This is a great winter meal with lots of vegetable and a little meat. This is great served with spicy pickled vegetables or eat plain.

This is a basic chili, with mild flavors. Leave out the beef to make this a vegetarian meal. However, it will lose a lot of flavor without the fat from the beef so spice it up a little bit more with some cumin, chili powder, and a pinch of allspice.

This is a great cold-weather meal. This Turkish dish is best when served with dill pickles. It can be eaten alone or served with quinoa or brown rice.

This summer salad uses produce and herbs that are in season in Minnesota in July and August. It is a great topping for cooked poultry or fish. It can also be served as a side salad. This is very similar to the Italian sauce called cecca or checca.

This Turkish dish is a great way to prepare beans. It can be served as a side dish or add extra vegetables and meat to serve this as the main course.

This is a great summer salad that can be served as a side dish. Add some type of protein to make this a meal. This salad can also be easily modified for most dietary restrictions. If you are cutting back on sugar, swap out the peaches for avocado slices. Nutrition information for salad with olive oil - vinegar dressing and peaches: 284 calories, 22g fat, 16g carbs (10g sugar, 4g fiber), 10g protein Nutrition information for salad with olive oil - vinegar dressing and avocado: 375 calories, 33g

Using fresh vegetables in this sauce significantly improves the flavor so that it isn’t necessary to add a lot of spices and seasoning. Vary the type or amount of pepper depending on your tolerance for heat. The Hungarian peppers I use give this sauce a good kick, but you could opt for banana peppers or even sweet bell peppers if you don’t like spicy food. (With bell peppers it wouldn’t really be an arrabbiata sauce!) This sauce omits onions but you could easily add them – sauté in the oil befor

This three-layer potato salad (potatoes, carrots, yogurt sauce) is a nice alternative to a typical American-style potato salad. Instead of relying on mayonnaise for the sauce, this salad uses yogurt. Try to use yogurt with live and active cultures which has additional health benefits for the digestive tract.

This Turkish dish has strong garlic flavors and works well as a side dish or as meze with the anise-flavored alcoholic drink Raki. It can also be used as a dip for bread or crackers.