 (Ella Henry) makes the most of the season’s prettiest produce—radicchio, celery, dates, and pistachios, all tossed in a bright lemon vinaigrette. It’s endlessly adaptable: swap in pink apples, different lettuce varieties, or your favorite cheese and nuts. Make it ahead by prepping the components, then mix and match throughout the week for easy lunches and dinners. For an extra crunch, use up the rest of a day-old sourdough loaf by making homemade croutons to go on top.

Chopped Radicchio Salad With Sourdough Croutons by Ella Henry

Empanada dough is your blank canvas! Found in the freezer section of most Latin supermarkets, these handy disks can be filled with just about anything.  Transform last night's leftovers into a whole new meal—think roasted vegetables, shredded chicken, or even leftover chili. These chicken pot pie empanadas are a delicious example of how creative you can get. Fry or bake them until golden for a satisfying snack or meal.

Chicken Pot Pie Empanadas

Thanksgiving is a time for abundance, but sometimes a lighter dish offers a welcome contrast on a table laden with rich foods. This Chinese Celery & Turnip Salad delivers big flavors and a satisfying crunch that’ll compliment your usual fare. Think of it as a palate cleanser—a refreshing counterpoint to the heavier dishes that grace the Thanksgiving table. Crisp celery and julienned turnip are woken up with a simple yet flavorful dressing, accented by aromatic ginger and garlic, and the subtle tingly heat of Sichuan pepper flakes. 

Chinese Celery & Turnip Salad 

Giardiniera is an Italian condiment of pickled vegetables, which can vary slightly by region, especially across the United States, most notable interpretations found in cities like Chicago and New Orleans. My version is inspired by a medley of styles, features a chunky texture and a blend of flavors – tangy, briny, and subtly spicy. The brining process creates a really satisfying crunch which is a great addition to rich and fatty sandwiches. 

Chunky Giardiniera 

I always spend too much time each Thanksgiving season trying to figure out the best way to brine my turkey. I’ve tried everything, from simple salt water to an apple juice concoction with cinnamon sticks and orange peel. I knew that the salt in the brine was breaking something or other down in the turkey, making it less prone to shriveling up and drying out, but what I didn’t know was that I was water logging my turkey. The turkey was juicy, sure, but it was all a farce. The thing was just full of water! So this time around, I did a plain old salt rub overnight, like a light cure. This made sure that my turkey had its fibers broken down enough to not dry out, but also didn’t weigh my turkey down with flavorless water or overpowering apple juice. The skin was wonderfully crispy, the bird was perfectly juicy, and I was one happy lady. Another reason for my happiness was 

the spatchcock, or butterfly, method that I used this year

. Simply put, you just need to cut the backbone out of your turkey. It is not a technique for the squeamish, but it works like a charm. Once you flatten the bird and put it on your roasting tray, the turkey will cook evenly on its new flat surface, as well as allowing for a much faster cooking time – well under an hour and a half! This is the only way to cook a turkey, folks. After years of sub-par turkey dinners, this one took the cake. As a side note, people like to brine turkey in some kind of salt water or apple juice mixture, which is fine, but this just water logs the turkey and makes it tastes like water or apple juice. "Curing" the turkey with salt, however, gives the same benefit of breaking down the muscle fibers in the turkey to make it moist and juicy without taking on the flavor of anything of than delicious turkey.

The Easiest Thanksgiving Turkey

This soup breaks all the rules. And you still get a rich, summery vegetable soup all the same. This recipe is a great fridge clearer (and freezer stocker) for those last two carrots in the bag, that too-big zucchini, any random vegetables you've got. In 

, Jody writes: “I allow the vegetables to change with the season and use leeks and favas in the spring insead of the green beans and zucchini of summer. Whatever vegetables you use, this soup is always made with water, and topped with an ample drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and a generous spoonful of bright green basil pistou.” A few tips: You will need a large stockpot, ideally holding 8 quarts or larger, for the full batch of soup. If all your pots are smaller, scale down the recipe to fit (it doesn’t need to be exact) or divide between two pots. This soup is a wonderful destination for any random vegetables you’ve got, so don’t feel wedded to the exact list here. Depending on the age of your dried beans, your soup may take longer than one hour (older beans take longer to rehydrate). Beyond that, you can cook this as long as you like to get the texture you’re looking for: Jody loves hers slow-cooked until it’s porridge-like; at the minimum 1 hour, mine has always been brothier. Both are good, as long as you taste and adjust the salt carefully at the end, and especially once the pistou, olive oil, and Parmesan are swirled in. If you’d like plenty of pistou, consider doubling that part of the recipe (leftovers can be used on pasta or anywhere you’d use a mellow pesto). Recipe from 

This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. As an Amazon Associate, Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.

Soupe au Pistou From Jody Williams

For me, potato salad is a very nostalgic food, evoking summertime, picnics, reunions, and large gatherings. In my family, a mayonnaise-based sauce is a given. Which isn’t meant to disrespect German-style potato salad, with no mayo and lots of bacon—I love that version, too. But if you ask me, this is the ultimate potato salad. 

So, what kind of potato works best? Our test kitchen considered Idaho potatoes, but found that their fluffy texture was less than ideal in a salad. Something waxier and firmer works better here. Think: Yukon gold potatoes or red potatoes. I prefer the latter because of their sturdy texture, mild earthy flavor, and because the red skins add some nice color. 

For acidity, we added fresh lemon juice (bright but subtle) rather than vinegar (too strong). The key is to add the lemon juice to the cooked potatoes while they’re still warm, which ensures that the flavor soaks in.

In a potentially controversial move, we add raw chopped celery for its fresh crunch and grassy flavor, but raw chopped onion was excluded. We found that the flavor of raw onion was too aggressive. That said, a little onion powder goes a long way, adding a can’t-put-your-finger-on-it savoriness to the salad.  

In terms of fresh herbs, you could add anything—parsley, tarragon, chives, dill, and scallions, to name a few. Each of these options is enjoyable in its own way, but in the end, we landed on just chives for their simply allium flavor, like an onion but gentler. 

This potato salad is great with a multitude of foods, from sandwiches to barbecue ribs to roast chicken. Just remember to fully chill it on warm summer days before serving it outside. By refrigerating the potato salad beforehand, it can safely hang out in a shady spot for up to a couple of hours.

Potato Salad With Celery & Hard-Boiled Eggs

Some of my dill weed in the garden is starting to go to seed so I went out to cut those stalks to get the last of their leaves to use in potato salad when I noticed how full the fronds from the fennel I'm growing were.  I decided that the two would pair very well together and gave it a shot, bolstered with a little dried ground fennel.  I'm going to make this again with fennel bulb added (when and if I get a fennel bulb!)

Dill and Fennel Frond Potato Salad

homemade mayonnaise with an aquafaba base

. It’s an inexpensive alternative to store-bought, dairy-free mayonnaise, and it—along with this salad—is a great use for something that you might otherwise discard after opening a can of chickpeas. The mayonnaise is both lighter and thinner than conventional, store-bought mayonnaise; it gives the potato salad richness without a heavy mouthfeel, and it’s pleasantly tangy as-is—no sour cream needed. I like to use small Yukon gold or yellow creamer potatoes for this salad, so that I can boil them whole. Once boiled, I peel and throw them into a mixing bowl, giving them a quick mash before even adding the mayonnaise, which contributes to the extra-creamy effect of the dish. I chop my mix-ins and herbs finely, so that they don’t disrupt the smashed texture too much. I’m half Greek, and when I was growing up, dill made appearances in everything (my mother wouldn’t even put mayonnaise on a sandwich without mixing in a little heap of dried dill first). I’ve carried on the family tradition, putting dill into soups, spreads, dips, smashed chickpea salad, grain salads, and more. If you hate dill—and I’ve met a lot of people who do—you can replace it with chives, chopped green onion tops, chopped basil, or a little extra parsley. I like the way this salad tastes a few hours after it’s been mixed, when the red onions are still pungent and the herbs are still a little crisp. But it keeps nicely, too, and the leftovers will taste good for up to three days in the fridge. The recipe makes 4 to 5 cups as written, so if you’re serving a crowd, you can easily double it. I usually serve this dish as a side, with grilled tofu or tempeh kebabs, and turn leftovers into a meal by folding in some chickpeas, chopped broccoli florets, green beans, tomatoes (whatever needs using), and serving it all over a bed of greens.

Vegan Potato Salad

This recipe takes a spin on the classic beef and blue cheese combo and the pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich. The crunch of the slaw, soft but toasty bread, and savory steak satisfy all my picnic needs. The blue cheese provides that much-needed sharpness to go with a slightly sweet slaw. The beef and coleslaw can be made ahead and the sandwich assembled on-site, otherwise the coleslaw will make the bread soggy.  

Grilled Steak Sandwich with Blue Cheese Coleslaw

Spiralized Firecracker Hot Dogs

Cafe enjoyment is often about strategy—where you sit, how to coax the barista into making your coffee just so, making sure you get there before your beloved cinnamon roll is snapped up by someone else. Recently, my husband Tad and I figured out that if we wanted to be able to get a table for four on the weekends at our favorite local spot—Iris Cafe—we needed to arrive just before 9 am. We've managed to do it but it's not pretty. One of our kids usually leaves the house half pajama'd, and we end up sprint-walking -- no stopping to indulge one's curiosity in a sidewalk crack! -- there. But it's worth it so we can sit, each in our own seat, and stare at each other, half awake, as we gulp coffee and eat soft-boiled eggs with mashed avocado on toast.

Iris Cafe, in many respects, is the consummate cafe. It's on an obscure street in Brooklyn Heights, so there's no street traffic. And this means all of its customers are devotees, who make it their destination. The room is relaxed like worn-in jeans, the coffee is delicious (Stumptown), they sell local eggs and dairy (Brooklyn badge of honor), and the food is exceptionally good.

On Tuesdays, when we do our weekly photo shoot at my apartment, we occasionally get take-out from Iris Cafe (dinner roll and chocolate cake weeks need lunch supplements!). One of the food52 team favorites is the Curried Smoked Turkey Salad. So, for my second installment of the Counterfeit Cook Office Lunch Series, Iris Cafe's owner, Rachel Graville, shared the recipe.

Curried Smoked Turkey Salad

This recipe won me second prize in my local newspaper's Thanksgiving leftover sandwich contest. It is a great sandwich, full of flavor and texture.  The amounts given here will serve 2 with leftover pickled vegetables. So it can be expanded to serve a larger number. I just took what I know as a banh-mi sandwich and substituted turkey and bacon for the pork and pate.  I used parsley and celery leaves instead of cilantro because that is what I had on hand. I like the way the minced ginger clings to the carrot and cucumber when you remove the vegetables from the marinade; it adds a nice spice to the crunchy vegetables. It was a lighter, fresher tasting departure from the usual post-Thanksgiving sandwich.  Enjoy! 

Bánh Mì-Style Turkey Sandwich

Whether you have rosy associations with potato, macaroni, and other salads lovingly glommed together with mayo, or you’ve always been a bit uneasy about the whole genre—there is something for you to love in this recipe. Adapted slightly from 

Gena Hamshaw's (Vegan) Deli Bowls With Smashed Chickpea Salad

Endive with Bacon and Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Pimento Cheese Sandwich with Fried Pickles & Ranch Dressing

This Waldorf salad recipe is slightly adapted from the 1939 cookbook Home at the Range. It feels thoroughly modern with bits of bitter greens and a dusting of paprika. 


Classic Waldorf Salad

If you crumbled up a bunch of crab cakes and tossed them with pasta, you’d end up with something like this. Crab pasta is perfect for a birthday or date night or just a Friday night when you want something special to go with that bottle of wine. At the same time, it’s practically foolproof and totally stress-free (no offense, crab cakes!). Here’s the scoop: Jumbo lump crab meat means you’ll end up with lots of big crab pieces. Lump works, as well—just make sure you stir extra carefully, so the pieces don’t become indistinguishable. I love the bright green color of leeks and scallions, but you could swap in finely chopped yellow onion (red would be too overpowering). Use whatever short-shaped pasta you’d like. In the test kitchen, we went with shells because of the way they hug the crab. Rigatoni would be very good, too. Make sure you taste the dressing before you toss it with the pasta. Maybe you want it a little spicier (more Dijon, Old Bay, or both), or tangier (more Worcestershire), or lemonier (more, uh, lemon). Adjust it until it’s highly addictive to you. And of course, you could skip butter-crisping the Saltines (after all, crumbled Saltines are already great)—but know that the few minutes of extra work will lead you to your new favorite pasta topping. This would be wonderful with a lemony green salad or plate of ripe tomato wedges sprinkled with salt. Any leftovers will hold up for a day in the fridge—eat cold or room-temperature, like pasta salad. You can also easily double the recipe to serve a bigger group.

Crab Pasta With Old Bay & Saltines

     I've had many lobster roll cravings- there's something about the sweet, tender lobster meat in the warm, buttery roll that gets me every time.   Now I know that there's a lot of debate as to what the best lobster roll recipe is. Some purists simply put steamed lobster in a buttered, toasted bun with no mayonnaise or other accoutrements. I however, prefer my lobster rolls with a light coating of lemony mayonnaise, some finely chopped celery for crunch and Boston lettuce to keep the bun from getting soggy.
     When making a dish with such few ingredients, it's really important to use the best quality ingredients, so I like to make my own mayonnaise. Once you know the technique, mayonnaise is actually not too difficult to make and the flavor and texture just can't be rivaled by the store-bought variety. 


New England Lobster Rolls with Lemon Chive Mayonnaise

My favorite thing to eat, without question, is my grandma’s macaroni salad. I know what you’re thinking: Whose favorite food is macaroni salad? But it’s not just any macaroni salad, and especially not the kind you find at grocery stores. My grandma’s version is made exclusively with giant elbow macaroni, lots of hard boiled eggs, and a light coating of a just-sweet-enough blend of mayo, Miracle Whip, and sweet relish. It’s my ultimate comfort food.

My grandma has a giant, basketball-sized Tupperware bowl she always puts her macaroni salad in, and it's usually served on a plate alongside corn on the cob and a burger, or a steak, or something similar off her backyard grill. At my house, we eat it on its own out of a bowl (or sometimes straight out of the stockpot).

And yes, this recipe is designed to serve a crowd, but you can adjust the recipe for practicality.



Grandma’s Macaroni Salad

A classic tuna melt—well, at least to me. When I was growing up, my dad made them just like this: English muffin, mayo-y tuna salad, sharp cheddar, ultra-hot broiler. I made a few nips and tucks: less mayo, more dijon, and pickles instead of relish (so, sour instead of sweet). But I kept the bright-colored cheese because it’s sunny as heck and makes me feel warm. 

Classic Tuna Melt, Like Dad Used to Make

The creamy coleslaw by which to judge all others -- perfect for a barbecue, picnic, or reunion.  

Classic Coleslaw

This egg salad takes less time than boiling an egg. And better yet, none of it is spent pulling off stubborn shards of shell. Because once again, Aki and Alex at Ideas in Food have changed how we'll cook forever with their warm, crispy, magical Fried Egg Salad. As Aki writes on Ideas in Food, “We've spent a lot of time thinking about egg salad. Mostly about the cooking and peeling of eggs. We have our favorite method, steaming for 13 minutes and then peeling, but it's still kind of a pain. So, Alex decided to find a way to crack the eggs and this salad was born...Special bonus, warm egg salad is extra delicious.” A few more notes: It helps to have all your ingredients ready because this moves fast. This technique is more of an idea than a complete recipe, which allows you to customize it to exactly how you like your eggs. Tell us in the comments where you take them! Adapted from Aki Kamozawa and Alex Talbot at 

Fried Egg Salad From Ideas in Food

Here I've pared down my favorite meal—Buffalo-style anything with blue cheese whatever—to a single-serving supper for one. Salmon fillet and gorgeous hunk of Gorgonzola aside, it's likely you’ll already have all these ingredients on hand, and dinner will be ready in 20 minutes tops.

What makes this dinner so gorgeous is how the glaze caramelizes in the oven and bakes onto the fish, not to mention the meaty kale salad that it goes with. Everything comes together swiftly and easily, perfect for busy weeknights when the last thing you want to do is cook.

Buffalo-Glazed Salmon With Blue Cheese Kale Salad

This is a good way to use up a jar of leftover pickle brine. Better pickles will yield a more flavorful salad; spring for the fancy stuff with lots of pickling spices hanging out at the bottom. You can make your dressing looser by increasing the amount of pickle brine. If your brine isn't very flavorful, add ground coriander or other spices to the dressing.

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