Olive Tapenade Chicken Rolls

Olive tapenade is extremely versatile and can be used as a spread or filling in many different dishes. You can also use it in place of more traditional party dips such as hummus, guacamole, salsa or roasted bell pepper spread. In this recipe, I added goat cheese to the tapenade and used the mixture as a filling for chicken rolls. I served the dish with a mildly sweet carrot purée that makes an excellent foil to the savory flavor of the tapenade.

If it's not part of your culinary repertoire yet, you should definitely learn to prepare tapenade. It will open up a whole new world of easy to prepare, delectable dishes.

Salsify in Butter with Capers

Salsify in butter is a very simple yet tasty dish. I blanch the salsify and then sauté them in butter. A little lemon and some capers balance out the flavor. I garnish the dish with curly parsley for color and voilà, a delicious 5-minute side dish is ready.

This dish reminds me of the lunch meals from the cafeteria of my elementary school in France. It was usually served au gratin, but that's another recipe. Before you start thinking that my school served incredibly gourmet food, you should know that while salsify may not be very familiar to many in the US, in France it's down right common. The flavor and texture is similar to leeks or white asparagus, but less fibrous. It's one of my favorite vegetables, and if you give it a try, you'll fall in love with it as well. Given that this it takes about 5 minutes to prepare this recipe, you have no excuse!

Edamame and Celery Salad with Roasted Peppers

I'm getting ready for our anniversary trip, so I haven't had a lot of time to cook. My aunt from Vietnam just came for a visit.  She happens to be a vegetarian as well. I met her seven years ago when she came to visit my family in Paris. I remembered that she loves edamame, or baby soybeans boiled in salt water.

I decided to make a nice salad for her that incorporated edamame. I added roasted red bell pepper, perlini mozzarella and celery, along with Beluga lentils for color. I made a dressing with garlic, sherry vinegar, Dijon mustard and walnut oil.

The salad has a really nice contrast of flavors, colors and textures. If you've never tried edamame before, this is a great way to get acquainted with this tasty ingredient.

Mediterranean Mini Pizza with Cannellini Beans and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hummus

I made a hummus pizza a few days ago and I felt like recreating a sandwich version of the dish with a bunch of Mediterranean ingredients. The problem was that I only had pita bread at home. I could have created a pocket in the bread and stuffed it, but I decided to place the ingredients on top of the pita bread to create a meal that resembled a pizza.

Following the Mediterranean theme, I made a cannellini bean and roasted red bell pepper hummus-like spread and topped it with Greek feta cheese, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula, pickled shallot, black olives and marinated artichoke hearts. For the meat lovers out there, I would add some cubes of lamb kebabs.

I'm sure you've heard of 30-minute meals, but this took me 10 minutes, tops. Try this recipe the next time you're in a hurry. Beat that, Rachael Ray!

Salad Nicoise

If you're ever fortunate enough to go to Paris, you are bound to walk by many sidewalk cafés, brasseries, bistros and the like. As ubiquitous are the chalkboards that guard the entrances to these eateries, calling out the specials of the day. On almost all of them, you will find salade niçoise.

This is not the tuna salad that one traditionally finds in America, slathered in mayonnaise and sweet pickles. Salade niçoise hails from the Côte d'Azur; region of France, and is named after the city of Nice. It is a combination of tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, eggs and canned tuna packed in oil. It is typically topped with anchovies and Dijon vinaigrette.   Like many French dishes, the name may evoke visions of elegance and glamour, but in reality the dish is the result of the vegetables and proteins available in that region of France. Put another way, it's really just a fancy way of describing a tossed salad from Nice.

I personally love this dish, because it is easy to make and perfectly captures the flavors of  the Mediterranean. It won't replace the traditional American-style tuna salad, but instead provide you with a healthier alternative.