Gourmet

To the traditional orange-cranberry combination, we’ve added Mediterranean touches: dates for their honeylike sweetness and a splash of balsamic vinegar to balance the flavors.

Cranberries, pears, and apples form a sweetly irresistible autumn trinity beneath a crisp oat topping.

Sharp mustard adds edginess to the old standby combination of greens and bacon.

Sturdy forest-green collards provide the wrapping for buttery, juicy mushrooms. Elegance comes easily when it comes to these bundles, since they can be assembled a day ahead.

Ruggiero was so smitten with the kohlrabi salad at St. JOHN Bread & Wine, in London, that she snapped a photo of her plate and vowed to create her own version back in the States. Kohlrabi, which looks a lot like an alien spaceship, is as crisp as celery and has a pleasant mustardy flavor. Here, paper-thin slices get some additional zip from capers. The salad is so refreshing, it’s an ideal interlude between the extravagant meal and the dessert to come.

Truth be told, it’s hard to reinvent the Thanksgiving wheel year after year. But this crust—anise seeds baked into sweet pastry dough—is a little kiss of Italian spice; it takes pumpkin pie to a whole new level.

Even brown-rice skeptics will enjoy this textural dish full of butter-browned nuts.

Don’t worry if it looks like some of the Gorgonzola disappeared in the oven. It actually soaks into the chicken, keeping it moist and enriching its flavor.

For an elegant change of pace from store-bought tortilla chips, fry thin slices of plantain at home. When slipped into hot oil, the plantains curve into beautiful, long strips. Delicately flavored and impossibly crisp, these chips are great for dipping in guacamole.

With just a touch of sugar, this tender crust cradles the pastry cream and glazed-pear filling especially well.

We love the contrast of sliced almonds and golden-brown cauliflower against the risotto’s Brie-amplified creaminess.

This is no ordinary turkey. Food editor Lillian Chou blended toasted guajillo and ancho chiles with a range of spices and aromatics to create a brick-red adobo sauce that seasons both the bird and its gravy. After a long marinate, the adobo permeates the bird's juicy meat during roasting. The resulting turkey features a savory complexity heightened by the accompanying red-chile gravy.

If you've never tried chayotes, you're in for a treat. These small, pale green gourds have a light, clean sweetness; they are as juicy as summer squash and as sturdy as winter ones. Roasted with garlic, chayotes become a tender and delicious side dish.

Chinese Rice Porridge with Turkey and Ginger

Your guests will wonder what makes this purée so silky. You can either look away demurely, hoarding your secret, or confess that it’s parsnips. Here, the floral subtlety of these ivory tubers is bolstered by the bite of whole Brussels sprouts leaves.

Anyone who swears by wet stuffing is likely to sidle over to the dry camp after a taste of this Thanksgiving classic. Beneath a crunchy crust is an amalgam of yielding bread, meaty chestnuts, and softened celery, apple, and leeks.

Nothing evokes the fall season like a plate of pork chops and apples, but we upped the ante with spicy horseradish, which adds new verve to this timeless dish.

What a soup. Carrots and fennel caramelize when roasted at high heat, then release their sweet essence when blended. A drizzle of fennel-seed oil echoes and intensifies the fennel flavor.