Rice

I couldn’t resist adding what is perhaps my favorite salad dressing to a Glorious One-Pot Meal. And, boy, was I glad I did, because besides the ease of using a prepared sauce, this was a vegetarian dinner that the whole family loved. Frozen spinach works well in this recipe—just try to break the block into smaller chunks before adding to the pot. If the spinach has thawed, go ahead and squeeze out the water. If it is still frozen, don’t worry about it. Find arame seaweed at Asian markets or health food stores.

You can control the amount of heat in this meal with the types and amounts of chile peppers. I like the spectrum of flavors that results from mixing roasted with fresh chiles. To roast a chile pepper, you can treat it as you would a marshmallow when camping, using tongs or a long fork to rotate it over a low flame on a gas burner. However, a safer chile-roasting method is to place the chile on a baking sheet and slide it under the broiler for just a few minutes. When charred on all sides, place the chile in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. The steaming will loosen the skin, making it easy to remove. Peel, stem, and seed roasted peppers before using. See page 168 for a discussion on preparing tofu.

A vegetarian dish brimming with Indian flavors, this recipe reminds me of a meal I ate in a London restaurant after enjoying a rip-roaring rock musical in Soho. I hope you have as much fun eating this one as I did that night! For an even healthier meal, use parboiled and precooked brown rice (labeled “instant”) with the same amount of liquid.

Eggplant with garlic sauce is one of my favorite dishes at Chinese restaurants. This version tastes slightly different because it is not wok-fried; it is much less oily than the traditional version but has a similar sweet/spicy/salty sauce. I like to use sushi rice in this recipe, but any kind of white rice or even parboiled precooked brown rice will work. Use this recipe to make almost anything with garlic sauce—broccoli, tofu, chicken, or whatever you like. Edamame are soybeans. The Japanese traditionally like to munch on these, boiled and salted, as a healthy source of protein. If you aren’t familiar with jicama, try it—it is a light, crunchy, slightly starchy root vegetable. It peels easily with a vegetable peeler and is wonderful raw in salads or as a crudité. If not using jicama, substitute carrots or celery in thin strips or a four-ounce can of sliced bamboo shoots, drained.

This Glorious One-Pot Meal is a take on a traditional Indian dish. Consider changing it up with chicken, sweet potatoes, and broccoli in place of chickpeas, white potato, and cauliflower. Turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties and may be helpful for people suffering from internal swelling of joints or nerves, as with fibromyalgia, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis.

Sometimes I like to enhance the Thai flavor of this recipe by adding a few sprigs of mint to the pot. If you can find Thai basil, that would add even more authenticity To make this even spicier, increase the amount of sweet chili sauce by 1/2 teaspoon. Find sweet chili sauce along with fish sauce in the Asian section of the grocery store or at an Asian market.

This recipe reminds me of lightly cooked and dressed salads shared under the endless skies above the Greek isles. I spent one summer during college working in a restaurant on the island of Rhodes and found many opportunities to savor the Greek flavors. To truly get into the spirit, you’d have to serve dinner with candlelight, plenty of retsina, and lots of laughter! For firmer, more al dente lentils, use 1/2 cup dry lentils and 1 cup of liquid instead of canned.

Inspired by the classic tune, all this dish is missing is the rosemary; it’s too strong a flavor for this meal. Keeping the sprigs of herbs intact streamlines the preparation. The flavors mingle and infuse the food even though the leaves are still on the stems. Be sure to remove the thyme sprigs before serving; the stems are too woody to eat.

This is a perfect dish for a seductively healthy and romantic dinner! What better way to say I love you than sensual pomegranates and healthy brown rice in a sweet but spicy dish? By the way, I consider this a mildly hot meal, while my husband calls it medium-hot. Pomegranate-glazed chicken together with tender pomegranate seeds make an irresistible combination. See page 139 for advice on making your own pomegranate molasses. A pomegranate is easy to seed if you slice it into quarters and then bend it backward so that the seeds are exposed and easy to grab off the rind.

Paella is a traditional Spanish dish of saffron-infused rice cooked with a variety of meats and vegetables. It varies from season to season and from region to region in Spain. A good paella often contains some crunchy, toasted rice on the bottom of the pot as a counterpoint to the smooth grains. Typical paellas include a mix of proteins such as chorizo sausage, shrimp, and mussels along with chicken. Feel free to mix and match, using a total of 1/2 to 3/4 pound. This version takes advantage of the springtime arrival of fresh peas and morel mushrooms. To add a bright note to this recipe, include the grated zest of half a lemon sprinkled on the mushroom layer. Consider substituting white wine for some or all of the liquid.

Convert this recipe to vegetarian by replacing the chicken with cubes of extra-firm tofu or a 15-ounce can of drained lentils or other beans. Try substituting sweet potatoes for the rice and include eggplant cubes for a truly Indian flair. Notice this recipe does not use water to hydrate the rice because the coconut milk in the curry sauce is enough liquid. I find very little difference between regular and light coconut milk in Glorious One-Pot Meals, so use whichever you prefer. You can find red curry paste in the Asian section of your supermarket along with fish sauce and coconut milk.

You can use boneless and skinless chicken if you prefer. You can even use frozen boneless chicken pieces without thawing them first. And, of course, use any kind of squash you like, or substitute another vegetable. If you don’t have any broth on hand, you can use water, but you will sacrifice some of the distinctive piccata flavor. Stock your pantry with bouillon cubes or a few cans or boxes of broth. If you have some left over, freeze it in a zip-top freezer bag for another Glorious One-Pot Meal. You can drop the broth in as a frozen slab and it won’t change the cooking time.

My husband declares this dish “insanely good,” and he’s right. While satay is traditionally broiled or grilled, this Glorious One-Pot Meal version retains all the flavor and skips the hassle of threading skewers, basting, and hovering over a grill. I sometimes use bouillon cubes to make stock just because they store well and allow you to make any amount you need. Look for low-sodium bouillon cubes in the health food store. Of course, you can use prepared vegetable or chicken broth instead. Make this recipe hot and spicy by adding a teaspoon of Asian chili sauce or minced hot pepper. Or make it vegetarian by substituting tofu for the chicken. (Be sure to weight the tofu and then blot it with paper towels to remove excess liquid.)

Larb is traditional Thai comfort food. The mint adds a clean jolt of flavor to this casserole-type meal. My cousin Abi lived in Thailand for a time and helped me fine-tune my version of this classic dish. Typically, the meat and rice are served over raw cabbage, but we think this style is pretty tasty as well. You can use serrano, Anaheim, or almost any other kind of chile pepper if you can’t find a jalapeño. Of course, your meal will be as spicy as your chile. Consider adding 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh basil or cilantro to the mint mixture for a slightly different taste.

Once, when I was visiting Paris, my friend Emile from Gabon, Africa, made this dish for me. I was amazed that cooking with peanut butter could be so good.

Feel free to make this recipe using ground turkey or pork instead of beef, or even meat-substitute crumbles. You could also use a tenderloin cut of meat. Look for peeled and chopped butternut squash in your supermarket vegetable aisle.

If your steak is very thick, you may need to add up to eight minutes more in the oven. Let your nose be your guide. This recipe is chock full of vegetables—a great way to get your meat lover to eat vegetables, too! Try this recipe with chicken pieces instead of steak for a change. My aunt swears by kosher salt and freshly squeezed lemon or lime when cooking meat, but I prefer to use sea salt whenever I’m cooking.

The Aztecs worshipped the life-sustaining properties of amaranth in pre-Columbian times. Sadly, it all but disappeared after the arrival of the conquistadors. A grain (like wheat), amaranth is high in protein, fiber, and amino acids. In this recipe you’ll notice the silky beads add yet another exciting texture to this one-pot meal. I find amaranth in the bulk bins at the health food store. My food processor has a shredding disk, which works well for zucchini; however, sometimes I simply use my grating tower to get the same effect. The shredded zucchini gives this Glorious One-Pot Meal a thick, stewlike consistency that seems especially hearty. Feel free to swap the amaranth for the same amount of rice (the amount of liquid won’t change).

Adobo, or roasted, pork is a staple in Latin America and some parts of Southeast Asia. This is just one version of the Latin American-style dish, made easier as a Glorious One-Pot Meal. Replace the rice and broth with 3/4 cup of quinoa and 1 cup of broth for a more authentic South American meal. Ancho chiles are actually dried poblano chiles, which are rich in flavor and popular for cooking. They’ve been described as looking and tasting like prunes, though certainly with more of a bite. Anaheim chiles are a milder substitute. You can use boneless frozen pork chops without increasing the cooking time. However, if they are frozen with the bone in, you may need to allow ten extra minutes in the oven. You can also substitute flank steaks or chicken pieces with good results. I like to add a sliced fresh tomato to this recipe. Layer the sliced tomato on top if there is still space in the pot after adding the green pepper.

Traditional masala spices are dry-roasted, which releases the aroma. Masala also calls for pureeing the onions and tomatoes together in a blender with the yogurt mixture. Here I offer a simplified masala, designed to be quick and easy. Of course, you may always vary any recipe to suit your own preferences. You can purchase masala spice mix in a specialty food store, or you can make your own. Combine 1/4 teaspoon garam masala, 1/4 teaspoon curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/8 teaspoon turmeric, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne. Keep leftover mix tightly covered in a dark cabinet. Substituting soy yogurt or light coconut milk is fine. Coconut milk used to get a bad rap for being high in saturated fat, but now we know it has the good kind of saturated fat. Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory herb, thought to be good for diseases that cause internal swelling, such as multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and arthritis.