1,293 light recipes

Use on cakes or cookies or anywhere you need a sweet shiny glaze.

Chilled Spanish-style cantaloupe soup blended with potato, half and half, and dry sherry. Silky, elegant, and ready in 15 minutes. Garnish with nutmeg or a slice of lime.

Creamy cucumber dressing with garlic, chives, parsley, light mayo, and yogurt. A cool, tangy salad dressing that doubles as a dip for vegetables.

Apricot baked ham with a sweet-savory glaze of apricot preserves, dry mustard, and brown sugar. Score, stud with cloves, and bake for a showstopping holiday centerpiece.

Biscotti Napoletani: traditional eggless Italian almond biscotti with whole and ground almonds, sweetened with corn syrup. Twice-baked Neapolitan cookies built for dunking in espresso or vin santo.

Homemade Thai iced tea brewed strong, sweetened with sugar, and topped with creamy half and half or sweetened condensed milk. That iconic orange drink from your favorite Thai restaurant, made at home.

Old-fashioned vanilla fudge: a heritage recipe with sugar, corn syrup, milk, and butter cooked to soft-ball stage and beaten by hand until stiff. Add cocoa for chocolate fudge or fold in nuts and cherries.

Light chicken salad sandwich filling with shredded carrots, celery, grated onion, and light mayo. Make it ahead and stash it in the fridge for quick lunches all week.

Sunlight Sipper tropical cocktail with pineapple-passion fruit-banana juice, peach schnapps, light rum, and triple sec. A fruity 5-minute mixed drink served over cracked ice in a goblet.

Five-minute mayo orange ginger fruit dip blends light mayonnaise with orange juice, honey, orange zest, and ground ginger. A creamy, citrus-spiked dip for fresh apple, pear, or strawberry slices.

Whole bananas baked in their skins, then pan-fried in honey-allspice butter and flambeed with rum. A show-stopping Caribbean dessert with a squeeze of fresh lime to finish.

Candied orange peels turn citrus rinds into glossy, sugar-coated treats by double-blanching the peels, simmering in syrup, and rolling in sugar. A holiday gift project, ready overnight. Works with lemon or lime peels too.

Blueberries with brown sugar cream is a 3-ingredient dessert: fresh blueberries, a dollop of sour cream, and a sprinkle of brown sugar that slowly melts into dark ribbons. Ready in 5 minutes.

Green bean and new potato salad with garlic-tarragon mayo. Steamed and tossed warm so the dressing sinks in, the kind of bright, crisp summer side that goes with everything off the grill.

Galliano barbecued pork ribs parboiled to fall-off-the-bone tender, then basted with a hickory barbecue sauce spiked with anise-vanilla Galliano liqueur. The boozy Italian twist that takes weeknight ribs from ordinary to memorable.

Chocolate mud frosting made by melting chocolate chips with milk in the microwave, then blending with corn syrup and vanilla. A glossy, fudgy four-ingredient frosting with no butter or powdered sugar.