Eat by Color: White Foods

Ian Schnoebelen takes cauliflower soup to another level by adding sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes)—small, knobby tubers that taste sweet and crisp when raw, nutty and creamy when roasted. Schnoebelen cooks the sunchokes before pureeing them into the soup, which adds a wonderfully earthy flavor.

Three-year-old Drew Besh loves his father chef John Besh's decadent cauliflower puree, which is silky and luscious because it's made with both cream and butter. Adjust the level of cayenne pepper to make the cauliflower puree more or less spicy.

This delicate, Asian-influenced chicken dish will go best with an equally delicate white—anything full-bodied and rich will taste clunky and coarse with it. Try a good-quality Pinot Grigio. Many of them have almost no taste, but the best from Italy combine graceful melony fruit with bright, lively acidity.

The topping for these potatoes is as ingenious as it is simple: Shrimp are simmered in garlic-infused crème fraîche to flavor them; then the crème fraîche is reduced to make a silky sauce.

Large chunks of toasted pita stay delightfully crunchy in this bread salad, laced with white anchovies and topped with a garlicky sour cream dressing.

There are two kinds of rice in this luxurious chicken stir-fry: fragrant jasmine rice and oval Korean rice cakes, which look like sliced scallops and have a deliciously chewy texture. Lightly toasted sliced almonds and slivers of daikon add an appealing crunch.

These impressive supersized ravioli are constructed with large rectangles of homemade pasta that are dotted with whole parsley leaves and filled with the unexpectedly alluring combination of crab and cauliflower.

Vietnamese rolls stuffed with shrimp get crunch and color from yellow peppers, lettuce and carrots—which, like most orange fruits and vegetables, are high in cancer-fighting alpha carotene.

Instead of using butter, chef José Andrés prefers to add richness with olive oil and Manchego cheese. His tip: "Add the olive oil slowly to the potatoes because if you dump it in all at once, you'll get streaks of oil."

Grace Parisi steams delicate halibut with cabbage that's sautéed with ginger and leeks until soft and buttery.