Classic slaws usually aren’t much to get excited about. Between their homely appearance and goopy consistency, they tend to resemble Spackle. But that’s not the case here. This slaw is a feast for the eyes and palate. If Pixar ever created a recipe, this just might be it.

I love this salad. I dream about this salad. It’s a variation on fattoush, a fabulously named Mediterranean salad. This is the freshest, cleanest salad I can imagine. It’s like Nautilus for the taste buds: the sweetness of fresh tomatoes, a starburst of fresh mint and parsley, creamy cheese, salty olives, crispy pita chips, and crunchy lettuce . . . like I said, it’s a workout for the palate. Like most workouts, you’ll feel wonderful after you eat it.

Cooking sometimes defies math—or, as we’re fond of saying around my house, the whole of a dish is often greater than the sum of the parts. Edamame, watercress, cabbage: in themselves, they’re a tad less than exciting. Yet when you combine them and add zinc-filled sesame seeds and a cilantro-lime vinaigrette, suddenly you have a salad that’s clean, green, and lean. I love it with fish (especially salmon), but it also works well on its own, notably on those days when your body and mind are yearning for culinary refreshment. This would be a great accompaniment to Wild Salmon Kebabs with Asian Pesto.

For ages, buying rice in America was like walking into an ice cream store and finding they had only two flavors. The vanilla of the rice world is bleached white rice, which has had its nutrients strip-mined away. Its chocolate counterpart is taste-less short-grain brown rice, which gave rise to the phrase “hippie gruel.” Fortunately, many different types of rice are now available. Basmati, jasmine, sushi rice . . .  Forbidden Rice (Purple Rice), is a terrific choice for rice salads because of its nutty taste and firm texture

This is nothing like your grandmother’s egg salad. Instead of a heavy mayonnaise dressing, eggs are tossed with vibrant slivered mint leaves and a light dressing of olive oil and lemon. What makes this salad unforgettable is Paula grates the eggs, so they are ethereally light. (As her longtime editor Fran McCullough notes, grating also makes traditional egg salad velvety smooth.) Paula offered this recipe as an accompaniment to köfte, Turkish grilled meat skewers. But it’s so good, it’s been doubled here to be enjoyed as a stand-alone or with a green salad as a light meal.

This is certainly a case for visuals drawing you to the plate. Served with salmon, this rice—an indigo delight—pops like a painting, beckoning you to come closer, closer . . . and that first bite seals the deal. The rice and bell pepper play delightfully against the creaminess of the avocado, while the mint and cilantro roll all around your mouth like pinballs, blasting taste here, there, and everywhere. This salad enchants all the senses—and the rice is a whole grain as well, feeding the mind in more ways than one.

Back in the days when I was a kitchen serf, I received a great piece of culinary advice from a cook. She said to take a food you wanted to work with and imagine preparing it thirty different ways. That’s a mental exercise that has served me well over the years, because certain foods are so valuable from a health perspective that they need to show up time and again in new and interesting forms. So it is with lentils. They’re so versatile, and they act as a great backdrop for salads and side dishes. In this recipe, they’re the foundation for a wonderful blend of citrus and crunch, with fennel, sweet roasted beets, and walnuts all gleefully playing together in the sandbox. Now I just have to come up with twenty-nine more lentil combinations to satisfy that cook.

Often when I’m developing a recipe, I think about texture as much as taste. That is the case here, where there’s a creamy/crunchy thing going between the white beans and the radishes. This is the kind of light fare Italians are known for and that I commonly found served up as antipasti as I traveled across that country. 

Of course, sardines are one of the best sources of the omega-3 fatty acids we need.  They are also inexpensive, readily available, and sustainable; in fact, there is a great abundance of sardines in the world today, one of the few choice wild fish populations not in decline.  If you don’t like sardines, I’m not going to tell you that this recipe will change your mind, but I think the mustard-y vinaigrette and herbs nicely offset their fishiness.

I always think it’s wise to carry a small patch and repair kit when you’re out bike riding. It comes in very handy if your bike gets a flat tire. Quinoa (say it with me: KEEN-wah) is the food equivalent, an amazing little grain that rebuilds the body when it needs repair, like after a workout. It can do that because it contains all of the essential amino acids (those we must get from dietary sources), allowing the body to build protein. It’s also full of magnesium, which is great for relaxing muscles and preventing cramps.

The lesson here is that a little beef goes a long way. What people crave is the taste and texture of beef, not to be overwhelmed by it, and this dish satisfies that need by turning beef into a  supporting player. The headliners here are the veggies and the dressing: think a big band combo filled with horns (that’s the lime and chili paste dressing), a rollicking rhythm section (shredded cabbage, peppery watercress, crunchy cucumber), and silkily dressed pitch-perfect backup singers (the cellophane noodles). Add meat and bring down the house!

Kale is quirky; with the right touch it shines like an emerald and tastes delish, but if you ignore a few key steps it can resemble Astroturf. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much to get on kale’s good side. Once it’s ripped and stripped it loves a bath in olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. This spa treatment break down the kale’s fibers, making it easier to digest (the olive oil’s fat also increases the bioavailability of kale’s fat-soluble nutrients). I’ve included mint, parsley, quinoa, cumin, and coriander in the dish and added one additional surprise: red grapes. There’s something about chomping on a sweet grape that’s just joyous, and the anthocyanins that give the grape its deep color are also phenomenal antioxidants, with other studies showing they may also enhance memory.

There’s fat, good fat, and great fat. Avocados fall into the last category—full of brain-boosting vitamin E and a monounsaturated fat that helps lower blood pressure, which can help lower the risk of cognitive impairment. The same fat also serves to signal the gut and brain that satiation is taking place, which keeps us from overeating. In this delicate salad, the avocado acts as a creamy bass note for the tart pop of the grapefruit and the perky citrus-ginger vinaigrette.

If you’re a coleslaw fan or have a jones for a crunchy salad, this recipe is for you.  Red cabbage is a nutrient-rich cruciferous vegetable.  Jicama is loaded with nutrients, including iron. Together they make a colorful pair. 

This recipe was featured in the Weekly Yum, on Stirring the Pot radio.  Cookbook author and culinary translator, Rebecca Katz joins the conversation with Stefanie Sacks to deconstruct Romanesco Summer Salad from Brassicas by Laura B. Russell. Sacks and Katz lure you into the kitchen to create meals that enhance your health and well being while caressing your tastebuds. Nutritious always meets delicious on the Weekly Yum.

This beautiful salad represents a harmonic convergence of tastes. The spiciness of some of the greens in a spring mix is balanced by the avocado’s creamy, healthy fat, while the sweetness of the roasted beets cuts the acidic nature of the citrus dressing.If the beets vary in size, wrap them accordingly so you can remove the package of smaller ones when tender, leaving the larger ones in the oven until they are tender.