadine in cocktails.

Here's another dessert that was inspired by a wine-tasting dinner. It's often hard to come up with a dessert that pairs well with wine, but this savory-sweet dessert does. At its center is a Seckel pear, a small, reddish pear with a slightly spicy flavor. It has a firm flesh that makes it perfect for poaching. In this dessert I poach the pears in pomegranate juice with some ground black pepper. A chunk of Cabrales cheese, a strong blue cheese from northern Spain, is sandwiched between the top and bottom halves of the pear, and a Szechuan Ice Cream is served with it, sitting on a diamond of baked almond cream.

Pomegranate seeds sub in for cranberries in this bracing, colorful relish.

Vegan The simplest saladitas in my repertoire are the ones that pair a single fruit with just one fresh herb. These are as flexible as they are easy. Extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lemon or lime juice, and salt and pepper are all optional. A small pile of Pickled Red Onions is always welcome on top. Make these shortly before serving.

Across the Middle East, cinnamon is used not only to highlight the flavor of sweets but also in savory dishes—as in this Moroccan-inspired carrot salad. I toss it here with slender Kamut berries, which contribute their distinct buttery chew. Vibrantly colorful and deliciously juicy, this salad steals the show on my holiday table. Try it also next to steak, grilled lamb, or a simple roast chicken.

Sweet and sour is a recurring theme in Arabic cuisine. Pomegranate molasses has this distinct taste. Here I've mixed it with other flavors, but it can be used on its own to enhance a salad, a dip or a savory pastry. The pepperiness of the arugula and the soft buttery eggplant along with the sweet cherry tomatoes are unforgettable.

Why buy bottles of grenadine when it's so easy to make at home, the natural way? This garnet-hued, sweetly piquant syrup is a great addition to any number of beverages for both its color and its flavor—and it makes a delicious soda on its own, too. Use high-quality bottled pomegranate juice, or make your own.

There is not much to say about this salad—it is as charmingly simple and straightforward as it appears. You could likely just copy it without a recipe. The point I do want to stress, however, is the necessity of making your own salad dressings. There is all sorts of junk in store-bought dressings and they don't taste nearly as fresh—not to mention that it's ridiculously easy to whisk a few things together or put them in a mini blender. This particular dressing hovers around the vinaigrette family, with just enough crème fraîche to coat the leaves with the thinnest amount of creaminess. Be sure your leaves are cleaned and fully dry so the dressing can cling on. The recipe yields enough for the given salads, but I typically double it so I have extra on hand.

Thanksgiving flavors (squash, cinnamon, butter) with a Persian-inspired touch. The spiced butter is also a treat mixed into couscous.