Warm Winter Salads

Hearty root vegetables and lentils make this warm salad from Sakara Life the perfect vegetarian main dish. It's paired with a pleasantly sweet and tangy coconut yogurt tzatziki that is packed with healthy fats.

Grace Parisi makes a crunchier version of chef Danielle Custer’s warm salad with bitter greens, radishes, fennel and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Chef Kevin Willmann likes using the mushrooms his local cultivators bring in. “Oyster mushrooms are the awesomest,” he says, though any mix of wild mushrooms would be delicious in this salad.

Fat Rice chef Abraham Conlon cooks a variety of meaty wild mushrooms with Madeira, garlic and lemon juice, then combines them with charred onions for a luscious and tangy dish. If you can't get spring onions, use a combination of small shallots and scallions.

The combination of sweet shrimp and meaty little cannellini beans here transforms a simple warm spinach salad.

Winter vegetables like carrots, beets, parsnips and celery root are still plentiful in March and are terrific when roasted until sweet and blistered. Sophie Dahl loves the vegetables’ vibrant colors on dreary days.

Preparing the salad dressing is a multistep process that includes letting chopped shallots soak up the flavors of mustard, thyme and vinegar before mixing them with olive oil.

We suggest that you start the salad dressing in a skillet (no marinating involved), then finish it in a bowl with all the other ingredients.

More and more specialty-food stores are selling duck confit legs, but in a pinch, rotisserie chicken works well, too.

Gabriel Rucker uses nutty brown butter instead of oil in a warm vinaigrette for a summer vegetable salad.

Inspired by Rucker’s vinaigrette, Grace Parisi whisks brown butter into a tangy, mustardy dressing for creamy fingerling potatoes.

Mild spaghetti squash is delicious with potent ingredients like the olives and feta in this lemony salad, which makes a wonderful starter or side dish.

For this hearty salad, Marjorie Taylor sautés fresh wild mushrooms, but occasionally, she substitutes sliced pears.

Lemony lentils are completely delicious on sweet spice-roasted squash and apples.

Combining savory miso with mustard and oil creates a delicious dressing that's especially good with these roasted sweet potatoes.

This bright brown rice dish can be served warm, or chilled and served as a salad or side.

Dried beans are one of the best things to prepare in a pressure cooker: After a 30-minute quick-soak, the beans become creamy in just seven minutes.