Appetizers

This gluten-free antipasto starts with a simple chickpea flatbread. Add roasted tomatoes, pan-fried artichoke hearts, roasted peppers and olives. Serve all ingredients on a large tray so that guests can help themselves. They'll have fun building their own crostini.

Italian sausage, fresh herbs and pears form a winning flavor combination in this sausage pear gluten free stuffing, a must for Thanksgiving. It's also great with roast pork, chicken or wild game. If baked outside the turkey, it's best when made the day before.

In this beautiful plant based side dish, roasted gold and red veggies are served over stir-fried collard greens. Cardamom takes the greens to a new level of flavor.

These quick and easy gluten-free soda bread whole-grain rolls are loaded with fresh rosemary and cracked pepper for big flavor. Although best served the day they’re baked, leftovers can be reheated to bring back their just-baked flavor.

These tender gluten free zucchini fries are very tasty and deceptively healthy. Enrobed in crunchy tortilla chips, they give the illusion of fries. Serve them alone or with your favorite gluten-free dipping sauce.

I enjoyed a horseradish green bean appetizer at a favorite restaurant and hurried home to recreate it. It evolved into this hearty, delicious gluten-free salad. Green beans belong to the same family as shell beans or common beans, like pinto, black and kidney beans. However, green beans are picked when immature. Anti-inflammatory green beans are a good source of antioxidants, plus minerals important to bone health. Shrimp turns this easy dish into an elegant summer entrée. If seafood is off limits for you, replace the shrimp with grilled chicken. For a vegetarian dish, toss in 2 cups cooked garbanzo beans; they absorb the flavors and complement the dish.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Fortunately, serving something that’s plant-based and holiday-worthy is easy with this stuffed squash on your menu. Bursting with Thanksgiving flavor in a pretty presentation and loaded with protein, it’s a tasty stand-in for turkey. Best of all, it comes together quickly.

A mouthful of flavors awaits when you serve these bacon wrapped brie and fig appetizers. They can be assembled and refrigerated up to 24 hours before broiling. If you prefer, use hickory-smoked bacon in place of the turkey bacon.

This cornbread is slightly sweet with a spicy twist. Serve it as a special dinner bread or crumble it to make Cracked Pepper Cornbread and Apple Stuffing. It can be made 1 to 2 days ahead.

This sweet and savory apple-stuffed acorn squash makes a great holiday side dish or a main course offering for vegetarian guests.