Chicory

You can leave out the salami for a vegetarian version of this winter panzanella.

Super-healthy and really light, this beautiful salad is bright-looking and -tasting. These days it's not too difficult to find great-quality raw salmon. If you ask your local market for sushi-grade salmon, its freshness will be guaranteed. Once you have found the salmon, the hard work is done.

From the kitchen of food blogger Hilary Finch Hutler of tummyrumblr.com comes beautiful and fresh take on a classic salad combination: fruit, nuts, and cheese. Toasted hazelnuts are the perfect match for sweet, ripe pears, and finely grated vintage cheddar cheese adds plenty of interest to the classic buttermilk dressing.

Mattos says to get both the walnuts and the breadcrumbs very toasty and dark brown; he loves the contrast between the rich, crunchy bits and the bright, juicy endive on top.

Soaking the onion mellows its sharpness. If you can't find fresh horseradish, add 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish to the crème fraîche mixture.

This is a great way to use up leftover roasted vegetables and chicken and turn them into a light salad. The roasted veggies are more interesting the second time around in a vinaigrette as opposed to just on their own. Even when I don't have leftover roasted veggies, I have been known to toss some raw ones in the oven just to make this delicious dressing, which I eat on everything: pasta, grilled fish, and, obviously, chicken. The chicken for this salad can be warm or cold, straight from the fridge.

This dish was inspired by pasta e fagiole, the classic Italian pasta and bean stew. Unlike macaroni, the grains stay nice and chewy, even when reheated days later.

I love the crimson glow of juicy little pomegranate morsels. Mix with fresh winter lettuces, serve it European style after the entreé, and enjoy.

Crunch-crunch-crunch will end up as munch-munch-munch when this salad is served. Flavor is obviously crucial in food, and certainly this salad has flavor, but tactile sensation is also a very important factor in our food perception and appreciation. We want pasta al dente, celery crunchy, bread grilled. This salad has a lot of texture to enjoy.

Chermoula, a spice and herb sauce popular in Morocco and Tunisia, can be used as a marinade or condiment.

This is a heretical bastardization of salade niçoise and salade aux lardons, whole-grains style. I like the cracked green wheat called freekeh here because its faint grassy, oceanic aroma complements the tuna so well, but regular cracked wheat or, really, any other whole grain would work well too. Instead of bacon lardons (if I'm making a salad, it very often means I don't want to have to cook anything fresh), I use similar-size strips of sun-dried tomatoes, whose texture, when softened a bit in the dressing, at least vaguely recalls that of lardons.

If you've never bought kohlrabi before, here's a great reason to try it.

Kale and radicchio both do quite well on the grill; the direct heat turns their edges charred and crispy while the inner leaves become tender and stay intact. Soaking the kale is important so that steam can build and cook through the tough stalks as the leaves grill. Because kale and radicchio are both slightly bitter greens, they take to a sauerkraut-style dressing just as well as cabbage does.

Marinated white anchovies bear little resemblance to the pungent salted brown ones packed in oil. They're plump, vinegary, tender, and addictive when paired with the crisp frisée and chewy bread in this sandwich.

This dish has a French feel. You can enjoy it morning, afternoon or night, and you'll definitely want to. -Mendelsohn

This one-pan shrimp dinner is just the thing for a busy weeknight when you want something warm, but also light and fresh.

With tender acorn squash, salty pancetta, a pungent and tart vinaigrette, and bitter chicory, this hearty salad is layered in flavor and texture. It will take you through all of winter, and would fit perfectly on most holiday buffets. You can use other winter squashes, including butternut, and bacon or prosciutto can easily stand in for the pancetta.

Skip the side salad and serve these greens with a hot cup of tomato soup for an easy, comforting winter dinner. If meat is a must, add some fried bacon or prosciutto for a heartier bite.