5 Wicked Winter Salads

Salads bursting with roasted yams, crispy squash chips and pumpkin seeds are the new cold-weather comfort food.

The start of winter isn’t the end of salads. Instead it marks a new season of veggies to highlight, like beets, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and butternut squash.

Here are 5 hearty salad recipes to keep you going all winter:

1. Roasted Beet and Squash Salad

This recipe makes the most of winter’s fine bounty of beets, roasting them along with butternut squash tossed with a toothsome mix of arugula, goat cheese and candied pecans.

2. The Ultimate Kale Salad

It took me two weeks, but I finally tracked down the recipe for this kale salad from Railtown Catering, a.k.a. the best salad I’ve ever tasted. It’s a bed of baby kale, with roasted yams, shaved slices of honeycrisp apples, crispy squash chips topped with just the tastiest toasted pumpkin seed dressing. It was so winter-appropriate, yet fresh and light—you’re going to love it.

3. Quinoa Salad with Grapes and Snow Peas

Light and tasty, grapes add a bit of sweet to crunchy snow peas and quinoa that’s ever-so-gently marinated with the dressing. Serve it as-is for vegetarians or as a side with fish or chicken.

4. Roasted Potato Brussels Sprout Salad

With crispy hashbrown-like potatoes, bacon, Brussels sprouts and creamy Boursin cheese, this flavourful offering could convert even the most vegetable-averse.

5. Beetroot and Straciatella Cheese Salad

Whoever kicked off the beet-and-cheese trend is a winner in our books. Don’t be fooled by how impressive it looks, this recipe featuring creamy dollops of Straciatella on roasted beets swimming in hazelnut sauce is deceptively simple.