Tasty Recipes from Recipe Wizards

Bon Appetit’s September issue ranks Detroit’s Faygo Root Beer No. 1 in a tasting of at least six brands from around the country. The magazine says root beer is the newest restaurant drink trend, showing up on menus everywhere.

Besides having satisfying, complex flavors, root beer is caffeine-free and usually sweetened with cane sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup, the magazine notes.

The magazine describes it as “dry and crisp, with a frothy head, a good bite and a long finish.”

Faygo says the drink we know as root beer was originally one of a group of beverages, with or without alcohol, called small beers. They were made with a blend of herbs, barks and roots that usually included birch, sarsaparilla and ginger. Faygo’s first root beer was called Sassafras Soda; the name was changed to Faygo Root Beer in the late 1920s.

-Sylvia Rector and Nancy Chipman Powers

When schedules are hectic, a successful quick dish in my kitchen is one that doesn’t make a huge mess, uses minimal cookware and has some nutritional value.

Garden Primavera is one such dish. It’s chock-full of summer vegetables, uses common pantry ingredients and comes together in a snap.

Key to this dish is the angel hair pasta, which cooks in four to six minutes, and cooking the vegetables with the pasta during the last two minutes.

Angel hair pasta is my go-to pantry staple because it cooks so quickly and is versatile. The vegetables cook just enough with the pasta that they are crisp and tender but not mushy. You can cook them longer if you like. But be sure to cut them uniformly so they cook evenly.

One issue with pasta dishes is keeping the pasta warm while making the sauce.

I like to pour the sauce on just before serving so the pasta gets a nice hot coating. To keep the pasta warm while finishing the sauce, I recommend:

Draining the pasta into a heatproof colander, leaving about 1 inch of pasta water in the bottom of the pot. You should be able to set the colander inside the pot so it rests on the rim.

Place a clean kitchen towel over the colander – not touching the pasta. The heat from the water and pasta will keep the pasta warm until ready to serve.

Draining some of the pasta cooking water into a large serving bowl and leaving it there while you make the sauce. When ready to serve, pour out the water and wipe the bowl with a paper towel. Add the pasta to the bowl and pour the sauce over. The warm bowl will keep the pasta warm.

Because it uses heavy whipping cream, the sauce with this Garden Primavera is a fat and calorie splurge. You can substitute a light cream, which is sometimes labeled coffee cream, or half-and-half; just don’t bring it to a boil or it will curdle.

Gently heat it, whisking in more flour or cornstarch as needed to reach a desired consistency. Fat-free half-and-half will hold up better to the heat and provide more of a sauce-like consistency.

GARDEN PRIMAVERA

Serves: 6 (main-dish servings) / Preparation time: 15 minutes

Total time: 35 minutes

1 tablespoon kosher salt

12 ounces angel hair pasta or thin spaghetti or other favorite long pasta

2 cups fresh green beans, cut into 2-inch pieces

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1 1/2 cups fresh asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces

1 small zucchini or summer squash (or both), washed, thinly sliced

1 small red pepper, washed, cored, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, sliced

3/4 cup fat-free, less sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

2 green onions, washed, ends removed, thinly sliced

1/4 cup fresh snipped basil

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the kosher salt. Add the pasta and return to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions. During the last 2 minutes of cooking, add the green beans, carrots, asparagus, zucchini and red pepper. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. When the pasta is done, drain it along with the vegetables and rinse lightly with cold water to keep the vegetables from cooking further. Transfer to a warmed serving platter.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add the garlic and saute 1 minute. Add the onion and saute about 4 minutes, or until just tender but not brown. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat. Stir the flour into the whipping cream and stir into the chicken broth mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add the cheese and green onions. Cook and stir about 2 minutes more. If the sauce seems too thick, pour some of the reserved pasta cooking water in to thin.

Pour the sauce over the pasta and vegetables and toss to coat. Sprinkle with snipped basil and more shredded Parmesan if desired.

Adapted from www.mixingbowl.com. Tested by Susan M. Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen.

447 calories (42 percent from fat ), 21 grams fat (13 grams sat. fat ), 51 grams carbohydrates, 13 grams protein, 157 mg sodium, 69 mg cholesterol, 5 grams fiber .

LEFTOVERS?

Grilled Chicken Primavera: Cream sauces tend not to reheat well; add more cream or broth when reheating this leftover if needed. Add more vegetables as desired and serve topped with grilled chicken breast strips. You can also use this as a filling for lettuce wraps.

Q. I have an old recipe that calls for topping canned pear halves with a mixture of confectioner’s sugar, 1 cup heavy cream, one egg, vanilla and rum several hours before serving. Would you serve this, since it contains raw egg?

A. It would depend on who is being serving. The chances of an egg being contaminated with salmonella enteriditis are very low. One study I’ve seen put the risk as low as two cases per 10 million servings of eggs. The egg industry also is working on reducing the rate of salmonella among hens, lowering the risk even more.

However, for certain people – the elderly, the very young, pregnant or nursing women, and people whose immune systems have been compromised by medical treatment for AIDS or cancer – the consequences of contamination are very bad. A single contaminated egg would be all it took for someone in one of those risk groups to get sick enough to be life-threatening.

So if you are only serving yourself, you like the dish enough to be willing to take the risk, and you are in relatively good health, it’s unlikely to be a problem. However, that also assumes you handle the sauce correctly and refrigerate it during the standing time. Even if the egg isn’t contaminated, the sauce can become unsafe to consume if you don’t follow the standard rules of safe food handling.

(Kathleen Purvis answers questions in her Ask a Cook Q&A at www.charlotteobserver.com/food. Or contact her: 704-358-5236; kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com)

Stretching from the Minho River on its mountainous northern frontier with Galicia to the dry Algarve in the south, Portugal occupies most of the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula. And though it once ruled half of the world, it has enjoyed far less of the culinary limelight than its neighbor, Spain.

It’s a pity, as Portugal is home to a diverse, soulful cuisine anchored in its austere peninsular past and seasoned by its centuries as a colonial power. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, missionaries, sailors and settlers carried Portuguese cooking techniques to Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and parts of India, China, Malaysia and Japan. There they mingled with local ingredients to create dishes bursting with flavor, like the coconut milk-enriched moquecas of Bahia and the rich curries of Goa.

To their credit, contemporary Portuguese cooks have readily incorporated the spices and hot peppers of the former colonies into their food. David Leite, creator of the influential Web site www.leitesculinaria.com, tells the story of this evolving cuisine in his first book, “The New Portuguese Table.”

The son of Portuguese immigrants from the Azores Islands who settled in Massachusetts, Leite gives us the fresh perspective of an unwilling insider who becomes smitten as an adult by the cuisine of his family.

As a child, he writes, he wished to be “blond and blue-eyed … with a last name of Fitzgerald or Abernathy.” After his grandmother died in 1992, however, he realized that many of her Portuguese dishes had died with her, and began to document his mother’s cooking: “I fervently jotted down whatever she did, because the last thing I wanted, as she likes to put it, was for any deathbed recipe-dictation sessions to be cut short by the big guy upstairs.”

The turning point in his growing culinary fascination was a trip to Portugal and its islands, Madeira and the Azores, where he found much more complex cuisines than he had imagined. “Discovering the similarities and differences between classic and contemporary dishes obsessed me,” he writes.

It is this quest that informs his book. Beautifully illustrated, “The New Portuguese Table” is a smart, delicious and highly personal travelogue through both memory and terrain.

For me, the proof of a good cookbook is the feeling that I must start cooking from it as I read. Leite’s book sent me to the kitchen after just a few pages to try his fried stuffed olives, a dish I came to love at a Portuguese-run hotel in Salvador da Bahia.

Then it was on to Alentejan-Style Pork with Clams (carne de porco a alentejana), a classic combination of pork, clams and potatoes in a cilantro-flavored broth. Grilled Chicken Breasts with Spicy Coconut Sauce, Leite’s version of a Mozambiquan dish spiced with devilish piri-piri peppers, was terrific, too.

For dessert I had to try his pasteis de nata, a well-known Portuguese sweet, and was grateful for the clear instructions and the tip on finding the right molds. I buy these golden baked custard tarts in Ironbound, the Portuguese community along Ferry Street in Newark, N.J., and enjoyed them warm from the oven in Macau, the former Portuguese colony in southern China.

In Leite’s book, you will not only find recipes that will whet your appetite but an endearing story of self-discovery that will send you to the kitchen – and perhaps to Lisbon to learn more about the new world of Portuguese cooking that we have been missing.

FRIED STUFFED OLIVES (Azeitonas fritas recheadas)

These briny, crunchy nibbles are perfect with cocktails, as I discovered at the posh Convento do Carmo hotel, built in an old monastery in the Santo Antonio neighborhood of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Coated in golden, crunchy armor, the olives came to the table piping hot as an amuse-bouche with a garlicky mayonnaise for dipping. This is my adaptation of David Leite’s recipe. (His suggested fillings include firm Evora sheep’s milk cheese, serrano or Portuguese presunto ham, tuna and anchovies.) The left-hand/right-hand coating method will keep you from getting clumps of breading on both hands. Serve with caipirinhas or a chilled, crisp, Portuguese vinho verde and a spicy Portuguese piri-piri sauce or garlicky mayo.

10 green Portuguese olives stuffed with piri-piri peppers (azeitonas verdes recheadas com piri-piri, preferably MaCarico brand)

30 queen manzanilla olives stuffed with pimientos

3 ounces Portuguese or Spanish sardines packed in olive oil

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs, lightly beaten with a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper

3/4 cup Japanese (panko) or other toasted bread crumbs

Canola oil for deep frying

Drain the olives and pat dry. Place the Portuguese olives on a plate.

With a toothpick, extract the bit of pimiento from each queen manzanilla; discard (or chop and mix with the stuffing). With your fingers, take bits of sardine and stuff into each. Place them on the plate.

Place three shallow soup plates on a work surface. From left to right, fill them with the flour, the eggs and the bread crumbs.

Working in batches of 5 olives, roll them in the flour with your left hand, then dip them in the egg with your right hand. Lift them out and roll in the bread crumbs with your left hand, pressing each olive gently to make sure the crumbs adhere evenly. Place on a plate. (The olives may be covered with plastic film and refrigerated for up to a day.)

Heat about 2 inches of oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When it reaches 350 degrees, lower about 5 olives into the hot oil with a slotted spoon. Fry, moving them gently with the spoon until they are golden brown, less than 1 minute. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Repeat with remaining olives. Serve hot. Makes 40 olives, about 8 servings.

Source: Adapted from “The New Portuguese Table” by David Leite (Clarkson Potter, $32.50).

Note: The many variables of coating and frying make meaningful recipe analysis impossible.

(Culinary historian Maricel E. Presilla is the chef/co-owner of Cucharamama and Zafra in Hoboken, N.J. Her latest book is “The New Taste of Chocolate.”)

You can savor and save this summer with wines made from the sauvignon blanc grape. The big question, however, is: Which sauvignon blanc? And that depends on what style of white wine you like.

The grape originated in France, where it thrives in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux. Elsewhere, sauvignon blanc is available in two styles.

One is aggressive and herbaceous. The other is more citrus-flavored, crisp and inviting, the kind of white wine that’s perfect for parties. It’s the latter style that I prefer, and the wines mentioned here, in addition to being budget-priced, are good examples of that style.

From California vineyards, I like the 2008 Beckman Sauvignon Blanc from the Santa Ynez Valley, the 2007 Fetzer Valley Oaks Sauvignon Blanc, the 2007 Parducci Sauvignon Blanc from Mendocino County, the 2007 Chateau St. Jean Fume Blanc, the 2008 Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc and the 2008 Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc both from Sonoma County, and the 2008 Morgan Sauvignon Blanc from Monterey County.

Although several South American wineries also produce sauvignon blanc wines, the best come from Chile. Among them are two very affordable choices, the 2008 Veramonte Reserva Sauvignon Blanc and the 2008 Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc. The former is produced in Chile’s Casablanca Valley (not far from Santiago), where winemakers have discovered that sauvignon blanc plantings do very well. The latter is a blend of grapes from the nation’s Central Valley. Both deliver light fruit flavors that linger.

New Zealand is well-known for its sauvignon blancs, but many from that country are produced in a grassy, brassy style. Although they appeal to some consumers, they are not as universally appealing as the more subtle, softer sauvignon blancs produced in Kiwi Land.

Of those made in the latter style, I like the 2008 Starborough Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It’s a delicious white that shows hints of citrus and peaches and ends in a clean finish.

Serve with: Enjoy these accessible whites as aperitif wines or pair them with fish, shellfish, chicken or pork roast. They are not suitable, however, for dishes that contain a lot of butter or cream.

Availability/suggested retail: Sold in wine and food stores, these whites range in price from $10 to $16, but most retail in the lower end of that price range.

WINE TO TRY

Selection: For those who like a white with a touch of residual sugar, the 2008 Ca’ del Solo Muscat from California is a great choice. Produced by the highly regarded Bonny Doon Winery, this easy-to-like white is crisp, yet has a slight sweetness.

Serve with: Enjoy sipping this unique white on a hot summer day or pair it with spicy Asian or Latin American food. It’s also an interesting wine to serve with herring or escargot.

Availability/suggested retail: Sold primarily in wine shops for about $18 a bottle.

Bid that boring brown bag adieu.

Think bento boxes. Originally sold to Japanese commuters in train stations, these small metal and lacquer containers are divided into compartments.

Think tiffins. The British introduced office workers in India to the tiffin, an interlocking series of round stainless steel containers that hook together vertically, for lunch on the go.

Or think Oots! Dutch designers have put their own clever spin on a BPA-free and phthalate-free polypropylene lunch container. The dishwasher-safe box holds several smaller containers. Batten down the lid with an elastic band that doubles as a cinch for a lightweight refillable aluminum water bottle.

You can find an array of cool, global-inspired lunchboxes from online sources, such as plastica.com, laptop lunches.com, lunchboxes.com and madebyoots.com. Prices range from about $25 to $50, but in the long run they’re certainly more economical and environmentally friendly than piles of petroleum-based take-out containers and miles of plastic wrap.

Cash-strapped? Reuse and recycle instead. Food Network chef Tyler Florence turns a see-through tennis ball tube into a lunchbox in the current issue of Food Network magazine. His Italian-style BLT is the perfect fit. Add cloth napkin and a reusable drink container.

WATERMELON AND FETA SALAD

Makes 4 (1-cup) servings

4 cups or so watermelon (yellow or red flesh), cut into cubes

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced and rinsed with water to cut the sharpness (optional)

A couple of handfuls of baby arugula

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Lemon juice

Olive oil

1/2 cup feta, crumbled

A few mint leaves, torn

In a large bowl, combine the watermelon, onion and arugula. Season with salt and pepper. Squeeze half a lemon over it and drizzle with olive oil. Mix. Crumble feta and mint over all and serve.

-Kid-friendly tip: In a French restaurant the garde manger is, literally, “keeper of the food.” The main job of the garde manger is preparing cold foods, including salads. Promote your kids to the title of Garde Manger and let them help with the mint tearing, feta crumbling, mixing and garnishing.

Per serving: 140 calories (50 percent from fat), 8 grams total fat (3 grams saturated), 17 milligrams cholesterol, 14 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams protein, 249 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.

Source: “The Gastrokid Cookbook”

ZUCCHINI HUMMUS

Makes 4 (1-cup) servings

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 green zucchini, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/4 cup chopped basil

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse, scraping with a spatula, until desired consistency is reached. Serve with chips, pita, grilled tortillas or crudites for dipping. Or use as a sandwich spread.

-Kid-friendly tip: Vegetables are perhaps the best proof that eating seasonally and locally is a good idea. Eat the right vegetable at the right time and the flavor is as nuanced as ever. Think of a sugar snap pea in June or corn in August. These are the memories that establish a lifelong love of food at its best.

Per serving: 257 calories (51 percent from fat), 15 grams total fat (2 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 26 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 322 milligrams sodium, 6 grams dietary fiber.

Source: “The Gastrokid Cookbook”

MINI VEGGIE BURGERS

Makes 12 to 13 burgers

2 cups cooked drained lentils

1/2 cup dry amaranth

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup onion, finely diced (about half a medium onion)

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 cup quick or instant oats (or old-fashioned oats pulsed in the food processor)

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds

To cook the lentils, add 1 cup dry lentils to 3 cups boiling water and cook until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Drain, measure out 2 cups lentils and place them in a large mixing bowl (save extra lentils for another use).

To cook the amaranth, add the amaranth to 1 cup boiling water. Lower the heat and cook, covered, until the amaranth is cooked and all the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Add the cooked amaranth to the mixing bowl.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium heat and saute the onion, carrot and celery seeds until the carrot is soft, about 8 minutes. Add to the mixing bowl along with the oats, ketchup, nutritional yeast flakes and salt.

Grind the sunflower seeds into a coarse meal using a food processor. Add them to the mixing bowl and mix and mash everything together. Form mixture into 12 to 13 small patties, about 2 3/4 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick, and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Moisten your fingers with a bit of water to keep the mixture from sticking as you work.

Bake for 20 minutes, until dry on the top, then flip the patties over and bake for another 10 minutes, until firm and brown.

Serve immediately or let cool completely before packing in a lunchbox.

-Parent-friendly tip: These mini veggie burgers freeze well.

Per burger: 140 calories (31 percent from fat), 5 grams fat (1 gram saturated fat), no cholesterol, 18 grams carbohydrates, 7 grams protein, 125 milligrams sodium, 6 grams dietary fiber.

Source: “Vegan Lunch Box Around the World”

FRUIT COUSCOUS

Makes 4 (1-cup) servings

1 (5.8-ounce) box plain couscous

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups finely diced fruit, such as cantaloupe, kiwi, strawberries, red seedless grapes, orange segments

Freshly torn mint

Prepare couscous according to package directions, omitting the olive oil. Combine honey and lemon juice in a small bowl. Heat honey mixture in the microwave for 15 seconds. Drizzle honey over fruit. Fluff couscous with fruit. Garnish with mint. Serve with whole-wheat pitas and baby salad greens.

Per serving: 215 calories (2 percent from fat), trace total fat (no saturated fat), no cholesterol, 47 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 12 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber.

Source: Adapted from “Real Food for Healthy Kids”

EDAMAME SUCCOTASH SALAD

Makes 5 (1/2-cup) servings

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 (1-pound) bag shelled edamame (soybeans), thawed

1 (1-pound) bag frozen corn, thawed, or 2 cups fresh-cut corn kernels (from about 4 ears)

2 large ripe plum tomatoes, diced

1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup minced fresh chives or basil

Heat the oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until soften but not browned, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add the edamame and corn and cook, turning often, until heated through, about 7 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let cool and then chill if packing in a lunch box. When ready to serve, stir in the chives or basil.

Per serving: 276 calories (37 percent from fat), 12 grams total fat (2 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 32 grams carbohydrates, 15 grams protein, 489 milligrams sodium, 7 grams dietary fiber.

Source: “Real Food for Healthy Kids”

FRESH MOZZARELLA BLT WITH PESTO

Makes 1 sandwich

1 (4-inch) piece whole-grain baguette

2 slices turkey bacon

1 1/2 teaspoons store-bought pesto

1 1/2 teaspoons mayonnaise

1 spear romaine lettuce

2 thick slices heirloom tomato

1 thick slice fresh mozzarella

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Slice the baguette open, leaving one side attached to form a hinge. Cook the bacon in a skillet over low heat until crispy; drain on paper towels if necessary.

Combine the pesto with mayo and smear on the bread. Layer the romaine on the bread, then the tomato, bacon and mozzarella. Season with salt and pepper; close the sandwich and wrap in parchment paper.

-Kid-friendly tip: Food Network chef Tyler Florence uses an empty tennis ball canister to pack the sandwich. Chill a small can of all-natural ginger ale or a bottle of water in the bottom of the tube. Add an apple or a bag of popcorn and the sandwich.

Per sandwich: 409 calories (46 percent from fat), 21 grams total fat (5 grams saturated), 42 milligrams cholesterol, 40 grams carbohydrates, 16 grams protein, 902 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber.

Source: Tyler Florence in the Food Network magazine

LUNCHBOXES THAT REALLY STACK UP

-Oots! Lunchbox, Madebyoots.com, $49

-Bento Box and Little Bento Box, plasticashop.com (click on KIDS), dishwasher-safe, not microwave-safe, $34

-Zojirushi Bento Lunch Jar (2 microwaveable inner bowls), chopsticks in case and carrying sack, Joong-Ang Oriental Groceries, 7800 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission, $45.

-Look for stainless steel tiffin-style lunch boxes available at Asian and Indian groceries

GLOBAL RECIPES

Global lunchboxes with hot-and-cold containers make it easier to carry a wider variety of foods. Also, there are a variety of new cookbooks available with healthy recipes geared for children, but most adults who eat lunch at their desks would enjoy the food as well.

-”The Gastrokid Cookbook: Feeding a Foodie Family in a Fast-Food World,” by Hugh Garvey and Matthew Yeomans (Wiley; $22.95; www.gastrokid.com).

The message here is don’t cook down to your child. Instead, find meals that everyone in the family can enjoy. Many of the recipes and ingredients have global flair, such as the Fierce Potatoes flavored with a teaspoon of pimenton de la vera (Spanish smoked paprika). Others, like Zucchini Hummus, would work well in a lunchbox.

-”Real Food for Healthy Kids: 200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes,” by Tracey Seaman and Tanya Wenman Steel (Morrow; $29.95).

The authors spent four years developing and testing recipes for kids of all ages. Each recipe is taste-tested by children and analyzed by a nutritionist. One chapter is devoted to midday meals for school days and weekends, keeping in mind the need for speed (most kids have only 20 minutes to eat), portability (most kids do not have a microwave to reheat lunch, so you need to send soup or pasta in a thermos) and balance (lean protein, calcium and complex carbohydrates). Global lunch ideas include Bento Box Chef’s Salad, Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad, Roast Beef Siberians, and California-style Tuna Salad Rolls.

-”Vegan Lunch Box Around the World: 125 Easy, International Lunches Kids and Grown-Ups Will Love,” by Jennifer McCann (Lifelong Books; $18.95).

Jennifer McCann has traversed the globe for a second time to find inspiration for her plant-based meals. This time she traveled to China, Morocco, Turkey and Australia for inspiration. She also included American regional cuisine, hence the veggie burgers representing Kansas? A clever spin, and the lentil patties might go over better with the younger set than an Australian Vegemite sandwich. Kid-friendly recipes are marked with an icon.