APPETIZERS, VEGETABLES & SALADS
Tofu balls
This can be vegetarian or not, at one’s pleasure. Take fresh tofu (packaged is ok; organic, preferably firm); drain it – with paper towels and weight on top to reduce the water content. 
Grate onions, ginger, carrots and zucchini, chop garlic, mix these with a little oil and cook lightly (microwave is good for this). Mix soy sauce (tamari) with a spoon of cornstarch to dissolve, add plain mustard and sesame oil (spiced is good). Crumble the tofu and mix with the cornstarch mixture, and combine that with the vegetables. Form balls, place on oiled baking sheet and bake at 350 for about a half hour. Many variants are possible. For example: include cooked chicken or pork; add other flavorings to taste (fresh coriander, even herbs de Provence); and deep fry rather than bake, if you’re inclined (that way they’ll stay round). They are agreeably served with lettuce leaves, in which you can roll them and eat with fingers; or on a plate with salad, fresh mint, or whatever appeals.
Dim sum
This fried kuo-tioh (or chiao-tzu) is an attractive, tasty and nourishing appetizer or snack food. Not 
as difficult as may first appear, and usually well appreciated. First of all, buy the wrappers (you can find fresh round wrappers without preservatives in some supermarkets). For the filling, hand-cut (dice) a clean, lean piece of pork: slice thinly, turn and slice again, and then again so that you have very small uniform pieces. (Of course you can have it ground, but the texture and pleasure will be greater this way, and it doesn’t take much time.) Chop (by hand or in a food processor) onions, garlic, and ginger to taste; include chopped coriander (cilantro) roots if available, and carrots if you like. Gently cook all but the pork in a light oil (canola, e.g.), then add the pork and cook until white. Add tamari, a dash of sesame oil, Chinese rice wine (or gin, or nothing) and a good quantity of chopped fresh cilantro. Now set the wrappers on a flat surface. One by one, wet the edges with water (finger works best), put a skimpy tsp of filling on one side of the circle, fold over, pick up and pinch the edges closed. Set them on a plate as you make them. Just before you’re ready to eat, heat a tbs of light oil in a skillet, set them close together in the pan and cook at medium-high for about 1 minute. Add 2-3 tbs of water, cover with aluminum foil and cook on high heat for 2-3 minutes. Then uncover and let the water boil off and the bottoms crispen (about 1 minute). Remove with a spatula and serve on a plate. A good dipping sauce is tamari (soy sauce), sake and hot pepper oil mixed. If your preference is to avoid frying, you can steam these dim sum in a bamboo steamer or even in a skillet as above, just skipping the frying stage.
Raviole and vegetables
If you can find this sort of tiny, unfloured ravioli (the French call them raviole), take advantage of the
opportunity, since they can be cooked in the same broth in which you serve them. When you have this tender pasta (these are from St. Marcellin), there’s hardly a limit to the seasonings you can use to prepare a broth in which to cook it. Here it’s batons of carrots, diced fennel and spring onion, sliced tomato, with olive oil, salt, green pepper corns and a touch of white truffle oil. Nourishing and tasty. Another variant: Boil water (about ½ cup for 2 sheets of raviole), adding green pepper corns and coriander seeds, good olive oil, sliced young leek, and coarse salt. After several minutes, add a cut up tomato if you have a tasty one, then the raviole. Cook maximum one minute and serve in bowls. If you have some very fresh aromatic herbs, add them to taste at the same time as the tomato. This makes a heart-warming pasta and soup course combined, as part of a major meal, or a delightful lunch or supper in any but the hottest weather. And, if you want to make it a complete non-vegetarian supper-in-a-dish, add thin batons of ham at the first stage.
Winter vegetable soup with cranberries
This is a warming yet refreshing soup, and can be sufficiently nourishing to make a light meal on its
own. Into a large pot (no point in making a small quantity of this; if you’re not many, it keeps): Put cut up onions, squash (e.g. butternut), celery (stalks or celeriac), carrots (and whatever vegetables you like and are good and fresh). Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Add spices (chopped up ginger plus cardamon, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, a hot red pepper, star anise and the like, depending on what you like and have in the larder), and coarse salt. When the vegetables are al dente, put aside whatever you do not intend to serve and add a few fresh, sorted and rinsed cranberries to the rest. Simmer just until they start to open, and serve. To make a more nourishing soup – especially where it is to be the main dish – enrich it with some home-made chicken broth. Chicken broth (good to make in a large batch, and keep for just such purposes as well as to serve as broth). This can be made using a whole chicken if you want to use the poached meat for something else, but is fine made with wings and backs. In a pot of cold water put thickly sliced (chunks of) carrots, onions, celery or celeriac, chicken, salt and spices to taste (various seeds, as above). If you’ve been using a whole chicken, after about an hour remove it, cut or pull off the meat you want to save, and return all the rest to the pot (skin, bones, etc.). In either case, leave the soup on a low heat for 6-8 hours. Then strain it, setting aside any large vegetable chunks (they’re good as side vegetables with other dishes). Chill the broth, then skim off the fat and it’s ready for multiple uses, including as an elegant dinner consommé. If it hasn’t jelled completely when cold, boil what remains every 2-3 days; once it is pretty solid it will keep for a week or two in the fridge.
Avocado salad
A yummy summer salad can be made from nearly ripe avocados, ripe tomatoes, lemon juice, olive
oil, chopped scallions, salt and pepper.
Mixed salad
This combines good greens with ripe tomatoes, pitted calamata olives, red onions and other
seasonable vegetables, tossed in olive oil, lemon juice, light vinegar, salt and pepper. With the addition of some crumbled blue cheese (e.g. goat), and/or cooked chicken or shrimp, it can become a healthy light meal.
Artichoke
Lots of dishes are very easy, depending on their appearance and good taste rather than hard work 
for success; here’s an example from the microwave. It’s cooked for about 10 minutes in a microwave bag, allowed to cool; the center is pulled out in one stroke, the choke cleaned, and the inverted center used to fill the gap. A simple dipping sauce of fresh lemon juice, salt, olive oil and freshly ground mixed pepper is just fine.
White eggplant and tomatoes
Cut up white eggplant, onions and garlic, mix with olive oil and salt; microwave or bake.
Herbs to taste.
Stewed vegetables
Following the seasons you can make some very tasty vegetable soups or stews, especially if you
take advantage of fresh organic produce. Here it is a case of carrots, squash, beets, red onions, herbs, hot peppers and salt; add fresh cranberries when they’re in season. One of them has the addition of beet greens; the other, white turnips and daikon. In both cases, tasty, warming, attractive. 