Salad Dressing

Tender spinach is tossed with sliced fennel bulb and sweet pears in this simple salad that delivers complex flavor. Make it an entree salad by adding 4 ounces of grilled chicken per person.

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.

Think of the crunchy, granolaish sesame clusters as seedy croutons for this juicy and bracing salad.

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 perfect autumn salad: not so much cooked as wilted greens in a warm, savory-sweet vinaigrette. Here in the South, we are lucky to have so many different greens that grow remarkably well virtually all year round. From the traditional collards, spinach, mustard, and turnip greens to the international varieties that have recently made their way here, including bok choy, tatsoi, and komatsuna, there are a variety of tastes and textures to choose from. No matter where you live, experiment with seasonal greens until you find your favorites. If you're shopping at the farmers' market, most of the vendors will be happy to let you have a few nibbles for taste-testing. The same goes for the squash—you can use butternut, acorn, pumpkin, African, or any similar variety. At Summerland Farm, we are lucky to have American chestnut trees planted by my ancestors, and even luckier that those trees survived the chestnut blight that killed most American chestnuts in the first half of the twentieth century. Fresh chestnuts—often grown in California—are available in many natural foods stores in the cooler months. If you can't find chestnuts, hazelnuts or cashews would make a good substitute.

If the vibrancy of this dressing fades, perk it back up with more lime juice.

Collards and kale have some chew to them. Use your hands to work the dressing into the leaves until they soften and start to wilt.

This dressing is a little sweet from the miso and pear, and aromatic from the ginger and lime; pair it with something peppery, like radishes for dipping or a watercress salad.

**Editor's note:**Use this recipe to make Ali Larter's Winter Lettuces with Pomegranate Seeds . This is an everyday dressing that is wonderful on all variations of lettuces and vegetables. It's a welcome change from bottled dressing and so easy to make.

This dressing is served on the side with Junior's Reuben sandwiches. It's so good that you'll find many other foods it matches up perfectly with, like sliced roasted turkey or chicken salad, a cold poached salmon salad, cold roast beef, or a fresh tomato salad.

Toss cooked grains with sweet-tart tangerines for a side dish that only gets better with age—lunch tomorrow, anyone?

Make ahead: Store, covered, in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Save time: Use 2 2/3 cups cooked triticale berries and omit soaking and cooking the raw grains.

We think our wedge salad recipe is the ultimate iteration, but we're not opposed to innovation—like these embellishments and swaps.

Why do I love roast winter vegetables? For starters, because they are fresh, local, and seasonal. Unlike summer produce, they keep for a long time without losing most of their flavor. They feel like winter food: hearty, substantial, rib-sticking. Francis Mallmann quick-roasts them at very high heat in a wood oven until they almost burn. A home oven doesn't put out that kind of thousand-degree heat, but when something as simple as slices of Delicata squash are coated with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkled with kosher or coarse sea salt, and then roasted, they come out of the oven chewy, nutty, sweet, and savory. Part caramelization, part umami, and part Maillard. This dish is a slight adaptation of a recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty, which I came across when I was asked to be a judge in Food52.com's "Tournament of Cookbooks." In case you don't know Yotam Ottolenghi's work—you'd never forget such a fun name—he is a London-based Israeli chef who writes a vegetarian column for the Guardian. He is not a vegetarian himself, which makes me trust his recipes even more. In other words, he is neither ideological nor moralistic about it: his only aim is food that tastes great. Caramelized and well-seasoned winter vegetables are fine by themselves, but the maple-mustard vinaigrette lifts the flavors enormously. We made this recipe for a New Year's Eve dinner, and afterward I received ooh-and-aah e-mails from people about "the best vegetables ever!" For sure, the company, the wine, and the other food had something to do with the reviews. But, taking all that into consideration, tell me, honestly, how often are people moved to praise a parsnip? A few years ago I would have said you need your own roast tomatoes for this recipe, but now I find that Desert Glory or similar deeply flavored cherry tomatoes, though they don't hold a candle to real summer tomatoes, are fine when caramelized.

Like the best dressings, this is good on so much more than greens: Drizzle it on roasted sweet potatoes, brush it onto broiled eggplant, or toss it with cold soba or udon noodles. Use it to marinate mushrooms before grilling them to make Juicy Bella . Look for miso paste in the refrigerated section of natural food stores and Asian markets. If you can find South River brand, made in Massachusetts, snap it up; it's the best I've tasted outside Japan.

This luscious three bean salad recipe combines GOYA® Red Kidney Beans, GOYA® Chick Peas, and GOYA® Blackeye Peas with crunchy fresh veggies, and a bright, lemony vinaigrette. You can be sure that this protein-packed, heart-healthy salad is just as nutritious as it is delicious!

It's low-cal and filling—as in perfect for swimsuit season. I make it a day ahead so the veggies can marinate and the flavor pops.

Green Goddess Dressing is a perfect example of the magic of anchovies—they amplify and deepen the herbal flavors in this sauce without ever announcing their presence. For more recipes and tips, see our Homemade Salad Dressing Primer.