Pea

This recipe uses the shredded meat and tomato pieces left over from making the beef stock (recipe follows). Serve over egg noodles or rice.

We like this soup best when served hot, but it is also delightfully refreshing well chilled.

If you’re wondering what to do with leftover holiday turkey, use it in this one-pot dish for the perfect post-holiday meal.

Serve this Asian-inspired dish with a colorful fruit salad and soba noodles.

Crisply cooked yellow summer squash, green peas, and onion play deliciously off farro’s earthy flavor.

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.

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.

A citrusy aroma will fill your kitchen as fish fillets and a variety of vegetables bake in foil packets. Spoon on the sauce and enjoy!

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.

Here’s a good way to use up some of that leftover holiday turkey!

No matter how much you like to cook, everyone gets stuck in a rut. When you find yourself making the same old things, it’s time to cook out of your comfort zone. For us, this means a trip to any international market where one step inside we remember how much there still is to learn. The good news is that walking the aisles of the unfamiliar unlocks the secrets to many of the ingredients in our favorite restaurant dishes. The greens in the produce section alone will keep us busy for a year. We can’t shop when we’re hungry, so first we eat. Thankfully, the Vietnamese noodle bowls right next door energize and inspire our international shopping trips. Vietnamese noodle bowls are filled with contradictions in complete agreement—hot and cold, crunchy and soft, sweet and sour, rich and light. The bowls of warm thin noodles, cool leafy lettuce, bean sprouts, and herbs topped with any meat or seafood you like are perfect for leftover cheater meat. The sweet/salty/spicy dressing may appear way too complex for home cooking. It’s not. The international market has everything you need. Cooking out of your comfort zone will help you dissect the components and flavors of unfamiliar foods. Even if cooking Vietnamese at home sounds daunting, give this a try with leftover cheater meat just for the fun of better understanding how opposites get along.