Potato

WHY IT’S LIGHT Made with lean sirloin, and studded with chopped carrots, celery, and onion, this meatloaf is just as delicious as the diner classic, but better for you. The meat mixture is bound with an egg white, not the whole egg, as well as the flaky Japanese breadcrumbs known as panko. Even the potatoes are lighter, since they are mashed with low-fat buttermilk (rather than butter, cream, or whole milk).

WHY IT’S LIGHT Lean chicken breast replaces the more common corned beef in a hearty-yet-healthy hash. For more flavor, roast the chicken with bones and skin intact, then remove them once the chicken is cooked. Spinach is another unexpected—and fat-free—addition.

SECRET INGREDIENT Made by draining yogurt to remove excess moisture, yogurt cheese is a tangy, low-fat alternative to sour cream. Once you’ve discovered how easy it is to prepare, you’ll find many ways to use it—on top of baked potatoes, spread on crackers or bread, or served as a dip for chips or blanched vegetables. Try it plain or flavored with the variation that follows.

GOOD TO KNOW Puréed vegetables give soup the same sort of velvety consistency that cream does. Vegetables like sweet potatoes, because of their starch content, also lend body to soups and stews.

WHY IT’S LIGHT Traditional split-pea soup is often made with ham or bacon; this version is completely meat-free, relying on a combination of vegetables, garlic, and dried thyme for flavor. It also uses water, not broth, as the base.

WHY IT’S LIGHT Low-fat yogurt, garlic, and vinegar are combined in a creamy, tangy dressing—without a drop of oil. Walnuts roasted with the vegetables add satisfying crunch and not much fat.

Thomas likes to roast chicken and vegetables together in what he calls one-pot cooking. The vegetables make a bed for the chicken and prop it up so that it browns nicely, and the juices from the roasting bird permeate through the vegetables that caramelize on the bottom of the pot. He also removes the wishbone before cooking to make carving the roasted bird easier.

Oven-roasting is an especially good way of cooking winter root vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and celery root, as well as onions, unpeeled garlic cloves, squashes, and fennel. The crispiness and caramelization that develops in the oven brings out the vegetables’ natural sweetness and intensifies their flavors.

Earthenware dishes with a large surface area, that are shallow, low sided, and glazed on the inside, are perfect for slow-cooking in the oven and the formation of the golden crust of a gratin.

This is a good soup to make in the fall months when mature leeks are at their flavorful peak and are plentiful in the markets. It is a traditional French soup that is typically puréed, but I prefer it with a clear chicken broth and sliced vegetables.

In the south of France, an aïoli is both the garlic and olive oil mayonnaise sauce itself and the dish for which it is the raison d’être, which can be either grand or petit. Le grand aïoli is a festive Provençal free-for-all meal in itself, typically consisting of the sauce in its mortar surrounded by platters of seasonal vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, beets, green beans, artichokes, potatoes) all freshly boiled; poached salt cod and stewed octopus; and tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Summer is the time for an aïoli extravaganza; with crisp cold rosé wine, it is the perfect dish on a hot evening. Garlic is juicy and firm and in season, and the summer vegetables that are so good with the garlic mayonnaise are plentiful. The ingredients listed below are suggestions; add whatever vegetables and fish you like.

Sweet potatoes and yams are virtually inter-changeable in the kitchen. Sweet potatoes have pale-yellow, dry, nutty-flavored flesh. Jewel and garnet are the two most common kinds of yam; both have reddish to purple-colored skin and brilliant orange, sweet, moist flesh. Look for firm, unblemished sweet potatoes or yams. They continue to sweeten after harvest, but they don’t store well and they tend to spoil fairly quickly. Wash them and roast them whole in the skin or peel them to roast, steam, or fry.

Baking potatoes, boiling potatoes, new potatoes, and fingerling potatoes—there are many kinds of each to choose from, some yellow, some blue or red. The red-skinned potatoes oft en called boiling potatoes have dense, white, waxy flesh that holds its shape when boiled. They won’t do very well for baking and make terrible mashed potatoes, turning gluey when mashed. Baking potatoes usually have light brown skins with white flesh that is dry and fluff y when cooked. These are best for baking and for French fries. Kennebecs and russets are common varieties. The tastiest, most versatile potatoes are the yellow-fleshed varieties such as Yellow Finn, German Butterball, and Yukon Gold. The flesh of these potatoes has a texture between that of a baker and a boiler. They have enough waxy starch to hold together when boiled, but not so much that they can’t be mashed—and best of all they are full of flavor, much more so than any white-fleshed variety. New potatoes are those that are dug while the plants are still green in the fields and have thin shaggy skins. They are a real treat. Fingerlings are smaller potatoes shaped, as you might guess, like long thin fingers. Some delicious varieties to try are Russian Banana, German, and Ruby Crescent. Select potatoes that are firm and free of discolored spots. Don’t buy potatoes that have green on the skin. This is caused by exposure to light and may indicate the presence of solanine, which is toxic. The green may be peeled away, but it is better to avoid having to do so. Store potatoes in a bag or cupboard away from any light. New potatoes and fingerlings never need to be peeled; just wash them well before cooking. Other potatoes should be peeled, depending on the recipe and your wishes. Once peeled, potatoes should be kept submerged in water to keep them from turning brown. I like this best when the potatoes are sliced quite thin (a mandoline makes this easy): that way the potato slices are less likely to curl up and burn on the edges. Yukon Gold and other waxy, yellow-fleshed potatoes keep their texture in a gratin; floury potatoes like russets fall apart.