Gluten Free

You'll find these round chickpea flour and spiced potato fritters wherever Indian snack sellers congregate. Serve them with whatever chutney you like for dipping.

These crispy fritters are made with grated carrots, onions, and ginger, plus garam masala and chile. The dipping sauce has a hefty pour of bourbon, which adds warming depth.

This vegetable fritter recipe calls for onions, cabbage, potato, and carrot, but you can use any combination of vegetables you have.

When I was growing up in India, the arrival of the red carrots in winter was always the food highlight for my family. This is not a quick dessert, but it is exceptionally delicious.

Adding egg to praline topping is a modern twist. Unlike the crumbly topping that might crown a sweet potato casserole, this treatment creates a smooth layer that melts onto the custard.

These potatoes are like little starch balloons that pop when you bite into them. Serve them as a side, or add an aioli or creamy dressing to make them a snacky starter.

The secret to these stewy baked eggs is a can of lentil soup. Any basic variety of lentil soup will work—you'll dress it up with the earthy spices and caramelized onions.

While pimento cheese is perfect as is as a spread, it also makes a pretty darn good queso-like dip. This particular version is smooth and velvety and has a kick of smoke and heat thanks to chipotle in adobo sauce—even pimento purists will find it delicious.

The process for this spiral ham is all about imparting flavor. Once finished, the meat will be super-tender and you’ll have a great cooking liquid that can be sopped up with rice, tortillas, potatoes, bread…or egg noodles.

The thought of making homemade caramel sauce is daunting for many cooks, but there’s no reason to be intimidated. It’s simple to prepare and, start to finish, takes only 15 to 20 minutes, after which you have a luscious, full-bodied sauce to drizzle on apple and peach pies, use in and on cream pies, and top off pie à la mode. No fancy equipment needed: just a 3-quart stainless steel saucepan and a candy thermometer.

My classic salted caramel, enriched with butter and a touch of cream for a thick, smooth sauce, is perfect as a pie topping, or served alongside à la mode slices.

It’s never a bad idea to serve pie with plenty of whipped cream. Think your pie is sweet enough? You can leave the sugar out—ain’t nothin’ wrong with plain ol’ whipped cream. For a luxurious twist, try the mascarpone variation below.

This one-skillet dinner gets deep oniony flavor from lots of leeks cooked down to jammy tenderness.

In this recipe, freshly baked gorditas get split open and packed with a saucy chile-shrimp filling, onions, avocados, and cilantro. Serve them with a generous squeeze of lime.

Traditionally, enfrijoladas are made by dipping stale tortillas into leftover frijoles from the night before. They are also great topped with a fried egg, or with roasted vegetables instead of chorizo to make this a plant-based breakfast.

Use plátanos manzanos—a short, fat, and incredibly sweet plantain variety—if you can find them. When pan-fried, the outside caramelizes and forms a hard shell while the inside becomes soft and custardy (like crème brûlée!). Look for them in Latin and Caribbean supermarkets or in the tropical fruit section of large supermarkets.

The combination of beets and ginger gives you a great spectrum of flavors, while crunchy toasted cashews and a mess of crispy sunchoke chips lend contrasting texture.

These turmeric-spiced pumpkin falafels come together in a food processor, then roast in the oven to golden-brown perfection. A punchy carrot slaw keeps things bright.

Brush butternut squash with maple-chile oil before roasting, then top with a lemon-tahini dressing and herby quinoa.

In essence, this is a sweetened cake made from cheese. I sometimes equate this dessert to the Indian version of Mexican flan because of its caramelized topping.