For a meal that satisfies all your senses, make dishes that burst with color—from a refreshing salad to a light-as-air dessert.
Clean and Green
Apple-Fennel Salad with Goat Cheese and Pistachio Pesto
Thinly sliced fennel and tart green apples get showered with chopped dill and tossed with pistachio pesto in this spring-loaded salad. Crumbled goat cheese adds creaminess and a little more zing.
Liquid Sunshine
Pineapple Chicken Satay with Sunshine Sauce
The key to these skewers is the sauce, a fragrant blend of lemongrass- infused coconut milk, turmeric, and ginger. Half of it marinates the chicken thighs and pineapple; the other half is reserved for dipping. For vegetarian satay, swap the meat for extra-firm tofu cubes.
Jewel Tones
Beets, Blood Orange, and Radicchio
The three shades of crimson in this salad—from roasted beets, blood oranges, and radicchio, tossed together in a quick vinaigrette—are pure drama on the plate.
Palest Pink
Spanish-Style Garlic Shrimp
In this Spanish-inspired recipe, shrimp marinate in olive oil scented with sliced garlic and red pepper flakes, then cook over a high flame for a couple minutes.
Golden Delicious
Baked Macaroni and Squash
Pureed butternut squash mixes with milk, cheddar, and pecorino in a lighter, lusher take on classic baked mac and cheese.
A Swirl of Cream
Pavlova with Vanilla Cream, White Dragon Fruit, and Nectarines
If a puffy cloud or mound of untouched snow could turn into a showstopping dessert, it would be pavlova. Topped with white dragon-fruit balls, nectarines, and dried coconut flakes, the meringue is best enjoyed the day it’s made.
Excerpted from Cook Color, by Maria Zizka (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2023. Photographs by David Malosh.
Cook Color: A Rainbow of 100 Recipes
