Piperade, a vegetable stew–like concoction popular in Basque country (which straddles northern Spain and southern France) is similar to Sicilian caponata or Middle Eastern shakshuka. This version is from the Alonso family, whose patriarch is Basque, though he has lived in Chile for many years. Instead of scrambling the eggs, you can break them right into the hot piperade. Cover them with a tight-fitting lid, then cook to your desired degree of doneness.

Packaged spanakopita, often in canape-sized shapes, can taste rather bland. With a package of frozen phyllo (or fresh if you live near a Greek pastry shop!), you can make this wonderful dish with layers of flavor—the sweetness of the caramelized onions, pine nuts, and currants, the freshness of the parsley and dill, and the zest of the cheeses—all enhanced by the richness of fresh-pressed olive oil. If you have the time, you can steam and chop fresh spinach, but you’ll need a very big volume to achieve two pounds. Frozen is easier to work with—allow it to defrost overnight in the fridge along with the phyllo. This recipe also includes bulgur, a tasty whole grain. You can roll the dough and filling into many different shapes. Long logs, or cigars, are easy to roll up and the shape is less likely to tear the delicate phyllo. Enjoy the process of working with phyllo—it’s easy once you get the hang of it…if you allow yourself time to work at a comfortable pace.

For a bright brunch dish, serve the dressed fruit salad over thick Greek yogurt or Icelandic skyr.

We’ve all eaten smoked salmon on bagels or toast points, but for something different, try this delicacy on crispy smashed potatoes. In place of smoked salmon, use salmon roe or another domestic caviar. Elegant!

This take on empanadas de queso is perfect when you want melted cheesy goodness but would rather skip the dough. Preferred in Chile is the very buttery queso chanco, a cheese that’s close in taste and texture to our Muenster. Though not traditional in empanadas, merquén adds a nice zest (you can substitute pimentón if it’s already on your spice shelf). To make this more of a meal, toss the shredded cheese with 1 cup of cooked brown rice or quinoa before stuffing into the peppers. Eat them with a knife and fork or with your hands, empanada style.

This unusual twist on gazpacho takes advantage of tender sweet corn at its peak. As you’ll see from the recipe, we’re emphasizing corn’s gorgeous yellow color. When buying, look for ears with fresh stems (like cut flowers)—not brown or dessicated. Like flowers, you can recut the ends and store the ears upright in sugared water in a cool place for a day or two. Aji amarillo is a spicy yellow chile grown in South America. You can often buy it in paste form online or in the international aisle of larger supermarkets.

I enjoyed this dish at the wonderful Cervecería Rural in Litueche. It’s a salad of black beans (red kidney beans make a great alternative) dressed in the style of a ceviche marinade. Some versions have all the ingredients tossed together, but Rural’s chef presented it as a beautifully composed salad.

Roasted chicken is the little black dress of the table, welcome on the menu of a dinner party or a weeknight meal. The following bright-tasting salsa is also terrific with fish, a popular entrée in Chile, a country with over 2,000 miles of Pacific coastline. Dice the vegetables extra fine and serve the salsa with cold shrimp for a warm-weather appetizer.

To make this lean cut of beef tender, three steps are needed: a long marination, a fast grilling, and slicing against the grain—in the opposite direction of its meat fibers.

This might be my new favorite way to eat carrots, which, like most vegetables, grow huge in Central Chile’s fertile soil. Marinated in olive oil and spices, then coated in freshly grated Parmesan cheese, the carrots are roasted until tender. They’re great with chicken, pork, or lamb.

Even carnivorous types crave a well-made vegetarian burger from time to time. I love the combination of quinoa, a protein-rich grain related to amaranth, spinach that is cultivated by small farms in the Andes, and black beans. If desired, you can transform this into a vegan burger by employing an egg substitute and vegan cheese.