Just a few extra ingredients or slight tweaks to a recipe can make all the difference in updating a longtime favorite dish. Here, classic recipes like mac and cheese, lemonade, and a BLT sandwich get a whole new spin from simple additions like goat cheese, sweet-tea marinade, and fried green tomatoes.Get more takes on the classics with this collection of
southern food made healthier and finish the already perfect meal with these 12 new peanut butter cookie recipes.
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Updating the Classics
Love your mac n' cheese but want looking to spice it up a bit? We're offering a few refreshing ideas for how to spruce up the likes of classic recipes such as lemonade, brownies, cake, and salad, just to name a few. Check out these ingenious ways of breathing new life into some of your favorite standbys.
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Bacon-Bourbon Brownies with Pecans
Feel free to top these rich brownies with bacon and pecans. To enhance the smoky flavor, mix in some of the bacon fat into the batter.
Recipe: Bacon-Bourbon Brownies with Pecans
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3
Tomato Lemonade
Kat Kinsman, managing editor of CNN's Eatocracy food blog, is known for clever drinks like this lemonade. It's perfect on its own as a mocktail, but Kinsman recommends adding a shot or two of rye whiskey.
Recipe: Tomato Lemonade
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4
Spicy Beer Mustard
This intensely flavored homemade mustard gets its complexity from a mix of black and yellow mustard seeds, rich dark beer, and a mix of sweeteners and spices.
Recipe: Spicy Beer Mustard
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Cocoa-Carrot Cake with Cocoa Crumble
William Werner likes carrot cake but was curious to experiment with the classic. So he added cocoa to the batter, resulting in this moist loaf with a chocolaty crumb topping.
Recipe: Cocoa-Carrot Cake with Cocoa Crumble
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Fried Green Tomato BLTs
This is a brilliant marriage of two classics: cornmeal-dusted green tomatoes and a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.
Recipe: Fried Green Tomato BLTs
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7
Hot Dogs with Cheddar and Sautéed Apples
Here is a terrific, if unlikely, combination of cinnamony sautéed apples with slices of sharp cheddar cheese, served on top of hot dogs tucked into pretzel rolls.
Recipe: Hot Dogs with Cheddar and Sautéed Apples
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Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts
A sweet tea–infused marinade tenderizes and lightens these oven-fried chicken breasts, while the accompanying caramelized-onion gravy grounds the flavor in something beyond traditional fried chicken.
Recipe: Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts
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Three-Cheese Mac and Cheese
Three different types of cheese — goat, sharp cheddar, and Parmigiano-Reggiano — plus sour cream and egg yolks, make this recipe from chef Ben Vaughn of Restaurant Grace in Memphis especially rich.
Recipe: Three-Cheese Mac and Cheese
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Peppered Corn Bread
Here we use both naturally low-fat buttermilk and fat-free sour cream to make a tender, rich corn bread.
Recipe: Peppered Corn Bread
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11
Seared Romaine Spears with Caesar Dressing
In this fun incarnation of Caesar salad, grilling romaine with a light brushing of oil boosts its flavor while adding few calories. For the dressing, chef Kerry Simon ingeniously swaps in low-fat mayonnaise for egg yolks.
Recipe: Seared Romaine Spears with Caesar Dressing
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Hush Puppies with Green Zebra Tomato Jam
At Trummer's on Main in Clifton, Virginia, chef Clayton Miller makes a highly seasoned, Indian-inflected tomato jam with ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and cayenne. It's a terrific accompaniment to his hush puppies — cheekily nicknamed "shut-your-piehole puppies" by the cooks in his kitchen.
Recipe: Hush Puppies with Green Zebra Tomato Jam
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13
Spicy Popcorn Balls
Give classically sweet-salty popcorn balls a smart update with chipotle-spiked caramel for a spicy kick.
Recipe: Spicy Popcorn Balls
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14
Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes
Using polenta (cornmeal) in addition to white flour in these pancakes makes them especially satisfying, as the ground whole grain delivers lots of fiber and a good amount of protein.
Recipe: Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes
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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Moon Pies
Moon pies are classic Southern sandwich cookies. Rebekah Turshen, the pastry chef at Nashville's City House, spreads crispy sugar cookies with chocolate and peanut butter, then sandwiches them around a marshmallow filling.
Recipe: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Moon Pies
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More Ideas
Get more ideas for updating your favorite dishes with these Food & Wine: