10 root beer recipes

Rosemary's root beer tonic: a traditional herbal decoction made with sassafras, dandelion, burdock, ginger, cinnamon, and orange peel. Old-fashioned homemade root beer.

Root beer baked beans with bacon, barbecue sauce, dry mustard, and hot sauce simmered together on the stovetop. A sweet, smoky, slightly spicy side dish ready in 40 minutes.

Cold green vegetable soup with poached fish. Source: Olga Gorechev, St. Petersburg, Russia

Crispy deep-fried samosas with spiced curried meat filling wrapped in homemade pastry. Seasoned with garam masala, fresh ginger, and mint, these golden triangles shatter at first bite.

A South African-style spiced mince filling for samoosas: beef or mutton braised dry with jeera, ginger, garlic, turmeric, fresh coriander and mint. The keep-it-dry method that stops samoosas from going soggy.

Thin-sliced flank steak marinated in white wine, soy sauce, fresh ginger, and brown sugar, then threaded on skewers and grilled. Makes 30 to 40 crowd-ready teriyaki beef skewers.

Chinese vegetable soup with shiitake mushrooms, napa cabbage, soba noodles, and a ginger-tamari broth. A low-fat, brothy noodle bowl with savory mushroom depth.

This is a very healthy soup, with several kinds of vegetables and seasonings, nutritious and tasty.

Asian-style beef and couscous with flank steak in an apricot-ginger sauce, bell peppers, and mushrooms. A sweet-savory microwave meal with crisp-tender vegetables.

Traditional Sonoran white menudo with tender tripe, calf's foot, and flowered hominy in a rich broth served with lime, cilantro, and chile toppings.