4 Recipes to Start Your New Years Cleanse

Sara Dickerman, photos by Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriot

I'm a cook, not a nutritionist.

So to create the annual Food Lover's Cleanse -- Bon Appétit's two-week healthy-eating plan to help you balance the excesses of the holiday season -- I partner with New York-based registered dietitian Marissa Lippert. She makes sure the recipes are sensible. My job is to make sure the food tastes good. There's no way I'd survive a diet of dull foods, so I pack the cleanse with bold, fresh flavors.

SEE MORE: The Food Lovers' Cleanse

The FLC program is cooking-intensive; we provide recipes for every meal so you can get in the kitchen and enjoy the pleasures of preparing whole foods (plus tips if you can't cook on a given day). Since two weeks of cooking can be more daunting than forgoing potato chips, this year we offer several do-ahead items to have on hand that will make it easier to add sparkle to the lean proteins, whole grains, and seasonal veggies that dominate the plan.

SEE MORE:Ingredients We Can't Cook Without

Here we preview a few favorites -- from an emerald-green tahini sauce that works as a fish marinade, a dip for vegetables, and more, to a slightly sweet seed and nut mix that can top salads, yogurt, or a bowl of oatmeal. My hope is that they taste so good that you'll return to them throughout the year, just for the pleasure of it.

See more from Bon Appetit:
10 Snacks You Thought Were Healthy But Really Aren't
25 Ways to Use Sriracha
8 Foods That Could Kill You

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