Trenne Pasta with Napa Cabbage and Chorizo (Pasta Con Verza Recipe)

Chorizo, cabbage and sage may not be an obvious combination, but they work incredibly well together. The vegetarian chorizo, or "soyrizo", adds a ton of spice and the Vitamin A-packed Napa cabbage imparts a subtle sweetness to any meal.

I just made a batch of vegetarian chorizo today, which is what inspired me to make this dish. There are many good reasons for making your own, but the main reason is that it's much healthier (no cholesterol) than the meat version, without sacrificing flavor.

I paired the chorizo and cabbage mixture with triangle-shaped trenne pasta because it's much more fun for children than "boring" penne pasta. It's also a great way to get fussy kids to eat their cabbage. For all those people out there who think that healthy has to be tasteless, you need to try this dish. It's bursting with flavor without packing on the calories.

Vietnamese-Style Stuffed Tomatoes (Tomates Farcies)

A lot of Vietnamese dishes are inspired by French cuisine, because Vietnam was a longtime colony of the French empire. Tomates farcies (cà chua nhồi thịt in Vietnamese) is no exception. In Vietnam, it is referred to as cà tomates farcies, which literally translates to "stuffed tomatoes tomatoes"!

Traditional French stuffed tomatoes are filled with garlic bread crumbs, chair à saucisse and chopped jambon de Bayonne (sausage meat and prosciutto). The Vietnamese version uses the same filling as meat eggrolls.

I used veal for its low fat content as well as its texture and color for this dish. And most important, it cooks pretty fast. You can certainly use any other meat, such as ground beef.

Orange-Flavored Fried Tofu with Water Chestnuts

I felt like making my vegetarian sweet and sour pork recipe today, but I didn't have any pineapples on hand. Sweet and sour sauce is very versatile; you can substitute many tart fruits in place of the pineapple, such as oranges, plums or green mangoes. I had a number of sweet oranges on hand, so I used them instead. 

The dish turned out to be a big hit. I think it's important to have at least a few recipes in your repertoire that are easy to modify depending on what you have in your pantry. This particular sauce goes great with chicken as well, so if, like me, you have to cater to both meat eaters and vegetarians, you can make one sauce for two dishes.

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.

Southern Black Eyed Peas and Rice

Rice and beans, in one form or another, are the staple nourishment of much of the world's population. We often eat Indian daal (lentils) and rice, which serves the same purpose of providing protein to the diet of the many vegetarians in our home. I'm always looking to add  some variety to my family's diet, and I discovered a new dish on a recent trip to New Orléans.

At least it was new to me. Black-eyed peas and rice is a very common dish in the American South. Prior to trying this dish, my only experience with black-eyed peas was in the Vietnamese dessert called chè đậu trắng. My husband likes black-eyed peas very much, so I made it for him using the same method for making Indian biryani, but with Southern ingredients.