Soy Free

(Sharbat-e gol-e Mohammadi) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Najmieh Batmanglij's's book New Food Of Life. Batmanglij also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Batmanglij and Persian cuisine, click here.

An egg breakfast was once dubbed heart-stopping, but we now know that the egg's cholesterol needn't be a liability. Experts say one a day is OK, and its protein can keep you full until lunch. This burro — too big on satisfaction to be called a burrito — partners eggs with another protein player: lean machaca, a beef filling borrowed from Mexican ranchers. Adapted from A Real American Breakfast by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison (William Morrow), this dish will give you the energy to wrangle presents for even the toughest-to-buy-for relative.

In Mexico, this breakfast dish is called huevos ahogados, meaning "drowned eggs," since the eggs are served in soup bowls with a lot of sauce.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

It will take about 45 minutes to peel the pearl onions for this recipe. If you're strapped for time, you can substitute 1 1/2 pounds of thawed frozen pearl onions, which won't need to be blanched.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Annabel's Baby Back Ribs. Prepare this sauce 2 days ahead of your party for the flavors to meld. Any extra freezes well.

Great served as a side dish with roast chicken, pork chops or veal chops.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

For this recipe, it's best to choose a head of cauliflower with a very dense crown so that the "steaks" will hold together during cooking. However, even if they separate a bit, the dish is still delicious.

Lamb has a tender consistency and a rich flavor that enhance the texture of wines such as Hermitage, Côte Rôtie, and Shiraz.

You may have had pappadams — light, crisp wafers made of lentil flour — at Indian restaurants. Here we use them as a stand-in for croutons.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Try these for both dessert and breakfast. They're great with their pan juices or the Apple Custard Sauce.

Tender, biscuit-like dough is formed into a lattice atop this easy treat.

When selecting persimmons for the following recipe, be sure to get the acorn-shaped Hachiya variety and not the flatter, wider type called Fuyu. Look for very ripe specimens, which should feel quite soft and have glossy, translucent skin.