Raw

You can stuff five or six healthy vegetables into salsa (tomatoes, peppers, scallions, garlic, corn, whatever else is left in the crisper bin) then use that salsa five or six different ways (on fish, on chicken, in a burrito or, of course, on a delicious corn chip. You can make salsa in minutes. It keeps forever. It is the antidote to any of your vegetable woes!

Everything about this dish is light, clean, vibrant, and harmonious, with the wonderful taste of corn perhaps taking center stage. The corn's refined sweetness is marvelously juxtaposed with the elegant sour flavor in the cheese. Mushrooms provide an earthiness, and spinach leaves cut through all the elements to insure a clean, bright taste. A playful salad featuring buttery lettuces, tomato pieces, and Rawmesan adds even greater depth on the palate. Here, both the flavor and textural variety are extraordinary.

This variation on the classic Piña Colada is served at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico; it's finished with a dark rum float for extra flavor.

Sweet early strawberries in their prime and a good bottle of fruit-forward red wine — you just can't go wrong with the simple combination of these two stellar ingredients.

This simple, two-ingredient blend yields a soft, powdery sugar perfect for sprinkling over desserts.

Improv: Skip the maple syrup and chopped ginger and add a couple of teaspoons of fresh lime juice.

Fresh, peppery arugula pairs nicely with the Steamed Clams with Pasta.

Tossed in a fabulous country-style dressing, these bitter greens are a wonderful counterpoint to a hearty main course.

Every bite of this simple, crisp salad literally bursts with flavor. With each bite, you get a splash of juice and the crunch of nuts.

We used strongly flavored wild greens because a mild salad would get lost with the rest of the menu. The dressing is a simple and classic vinaigrette.

Not all juicers are created equal — the amount of juice extracted varies from brand to brand. The weight ranges for the ingredients below will ensure that you have enough juice.

Nothing can beat greens from the farmers market — they're so beautiful, delicate, and fresh, you simply can't help buying some.

Vinaigrette is the French word for oil and vinegar dressing. At the restaurant they have an olive oil tasting every year to decide which kinds to buy, because each year's crop of olives tastes a little different. Olive oils come from Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Mexico, and California. The dark green "extra virgin" oils taste the most like olives. The cooks use extra virgin olive oil for salad dressing, not to cook with. The paler, yellow oils labled "pure olive oil" taste milder, and those get used for cooking.