30 Minutes or Less

Great with veal or roast chicken.

This recipe was created to accompany Caramelized Banana Purses with White Chocolate Sauce. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Fries, coleslaw and lemonade are the requisite accompaniments. Complete the menu with watermelon wedges and sugar cookies.

Active time: 5 min Start to finish: 5 min

This thick, spicy sauce is typically used in Moroccan dishes. Use it as an accompaniment for Shrimp Phyllo Purses with Tomato Chermoula Sauce.

Zia Maria is a simple but delightful restaurant in Alghero, a popular tourist resort on a part of Sardinia's west coast known as the Coral Riviera. The dining room is very basic; a large fireplace and some antique cooking equipment are the only things to distract you from the traditional Sardinian menu. But that's a good thing, because once you start in on pickled artichokes and mushrooms, wild boar in sweet-and-sour broth, or ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce, you'll appreciate having few distractions. Each dish, like these tangy onions from the restaurant's selection of antipasti, is cooked and presented in straightforward fashion.

This recipe accompanies Black Bean Soup with Cilantro-Tomato Salsa

This South American version of beef steak is wonderfully good eating.

Steamed asparagus and a baguette are good accompaniments. Drizzle Champagne over raspberries and diced pineapple for dessert.

Mary Risley, director of Tante Marie's cooking school, says, "I dreamed up this recipe years ago when I was trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner on a four-burner stove with only one oven. And I've found that this is really the only vegetable needed to go with the turkey and mashed potatoes. It has the creamed onions everyone wants, it has the corn the Pilgrims must have eaten, and it has the fresh vegetables my Northern California friends and family have come to expect."

Toasted baguette slices and some baby greens tossed with marinated artichoke hearts are a wonderful accompaniment to the pasta. (For extra flavor, you can spread the baguette slices with olive paste before servings.) Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

"Because I love to cook, I'll use any excuse to make dinner for my family or friends. Most of the recipes I concoct are partly based on how the ingredients look—presentation is very important to me," Dave Purdy of Hopewell, New Jersey. "Here, I combined celery root with Swiss chard because the colors and textures contrast so nicely." This tangy side dish would be good with roasted poultry or meat.

A simple salad with a tangy dressing-perfect for and April picnic.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min