These Winter Vegetables Are at Their Peak in the Chilly Season (2024)

Known as a super-food with good reason, kale contains vitamins A and K for eye health. Plus, it contains almost zero calories (one cup is 7 calories!). Use it in Ree Drummond's fresh kale citrus salad, or add to hearty winter stews. It’s also delectable drizzled with olive oil and roasted until crispy for a fun snack.

Swiss chard is colorful, pretty, and actually easy-to-grow in your garden. It keeps producing all the way until the temperatures dip regularly below freezing (sometimes it even perks back up in spring). Chop and sauté for frittatas and scrambles, or add to soups instead of spinach.

These unassuming root vegetables are packed with vitamins C and K and folate. Although parsnips don’t get a lot of love, they’re actually delicious when baked and drizzled with butter and syrup, like in Ree's Honey-Glazed Parsnips. They closely resemble their relatives, carrots.

Leeks, which are full of vitamin K and antioxidants such as carotenoids, taste like a milder, sweeter onion. In fact, they look like gigantic green onions! Rinse them well (they tend to hold onto dirt at their base), then add to potato leek soup.

This vegetable, often used in traditional Italian dishes, is a type of chicory, a relative of endive. It’s loaded with vitamin K and the antioxidant anthocyanin, and it has a pleasant, slightly bitter taste. Cut it into wedges and char in a skillet to serve as a side, or slice and add raw to salads.

Loaded with vitamin A, carrots love cool weather, so they’re sweetest in the colder months of the year. There are many different types in varying sizes and colors, but orange varieties are the sweetest when roasted.

Spinach is very easy to grow in your spring or fall garden, and it’s surprisingly cold-hardy. Some types die back in winter but perk up again in spring. Use it in spinach artichoke dip, as a side dish sautéed with olive oil and garlic, or raw in spinach salads.

Rutabaga has tons of vitamin C (107 percent of your daily needs!). This root vegetable looks similar to a turnip, and some people say it tastes something like a cross between cabbage and turnips. Boil and mash like potatoes, or roast it with olive oil and top with fresh Italian herbs.

Hubbard squash is a less familiar winter squash to many people. Its thick blue rind allows it to keep for months in a cool, dark spot. This squash is large, often 15 pounds or more. The flesh is a little grainy, so it’s typically roasted and pureed for use in soups and stews.

This Italian leafy green keeps its texture and body in stews, unlike spinach, which tends to get a little slimy in soups. Its slightly bitter flavor pairs well with cannellini beans, or sauté it with garlic and serve as a side dish.

This sturdy winter vegetable, which is full of vitamin C, loves cool weather, so it’s plentiful from fall through winter. Roast cauliflower to bring out its sweetness.

Romanesco, a relative of cauliflower, has an earthy flavor and a cauliflower texture. Use it instead of cauliflower in recipes, though its delicate nuttiness shows through best when sautéed with garlic and topped with lemon zest.

Endive is another kind of chicory which has a slightly bitter flavor, but it's a little milder than other types. It’s full of vitamin K, and it can be used raw in salads or cut in half and roasted like radicchio.

If you’ve only ever eaten those sad, canned beets, you’re missing out. Fresh beets taste nothing like canned. Beets are messy to prepare, but roast them lightly with olive oil, then use a paper towel to remove the skin. Slice and serve over salads with goat cheese to contrast their sweet earthiness.

A Southern staple and a relative of kale, collards are rich in vitamin C. Remove and discard the thick stems, then sauté the leaves with onions, garlic, and ham. Their sturdy texture means they stand up best to long, slow cooking.