Blender

A comfort food menu just wouldn't be complete without something fried. In this addictive appetizer, slices of cooked artichoke are mixed into a beer batter and then dropped into bubbling oil.

Inspired by Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda, the sparkling soda made with celery that was a favorite in my youth, I give you this reduced-calorie version, which can be made in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Leafy green vegetables are an ideal source of iron and calcium, but cooking them can destroy many of the water-soluble minerals you hope to gain from eating them. This preparation retains most of the nutrients that would otherwise be lost in the cooking process and imparts an earthy green flavor that you will surely enjoy.

In this take on bruschetta, the toasts are spread with a fava puree and topped with a fresh salad.

Green apple and a dash of cider vinegar provide just the right amount of tart balance in this slightly sweet, down-home soup topped with homemade bacon bits.

Sweet butternut squash teams up with earthy red lentils to make this simple and satisfying vegetarian dinner.

Tortilla soup is all about contrasting textures, but its real success hinges on a fabulous broth—in this case, homemade chicken stock enriched with a cooked purée of chiles, tomatoes, onion, and garlic.

There are lots of meatless burgers in the world, but this Latin American-inspired recipe is especially satisfying without being stodgy. It's pantry-friendly to boot.

Latin-food authority Maricel Presilla describes sofrito—the sautéed mix of aromatic vegetables that is the bedrock of this vegetarian soup—as the DNA of the Latin kitchen because it carries a basic flavor code. There's onion and garlic, to be sure, but also tomatoes and various herbs, spices, and chiles, depending on the region. For this red-bean soup, we were inspired specifically by Puerto Rico, as evidenced by recao (an herb similar to cilantro) and by chiles that are fruity rather than hot. Just for fun, we included a last-minute sprinkling of Italian gremolata for brightness.

Mild tilapia takes beautifully to a robust, smoky cilantro-chipotle sauce.

This homespun loaf cake evokes the nut tree-covered hills of Avellino and the lemon-scented Amalfi coast. The cake batter is primarily ground raw nuts, generously flavored with lemon zest. The latter gives the finished cake a pronounced citrus flavor that pairs well with the orange salad.

_Editor's note: This recipe is from chef Wolfgang Puck. The tapenade can be served as an hors d'oeuvre, in a small bowl, surrounded with tiny toasted bread slices or crackers. At Spago, we spread goat cheese onto lightly toasted croutons, top them with the tapenade, and serve them with our Caesar Salad._

These sandwiches are portable and keep well in a lunch box. The hummus should be thick for the sandwiches, but if you want to enjoy the leftovers as a dip, thin slightly with a little extra olive oil.

A generous drizzle of parsley-oregano oil brings a wave of herbal freshness to slender stalks of simply cooked Broccolini.

A savory soup with ginger, saffron, and curry.

In the waste-not mentality of Italian cucina povera, panfried patties made with eggs and bread crumbs are a great use for leftover eggplant parmigiana ingredients. In fact, the patties are so incredibly delicious that we made them the crisp showstoppers in this fun reconstruction.

This bottomless bowl of meat sauce is the stuff of dreams—the American Dream, in particular. In Italy, ragù would have been flavored with a small piece of pork, but because meat was so readily available in the United States, immigrants included beef braciole, meatballs, sweet and hot sausage, and pork shoulder and ribs. This dish requires hours on the stovetop to make the meat tender and juicy and the sauce thick and intense, but it's well worth waiting for.