Rice

When you’ve had enough sandwiches made of leftover turkey, try this colorful stir-fry.

¡Delicioso! is what you’ll be saying after you’ve enjoyed this Spanish-influenced one-dish meal.

While the pork roasts in its herb-enhanced Dijon glaze, you can prepare the brown rice flavored with orange marmalade that accompanies it. Steam some broccoli to serve on the side.

Unlike many other stews, this one is quick enough for a weeknight. By the time instant brown rice finishes cooking, the stew is just about ready, too.

When the leaves start to change color, prepare this earthy dish of seared chicken breasts topped with a sauce made of blackberries, balsamic vinegar, and a hint of brown sugar and lemon zest.

A blend of lentils, brown rice, winter squash, and aromatic vegetables, this dish is easy to prepare on the stovetop or in a slow cooker.

This vegetarian take on a classic uses brown rice instead of white, cannellini beans instead of ground beef, and an herby wine vinegar mixture instead of tomato sauce to fill roasted bell pepper halves.

The delicate crunch of snow peas and the burst of flavor from lemon zest add interesting surprises to this creamy dish.

Colorful and quick, this stir-fry is tossed in hoisin sauce and toasted sesame oil, then served over brown rice and garnished with chopped nuts.

This recipe offers powerful nutrition, plus a pleasing mix of colors, shapes, and textures.

Stir-fry fresh albacore tuna, plump sugar snap peas, and thin slices of green onions, carrot, and red bell pepper, then serve over brown rice.

This dish is an excellent accompaniment to almost any Asian entrée, such as Chicken with Ginger and Snow Peas (page 157) or Pacific Rim Flank Steak (page 180). Add some chicken, shrimp, beef, or pork cooked without salt to transform this into a main dish.

Full of mushrooms and carrots, this dish tastes great with Herbed Fillet of Sole (page 118).

This main-dish salad, topped with a sesame-wasabi dressing, is an interesting combination of colors, textures, aromas, and flavors.

Fresh asparagus and dill turn this soup into a flavorful celebration of spring.

Here’s how to have a quick cup of soup that won’t eat up your sodium limit for the day. Keep this mixture on hand at work for an easy lunch or take it on a camping trip—in fact, you can use it wherever boiling water is available.

Bananas are a good source of potassium, which is an important nutrient for lowering blood pressure. These bananas, enhanced with brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract, crown brown rice pudding, which is served barely warm.

This colorful tart uses leftover cooked risotto for the crust, in this case risotto milanese, the classic that is infused with saffron. Any leftover risotto you have can be frozen and saved for this purpose. You can cube pancetta and roast in the oven until rendered of fat and slightly crisp, then add that to the filling of the tart. Smoked poultry such as chicken or duck is great as well.

Risotto is typically made on the stove top with a fair amount of stirring to release the starch from the grains of rice. It can also be baked in a casserole, though it will be less creamy because less starch is released. Cooking it in a wood-fired oven adds a smoky flavor. The asparagus and Swiss chard are perfect additions in spring. You can use any of your favorite seasonal greens in their place. Diced butternut squash or yellow beets are terrific here too, as are the traditional mushrooms.

In Spain, the native land of paella, this classic dish is often prepared over a live fire. Georgeanne Brennan and I adapted this recipe from The Mediterranean Herb Cookbook on a wood-fired grill at her home, using onions, garlic, peas, and fresh herbs from her garden. You can use fresh or frozen calamari. The quality of the ham and chorizo is very important, so shop for the recommended types. If you can’t find them in your local store, shop online at The Spanish Table or La Tienda (see Resources). One of the secrets to this dish is that the herbs are added in layers. The second secret is to cook it over a wood fire!