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Zucchini, strictly speaking, aren’t controversial, but they do tend to get a pretty lukewarm reaction from many, including, regrettably, two of our test-kitchen colleagues. The reason for this is probably zucchini’s high water content, which tends to make them, well, watery. There are plenty of ways to combat this—frying and grilling are two examples—but we actually use it to our advantage here, cooking the zucchini slowly in their own juices, making them fantastically soft and enhancing their flavour by a long soak with fried garlic. (And in the process, we also managed to win over our two zucchini-iffy colleagues, we’re happy to announce.) —Excerpted from 'Flavor,' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage

Toronto chef Nuit Regular changed the way the city’s diners viewed Thai cuisine—and she hopes her new cookbook, Kiin, will do the same for how people cook it at home. “Today, the ingredients are easy to find online and at Asian supermarkets,” says Regular. And if a certain recipe seems hard, she says, just start with a simpler one: papaya salad or the starter paste for a tom yum soup. “Once you overcome the intimidation of thinking it’s hard, you’re going to find a different joy in Thai food, in making it for yourself.”

You can't go wrong with a classic hummus with simple ingredients of salt, tahini, garlic and chickpeas.

A Mediterranean classic made with eggplant that's great with crudité and pita.

In the Philippines, this dish is usually made with grated green papaya. We've decided to go with mango, as it is a little easier to find.