Orecchiette with Caramelized Turnips, Tuscan Kale, and Cracked Pepper from 'The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook'

This pasta dish from Tracey Medeiros's Vermont Farm Table Cookbook introduced a new element to my standard kale recipe mix: caramelized turnips. At first, I was turned off by the idea of pairing bitter greens with a bitter root vegetable, but then I remembered how turnips mellow and sweeten once cooked. Add in some serious maillard action to the turnips, and I realized this was a really clever way to make use of a New England staple crop.

Beet-Colored Fresh Pasta

Deep purple-red beets are used to transform classic fresh egg pasta into an eye-catching but simple main course. The root vegetable is boiled and puréed before it's mixed into the dough. The result is a neutral-flavored pasta that pairs well with a wide range of different sauces and fillings.

Butter-Glazed Roasted Radishes With Fresh Herbs

Radishes are usually thought of as a raw-only vegetable, but they're delicious roasted, too, which tames their spicy flavor considerably. Here, they're roasted until tender and bursting with juice, then tossed with melted butter and fresh herbs.

Winter Greens Salad With Flax Seeds, Shaved Beets, and Radishes

Slicing beets paper-thin with a mandoline is much faster than roasting. Tossed with a simple vinaigrette, their natural sweetness compliments bitter, hearty winter greens like endive, frisée, and radicchio. Some shaved parmesan, radishes, and toasted flax seeds finish this simple salad off.

Fall Harvest Salad With Roasted Brassicas, Fingerlings, and Radishes

A fancy Thanksgiving salad that won't add to your holiday stress. Made with roasted brassicas, potatoes, radishes, and sunchokes plus frisee and radicchio, this dish can be prepped ahead with no loss in quality. Plus, it hardly wilts once dressed!

Broccoli Salad With Radicchio, Basil, and Pistachios

The secret to the success of this broccoli salad is that it handles the florets and stems differently. The florets are blanched briefly, just long enough to soften them and make them juicy, while still preserving their crisp, fresh bite. The stems, meanwhile, are left raw, for a refreshing crunch. Tossed with radicchio and a bold vinaigrette made from basil and pistachios, this is a salad to make you love all the parts of broccoli.

5-Minute Radicchio and Watercress Salad

This quick and easy salad of hearty, peppery greens is the perfect side dish for a weeknight supper.

Skillet Pasta With Mushrooms, Pancetta, and Wilted Greens

This easy one-pot pasta dish is filled with browned bits of pancetta, shiitake mushrooms and wilted greens, and comes together in just half an hour. Finished with shavings of Parmesan and freshly cracked black pepper, it's a perfect weeknight meal.

Roasted Radishes with Tarragon Vinaigrette

Vibrantly-colored and delicately-flavored, Roasted Radishes with Tarragon Vinaigrette are a great side dish to welcome Spring.

Radicchio, Endive, and Anchovy Salad

Bitter greens like radicchio, Belgian endive, and parsley take on a surprising sweetness when paired with fennel and celery dressed in an aggressively savory anchovy vinaigrette.