Healthy Kwanzaa Recipes

Crunchy fennel and celery are combined with grapes in this delicious salad recipe.

Chocolate cream pie isn't just a diner special--it's the perfect dessert for any celebration. We love the added flair of chocolate curls on top, but a pretty dollop of whipped cream on each piece would look just as elegant.

This recipe for quick pan-seared steak with a savory-sweet port wine and grape sauce makes a delicious weeknight dinner.

Garlic-cheese grits are a typically rich Southern dish, but the truth is you don't need a half a cup of butter and a pound of cheese to make them taste good. By using a pungent blend of super-sharp cheeses we've found you can use much less cheese and still get flavor-packed results.

Twice-baked potatoes get an elegant treatment when spiked with horseradish and topped with a bit of caviar. If oven space is limited, these can be made in the microwave.

This amazing wild-rice stuffing recipe is bursting with rustic fall flavors, including rye bread, sausage, apples, dried cherries, pecans and fresh herbs.

In this delicious side dish recipe, turnips and butternut squash are glazed with a mixture of molasses and flavorful five-spice powder. Try the dish with garlic-rubbed roasted chicken or pork.

Make plenty of these mildly sweet and salty nuts--they are great to have on hand over the holidays.

The typical way to prepare crab in the West African country Benin. If you are cooking fresh crab, you will need about 8 lbs. live crabs. Once you have removed the meat from the shells, save at least six shells to use as baking containers. Serve hot with rice. Make it a meal: Serve with Zucchini Rice and sliced tomatoes.

This custard pie recipe elevates the simple pear to something heavenly. The pears are lightly caramelized, baked into vanilla custard, then topped with a cinnamon caramel sauce just before serving.

In this recipe, Yukon Gold potatoes and sweet potatoes are roughly mashed together with leeks for a beautiful mottled white-and-orange take on mashed potatoes. The creme fraiche topping offers a tangy counterpoint.

One of the best things about this corn bread is that it takes only 15 minutes to prepare.

Crunchy, battered catfish fillets have jumped out of the Louisiana backwaters to become a national favorite, thanks in large part to the Cajun cooking craze that started in the '80s. Here, the fillets are coated in a spicy mélange of cornflakes and pecans and baked for a traditional yet surprisingly healthy take on this bayou favorite.

Here's a healthy--and adorable--twist on deep-dish apple pie. This mini apple pie recipe will give you just a bit of something sweet and the melted wedge of Cheddar on top is a nod to the New England tradition of serving cheese with apple pie.

If you're ready for a change from standard pumpkin pie, try this pumpkin torte recipe with a deep chocolate flavor. Pureed pumpkin helps make the dessert incredibly moist and dense. The topping is whipped cream with a touch of vanilla and sugar and a bit of pureed pumpkin folded in.

From the Deep South comes this spicy rice full of vegetables and chicken. Feel free to adjust the amount of hot sauce and cayenne pepper according to taste.

This isn't any ordinary picnic pasta salad. Coffee and molasses add rich notes to the tangy dressing.

Dried apricots, raisins and curry powder make unusual but delectable partners for sweet potatoes in this old-style Southern recipe. Try it with roasted pork tenderloin, turkey or chicken.

Many variations of this dish use oregano as the main herb, but we like the flavor of cilantro a bit better with the earthy taste of the black beans.

A Southern favorite, buttermilk custard pie is smooth, tangy and delicious.

Combining smoke and heat, this dish is easy and quick to assemble. If you like fiery food, cut long slits in the peppers to release their juices. Four jalapeños, which are more readily available, may be substituted for the habaneros (also called Scotch bonnets), but the habaneros contribute a flavor all their own. Smoked chicken is available in specialty meat shops. Serve hot over rice.

We adapted a favorite recipe for conch creole to shrimp because conch can be hard to find in the U.S. You can also use scallops.

This exotic, spicy soup takes advantage of the affinity between butternut squash and curry. Pureed squash has a velvety texture, which means you can forgo using cream. We serve the soup with some nonfat yogurt for a tangy note. And if you're looking for more vitamin A in your diet, look no further: this soup gives you 200 percent of the daily recommendation.

This quick version of red beans and rice gets its smoky goodness from super-lean Canadian bacon and a hit of ground chipotle pepper. It's delicious as a leftover but will thicken as it stands. To keep it properly syrupy, just thin with a little water and reheat.