Bean Sprouts

"Lime, mint, peanuts, panko, noodles, shrimp; lots of textures collide in this dish, screaming for a white wine with some acidity," says restaurateur Peter Kasperski.

This refreshing, crunchy salad combines a slew of nutrient-rich ingredients, including carrots (for vitamin B6 and beta-carotene) and mung bean sprouts (for iron, folate and potassium).

Green vegetables—broccoli, snow peas and celery—are the main focus of this stir-fry.

Whole-wheat spaghetti is one of Melissa Rubel Jacobson's favorite pastas because it is a good source of fiber and has an appealing chewiness. Here, she updates sesame noodles, a Chinese take-out classic, by giving the peanut sauce a hit of fiery red curry paste.

Because Jean-Georges Vongerichten is constantly opening new restaurants, it's easy to forget his break-out place: Vong, in Manhattan. This smoky lamb salad dates from a 1992 opening. With crunchy carrots, cucumbers and bean sprouts and a spiced vinegar dressing, it is one of the dishes that launched the Asian-fusion trend in America.

This dish, adapted from Harumi Kurihara's Harumi's Japanese Cooking, is topped with a sprinkling of umami-packed bouillon.

Stacked high with slices of tomato, onion, cucumber, avocado, and provolone cheese, this is a vegetable sandwich that even confirmed carnivores will love. You can add or substitute other fresh vegetables; radishes, spinach, or grated carrot go particularly well here. When you can't get good tomatoes, don't buy lousy, cottony ones; use twice the amount of lettuce instead.

Kids will be especially fond of this Asian-inspired noodle dish—after all, the sauce is made with peanut butter—but the combination of cooked and raw vegetables is refreshing and satisfying enough to please all ages. Serve the pasta immediately after tossing it with the peanut mixture; the sauce gets thick if it sits too long.