48 Cozy Recipes To Help You Master Winter Vegetables

There's no need to leave winter vegetables on the grocery store shelf or your refrigerator shelf when you have a few good recipes at your disposal to help you learn how to cook with them. We've picked several popular winter veggies, along with some you may have never used before, to help increase your winter vegetable repertoire.

We've included several recipes for most of the vegetables so that you have more choices and can master them in different ways. So, don't be shy about working through them one at a time so that you can learn exactly how the veggies work in various dishes. Once you've mastered them, you'll feel more confident incorporating them into recipes of your own making. Armed with this list and these cooking techniques, you'll be more prepared next time you're in the produce section or the farmer's market in the winter, wondering what you can make from the vegetables you see there.

Bok choy plays a role in several Chinese dishes like chicken chop suey. Chop Suey was actually created in the U.S. and continues to be a well-known dish in Chinese restaurants here. This recipe requires a few Chinese sauces like light and dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and Chinese cooking wine (like Shaoxing wine), which you can find at an Asian market. It also includes mushrooms and bean sprouts. This dish is excellent served over Chinese noodles or sticky rice.

Recipe: Chicken Chop Suey

Another way to add more nutritious kale to your diet is with cheese kale chips. These go into the oven rather than the air fryer since they're covered with lots of cheese and spices you don't want flying around the air fryer. Olive oil helps keep the Parmesan cheese, nutritional yeast, steak spice, and salt on these kale chips as they bake. They're crisp and delicious, so you can eat them on their own or dip them just like chips in your favorite chip dip.

Recipe: Cheesy Kale Chips

Something a lot of people don't realize is that kale works wonderfully with sheet pan meals. Since kale cooks faster than other ingredients, you'll add it in the last five to 10 minutes for bonus kale chips with your meal. One way we suggest trying it is with chicken thighs, baby potatoes, and bell peppers. Just season it with garlic and your favorite Italian herbs. With everything for your meal on the sheet pan, you don't need anything else unless you want a squeeze of lemon and a little fresh parsley on top.

Recipe: Sheet-Pan Chicken And Kale

As much as most of us like broccoli, we tend to falter when it comes to knowing how to make it in different ways. One of the best ways to enjoy it is roasted. All those delicious crispy florets will likely tempt you to eat them before they get to your plate. All you need is olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice to turn them into a delightful side in your oven. They're also excellent with fresh Parmesan baked on top during the last few minutes. This side goes with any protein or carby side.

Recipe: Roasted Broccoli

If there's one dish that reminds us of home, it's broccoli casserole. We've seen this dish convert many people who didn't think they liked broccoli. The casserole is full of creamy ingredients like cheddar cheese and cream of mushroom soup. While not in the traditional recipe, you can also add yellow mustard to intensify the flavors. Don't skip the buttery Ritz cracker crust because it's essential to the overall flavor and textural experience of this dish. It can make even a simple meal of chicken and corn into a comfort meal.

Recipe: Broccoli Casserole

Broccoli is an excellent team player in stir-fry. Add it to your wok or frying pan with other veggies, like bell pepper and mushrooms, for a simple stir fry. The secret to success is to get the flavors right. We suggest rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger to make this dish sing. Sprinkle it with a few toasted sesame seeds and serve it over your favorite type of rice or noodles. If you're looking for more protein, try adding cashews to this vegetarian dish.

Recipe: Broccoli And Mushroom Stir-Fry

Yet another Chinese dish that works well with broccoli is lo mein. This noodle dish comes together with just 10 minutes of prep and 10 minutes of cooking, combining steak, your favorite noodles, broccoli, and carrots. Ginger, garlic, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes make this dish both sweet and spicy. Since it has meat, veggies, and carbs, it's a complete meal. However, lo mein is an excellent dish to enjoy with your favorite garnishes, so add some sesame seeds, thinly sliced green onions, or your favorite chili sauce to make it your own.

Recipe: 20-minute Beef And Broccoli Lo Mein

You've likely had carrots many ways during winter, but we want to challenge you to try crisp and smokey carrot bacon. This recipe is a great one for vegetarians and vegans missing the flavor and texture of real bacon, but it's also a tasty treat for carnivores as well. Thinly sliced carrot bacon soaks in a marinade of soy sauce, sesame oil, tomato paste, liquid smoke, maple syrup, smoked paprika, and other seasonings before crisping in the oven. You can eat them as a snack or even try them as a breakfast bacon substitute.

Recipe: Homemade Carrot Bacon

Carrots become sweet with cooking, so one way to make them is to roast them with honey to play off that sweet flavor. Not only will you roast them with a drizzling of honey, but you'll also drizzle them with more honey when they come out of the oven. The only other ingredients you'll need for this dish are salt, pepper, and parsley. Honey-glazed carrots pair with nearly any meal and are an easy side dish you can make to bring to your next food-related get-together.

Recipe: Honey Glazed Carrots

Potato leek soup (vichyssoise) is a classic French soup that was Julia Child's favorite. This is one of her simpler recipes, only requiring five minutes of prep and 30 minutes of cooking. So, it's a good gateway recipe to French cuisine. All you'll need to make this simple soup is olive oil, an onion, garlic, broth, heavy cream, salt, and pepper. To take it to the next level, try topping it with sour cream and chopped chives. It's also an excellent soup to enjoy with French bread.

Recipe: Chunky Potato Leek Soup

Radicchio and fennel are gorgeous winter veggies that tend to puzzle many of us when it comes to how to use them. An excellent way to enjoy them together is in a hearty Italian salad called Panzanella. It also contains torn pieces of crusty bread, orange slices, and a delicious Dijon mustard vinaigrette. You can add other veggies to go along with the fennel and radicchio, like tomatoes and cucumbers. If you have access to fresh Italian herbs like basil, they make a nice finishing touch.

Recipe: Panzanella

Spinach is one of those vegetables that some people only like when they experience it cooked properly. Garlic sautéed spinach is one of those dishes that can help you learn to enjoy this vegetable in its cooked format. It's fairly simple, just requiring you to sautée spinach and garlic in olive oil and then season it with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. It only takes five minutes to make, but the results are delicious. We also like this dish sautéed with currants and pine nuts for added flavor and texture.

Recipe: Garlic-Sautéed Spinach

Lentil and spinach salad can either be a cold salad or a mix of hot and cold, depending on whether or not your lentils are hot. This dish is also a good place to use leftover lentils, so if your lentils are spicy (like from leftover Indian food), it can add extra flavor layers. With your lentils ready to go, you can whip up this dish in just five minutes with spinach, red onion, black olives, fried onions, and feta cheese. It also gets an oregano vinaigrette. For more protein, try adding grilled chicken.

Recipe: Lentil And Spinach Salad

The first place many people experience spinach and realize it's not so bad after all is in a spinach artichoke dip. This dip is ridiculously easy to make. Simply stir artichokes and spinach into a mixture of softened cream cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese, and sour cream. Season with salt, pepper, and onion powder, and you're done. There's no cooking necessary. You can serve this delicious dip as an appetizer or even as a complete meal with pita chips, tortilla chips, or crusty bread.

Recipe: Cold Spinach Artichoke Dip

Another way to enjoy Swiss chard is with cream in a dish that mimics creamed spinach. You'll start out making this dish similar to how you make the sautéed version, sautéeing the Swiss Chard in olive oil with garlic. Then, you'll turn it down to simmer for about five minutes with cream, salt, and pepper. Creamed Swiss chard is a great green side dish with nearly anything you make, from chicken dishes to pasta.

Recipe: Basic Creamed Swiss Chard

Another great way to enjoy butternut squash is to make it into a comforting soup. You'll have to do a little extra work for this one since it requires peeling the squash before boiling it. However, that's the biggest bulk of the work you'll have to do for this recipe. It boils together with garlic, broth, heavy cream, and salt before you blend everything together. Swirl in some extra heavy cream at the end and top it with fresh parsley. If you're in the mood, you could even add smoked paprika instead of regular paprika.

Recipe: Savory Butternut Squash Soup

Fried cabbage is one way of enjoying cabbage that makes it less pungent and provides it with a lighter flavor than stewing. It only takes about 10 minutes to fry thin strips of cabbage in butter. You'll add salt, chili flakes, crumbled bacon, and fresh parsley during the last minute of frying. For a more flavorful dish that tastes like something your grandma might have made, try frying the cabbage in your leftover bacon grease rather than in butter. This dish makes a tasty side for your favorite meat, especially when paired with mashed potatoes.

Recipe: Fried Cabbage

While unstuffed cabbage rolls sound simpler than traditional ones, these actually take longer, with 45 minutes of prep and two hours of cooking. The good news is that you don't have to roll raw meat into cabbage rolls with this version. You just have to spend extra time making the meat filling, sauce, and rice. Since it contains rice, it's more of a complete meal. Plus, it has sour cream and two types of cheese for added flavor. If you don't like Gruyere and mozzarella, you could substitute others like Jack cheese and Swiss.

Recipe: Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Casserole

We didn't want to leave you without the slow cooker version of eggrolls. When you let them cook low and slow for four hours, the results are amazing. Luckily, there's only a 20-minute prep time required with these. You'll need to add a mixture of uncooked rice and uncooked meat with spices into the cabbage rolls before adding them and all the ingredients for the sauce straight into the slow cooker. Since it includes rice, it's a complete meal, but you could always sprinkle fresh parsley on top when it's done.

Recipe: Simple Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls

Some people find Brussels sprouts to be a little too strong in flavor. They're a bit more mellow when roasted. However, maple syrup may be just what you need to take Brussels sprouts from being just an okay vegetable to a vegetable that you look forward to eating. It takes 28 minutes to roast these. You'll start out just with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then, you'll add a drizzling of maple syrup during the last three to five minutes to ensure it doesn't burn. These taste amazing with your favorite grilled meats or alongside pasta.

Recipe: Roasted Brussels Sprouts

You can combine two winter veggies in one dish when you make roasted Brussels sprouts and sweet potato salad. This salad is a special treat that's easier to make than you'd think. You'll start out roasting the Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes together. You can either cool them or use them while they're still warm. The rest of the salad contains sliced almonds, feta cheese, and a lemon Dijon mustard vinaigrette. This salad is excellent alone or as an accompaniment to roasted chicken or even steak.

Recipe: Roasted Brussels Sprout Salad

If you're looking for a pickled beets recipe that's both easy and doesn't include sugar, you're going to love these. The beets boil in their skins for 30 to 50 minutes, and you don't even have to peel them when they're done. Simply slice them and toss them in olive oil, a sweet vinegar like ume plum vinegar, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. That's all there is to it. Perhaps sprinkle some parsley on top, and they're done. These work great as a holiday meal side or as a side for your favorite grilled foods.

Recipe: Easy Pickled Beets

There are a lot of ways to upgrade mashed potatoes, but you've likely never thought to add parsnips to them. The sweet and almost spicy flavor of parsnips adds interest to a dish you've likely eaten hundreds of times. This dish requires boiling a half-and-half mix of potatoes and parsnips together. Then, you'll blend them together with milk and butter as usual. Topped with chives or even cheese, these mashed parsnips and potatoes make an excellent side dish for nearly any meal.

Recipe: Parsnip And Potato Mash

Pretty much any winter root vegetable is an excellent candidate for roasting. The process brings out their natural sweetness. If you've found yourself with peppery kohlrabi and don't know what to do with it, we suggest you peel it, chop it, and put it in the oven with olive oil and garlic for 25 minutes. Once it's done, add a sprinkling of lemon juice and Parmesan cheese on top for a cold-weather treat. Serve it as you would any roasted veggie. It's great paired with everything from roasted meat and a salad to pasta.

Recipe: Roasted Kohlrabi