Salad Days

WINTER VEGETABLES ARE HARDY—gone are the days of delicate salads. A certain ingenuity is required with winter vegetable consumption—we can’t always find the greens we are craving. Winter can feel like a barren season where lettuces are concerned, but there is a lot to choose from.

Strong-flavored chicories and avocados are plentiful, and there is a wide range of winter vegetables—kale, cabbages, apples, and more. Tough greens can be made palatable through fine knife skills, roasting, or macerating. A quick soak in some citrus juice helps soften leaves and adds flavor. And while greens aren’t prolific in winter, citrus come into fruit during this time, offering a kaleidoscope of colors for the bowl. While it’s habit to pick up a traditional orange from the shelves, branch out and source some other delicious fruits. Cara Cara, tangelos, Minneolas—each will offer a subtle change in flavor.

Packed with thick starches and winter stores, vegetables are satiating and can be made into meals on their own in winter. I will often whip together Root Vegetable Slaw with Salty Peanut Sauce (opposite page) for a midweek dinner. It’s filling enough, thanks in part to the fat and protein found in peanut butter.

Flavors and textures vary widely from culture to culture, and varying spices alone will introduce new flavors to a standard winter vegetable. Swap out the herb used, or add a seasoned seed blend.

Go for a range of mouthfeels across your meals, mixing soft, crunchy, cooked, and raw. Ask yourself what you’re going for in advance—do you want a small bit of apple or a big hunk? Do you want a mouthful of carrots (which take forever to chew) or just the flavor? You can shave vegetables; cut them into dice, matchsticks, rounds, or spears; or leave them whole.

Varying the cooking technique will also change a salad’s texture. Baking produces soft flesh for most fruits and vegetables, while roasting at a high temperature allows natural sugars to caramelize and crisp. Dial up the heat and you get a dark char on food, offering a pungent flavor.

TO PEEL OR NOT TO PEEL

MANY VEGETABLES COME WITH AN EXTERIOR SKIN meant to protect the flesh from outside elements. Recipes will often call for peeling carrots, beets, or even broccoli stalks, but is it necessary to peel your veg?

Nutritionally speaking, leaving the peels intact maximizes your intake of good-for-you fiber. Vegetable skin cells contain strong plant cellulose, which is nutrient dense and high in beneficial vitamins. While there is a definite health benefit to consuming the skins, their flavor may be another story.

Root vegetables, in particular, are cultivated for a handful of attributes. Sweetness, days to maturation, storage capacity, and color vary across the spectrum of varieties available to growers, who choose certain seeds because of these specific traits. Some farmers may elect for a sweet, fresh-eating version instead of a vegetable that will store for long periods. These fresh-eating vegetables have a higher sugar content and are therefore more palatable. Because of their delicate skin, however, sweeter vegetables tend to have a shorter shelf life; they’ll go limp and soft in a matter of days postharvest. Sweeter varieties work for farmers with easy access to market, but what if the farm is in the middle of nowhere?

Enter storage vegetables, which are grown for their ability to last, not their sweetness. Their thicker skin allows for a longer shelf life, which means they don’t taste as fresh. The thicker the skin, the more bitter the flavor profile can range due to the tannins. As the vegetable ages and sugars in the plant naturally convert to carbohydrates, the flavor changes and becomes less sweet.

So, to peel or not to peel?

If you like the flavor with the peels on or you’re using fresh-picked vegetables, why bother peeling? Just make sure you scrub dirt out of the skins before eating and wash vegetables under cool water first. Aesthetically, if you prefer a brightly colored vegetable (cooked carrot skins tend to turn gray and pale, which may not be appealing to some) or don’t like the taste of a particular vegetable’s peel, remove it.