All of the Recipes You Should Be Cooking This October

Fruits, nuts, Fuyu persimmons, and two kinds of chicory (frisée and radicchio) go into this seasonal and generous salad that’s still light. Toss it at the last minute so it stays crisp.

At Alfred’s Steakhouse in San Francisco, the creamed spinach looks like it’s from 1960, but it appeals to modern palates hungry for big flavor: It’s made with a smoky bacon-fat roux, plus fennel pollen and chile for spark. Although this recipe is labor-intensive, it’s worth it.

A big, colorful salad is a welcome sight at any dinner table. The rich cheese and ginger-apple cider dressing unite the fruit with the greens.

Leeks can be difficult to clean, but they’re worth the effort for their sweet, subtle yet unmistakable flavor. Cooked until very tender and almost caramelized, they blend beautifully with mashed potatoes.

Blanching the cilantro for the pesto helps prevent it from oxidizing, making for a pesto that can be stored in the fridge for a week or more. Instead of parm, this Mexican-inspired recipe uses cotija cheese and more commonly found pecans instead of pinenuts.

This colorful medley of small onions adds a sweet-tart note to a fall dinner. It tastes best with small, regular shallots (about the size of a walnut in its shell) to the supersize ones. The small type is firmer and blends better with the other onions.

Cooking with store-bought cubed squash saves time on weeknights. You can sub in almonds or walnuts for the pistachios if you’re trying to avoid an added trip to the store—though they add a delightful delicate flavor.

This is a dinner for people who have big appetites (or are on the paleo diet). If you want less meat, just grill two steaks and cut them in half. Also, cutting the celery by hand gives you neater, crisper pieces than if you use a handheld slicer or a food processor.

“Pasta alla gricia is a very simple Roman pasta dish consisting of guanciale (cured pork jowl) and pecorino. As I do with many traditional Italian dishes, I use the classic as a springboard for improvisation,” says chef Joshua McFadden of Ava Gene’s in Portland. “Here I add very thinly sliced snap peas, which creates an amazing texture as well as adds a fresh green note to the otherwise quite rich pasta. And I use my Cacio e Pepe Butter as a perfect shortcut, once again demonstrating that a well-stocked larder means delicious food in minutes.”

In this healthy weeknight dinner, thyme and arugula keep the sweetness of the grapes in balance. Plus, nearly all the cooking is done on a single baking sheet.

This Chinese-inspired take on short ribs gets its freshness from Bosc pears cooked in the sauce, plus more pears on top in a raw relish. If you have time, cook the recipe a day ahead. The flavors will be deeper, and you can more easily lift the fat from the sauce.

For the easiest prep and biggest hit of flavor, slather the meat with tangy pomegranate-molasses marinade ahead of time; ditto for the tahini dressing. Then it’s quick to grill! Slice the lamb, mix it with mint, pomegranate seeds, and the dressing, and set it out with lettuce and warm pita bread.

Pounded thin, chicken thighs cook fast and stay moist. The lemony sauce is great with a side of asparagus, though in cooler months when asparagus might not be easy to find you can saute dandelion greens of kale the same way.

Layered flavors give this hearty vegan dinner depth: sweet onion, fire-roasted tomatoes, garlic, red chiles, and black olives. If you’re an omnivore, try adding a couple of minced anchovy fillets; they add savory oomph without noticeable fishiness.

To keep the color in this mild spring soup bright, use a deep green head of lettuce, cooking it only enough to wilt it, and peel favas shortly before using them.

Our favorite new way to serve Fuyu persimmons (the ones that look like tomatoes) is in this juicy, spicy pie, which accents their delicate fruitiness with cinnamon and lemon. For the best flavor, let the persimmons ripen at room temperature until they’re bright orange and have a slight give; this may take as long as a week. 

Somewhere between a custard and a pancake, you’ll find clafoutis. This version of the classic French dessert, made with slightly floral Comice pears, is best when the stem end of the pears yields slightly to the touch, signaling that the fruit is flavorful but neither hard nor squishy.

The inspiration for this cake is a sweet chutney made from dates and tamarind, which is commonly served as a dipping sauce with samosas and other fried snacks. It’s served well with a dust of confectioners’ sugar or drizzle it with a little kefir crème fraîche.

Light and refreshing, this sorbet is a delightful way to end a heavy meal. If you want to serve sparkling wine with the sorbet, choose one that’s sweeter than the one in the sorbet. Extra-dry sparkling wine is actually sweeter than brut. (We liked Chandon Riche extra dry for this recipe.) Pear juice may be substituted for sparkling wine.

This puffed pancake works nicely as either an elegant brunch dish or a rustic dessert.

This warmly spiced brittle also makes a crunchy garnish for your holiday dishes or as a centerpiece for your fall tablescapes.