Salads for Winter Warmth. Seriously.

Many of us in the northern U.S. are experiencing bone-chilling cold these days, and the first thing that comes to mind for dinner is probably not salad. Instead, we are more likely hankering for a nice filling stew or another stick-to-your-ribs dish. But Fi Buchanan, a Scottish caterer and author of Seasonal Salads, says that as long as we have fresh produce with a splash of herbs and dressing along with something crunchy, we can make a satisfying cold-weather salad.

To Buchanan, there are no hard and fast rules. A salad is composed of elements like a song is composed of chords, enhancing the harmony of a meal. Any salad, she says, should take a vegetable/fruity base, “add flavor with fresh greens, herbs, and dressing, and enhance the texture with a sprinkle of something crunchy or a dollop of something refreshingly cool.”

At the markets in my area, potential winter salad ingredients are heads of leaf lettuce, salad mixes, baby spinach, and winter vegetables such as carrots, butternut squash, celery, and bok choi, as well as sweet peppers, mushrooms, and cabbages. Of course, we are usually fortunate enough to have citrus fruit available. They’re just right for adding that “refreshingly cool” portion of a salad. And you can often find pomegranates; it’s simple to peel off the skin, squeeze out the seeds, and sprinkle them over your creation.

This week, we went for a salad from a recent New York Times article. Trustworthy food writer Melissa Clark offered a recipe for roasted butternut squash salad with green goddess dressing. It had all the right elements. The squash was cut into cubes, tossed in olive oil, honey, and a generous amount of fresh-ground black pepper, then roasted. The dressing was a nice combination of yogurt, herbs, lemon juice, oil, scallions, avocado, jalapeno, and garlic, blended to a smooth creamy consistency in a food processor. All it took to finish it was to toss the roasted squash with the salad greens, the dressing, and a few more shakes of salt and pepper.

Buchanan’s cookbook offers some intriguing takes on salads for each month of the year. Her January and February salads take advantage of wintertime ingredients. Her options include a Vietnamese carrot salad; emerald divinity; roasted mushrooms with spelt, walnuts, and spicy greens; roasted peppers, orzo, and Manchego cheese; crispy leek and barley salad with jammy eggs and thyme; and spice-roasted carrots. Her roasted baby leeks with Romesco sauce calls for tenderizing the baby leeks by parboiling them for two minutes, then roasting them in the oven till golden brown. Meanwhile, the Romesco sauce, a key Catalan condiment, calls for pulsing roasted red peppers, a garlic clove, almonds, olive oil, sherry vinegar, paprika, cayenne, and breadcrumbs in a food processor. Put the roasted leeks on a platter, cover it with the Romesco, and that’s dinner.

I’m all over some of these salad recipes because I can get the ingredients I want right now. Here’s another one that will warm up your kitchen as you make it: Beet Salad with Stilton and Walnuts. Or try cutting up a few tart green apples and tossing them with toasted walnuts, chopped celery, greens, a simple vinaigrette, and shaved Parmesan cheese.

For some of these salads, I might substitute a few ingredients or incorporate barley or farro. I’m a fan of grains in a salad, and the farro or barley would provide some additional proteins and a nice chewy bite. If salad is a series of chords, then the grains are the bass section.

I’m planning to expand my menus to more of these options. It would make my doctor happy. What about you? Do you have any winter salad favorites you’d like to share?

Do have ideas for topics you’d like me to cover? Or comments on this blog? Please click on “Read in Browser” or on the headline to view the blog on the website. You can log in and comment at the end of the blog to share your thoughts and start a discussion.

If you’d like to share the blog, click on the Facebook icon or one of the others. Thanks!