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I’ve mostly kept the oven off all summer, but with cool weather rolling in, it’s time to warm the kitchen and wax poetic about fall vegetables—intense, sweet, bold, and sturdy, they are plentiful and delicious. We put together a list of produce that peaks in October, November, and December.
I asked the produce manager of a local Harris Teeter, an east coast chain grocery store, to name his fall favorite vegetables. He said fall is when the produce section sees the most variety.
Fall vegetables are synonymous with the harvest and bounty. He mentioned potatoes, but then gushed about golden beets, artichokes, rainbow-colored carrots, sweet potatoes, Brussel sprouts, and kale bunches the size of a tennis racket.
I too couldn't pick one favorite fall vegetable. Roasting carrots, celery root, and beets caramelizes their natural sugars, intensifying their flavor. Thinly sliced Brussels sprouts, endive, radicchio, and arugula masquerade as salad tossed with a punchy vinegar-based dressing. Kale, cabbage, and spinach are robust enough to withstand low-and-slow braises and stews.
To help you make the most of the season's bounty we gathered a generous list of recipes to celebrate fall vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
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Harvest Salad with Miso-Maple Roasted Butternut Squash
Sabrina Modelle This is a bright and filling salad that calls for a few fall favorites: butternut squash, arugula, maple syrup, apples, and cranberries. It’s the best desk lunch or an attractive side dish for the holidays.
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Roasted Beets with Balsamic Glaze
Elise Bauer Roasting beets is hands down the best way to cook them. For easy clean-up, place them (washed, but not peeled) in a foil packet with olive oil, salt, and black pepper. As it roasts, the steam is captured inside the packet, helping the beets cook faster without drying out. When cooked through, the peel will slide right off.
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Lentil Salad with Arugula and Feta
Sally Vargas The peppery green leaves of Arugula are bitter when mature and best left for cooking, but perfect for salads when young and tender. Look for them in plastic clamshells where you’d find salad greens.
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Golden Beet and Pomegranate Salad
Elise Bauer This is a beautiful jewel-toned fall dish with roasted golden beets and tart pomegranate seeds. It makes for a healthy side dish that bursts with fresh flavors, perfect for the many belly-warming braises, stews, and soups we’ll enjoy this fall.
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Beet Greens
Elise Bauer If you’ve ever wondered what to do with those hearty beet greens, this is it! Just make sure to give them several good rinses under cold water before cooking them—beet greens love to hold onto dirt.
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Endive Salad with Walnuts, Pears, and Gorgonzola
Elise Bauer The dressing here is focused and sharp, using equal amounts of vinegar and olive oil—a classic vinaigrette has an oil-to-vinegar ratio of 3-to-1. Sturdy and crisp endives can handle it. If your endives look wilted and dry, soak them in a large bowl of ice water for 5 minutes, until they come alive again.
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Broccoli Cheddar Casserole
Elise Bauer If you need a comforting vegetarian main dish to feed a lunch crew that travels well and can be made ahead of time, this recipe is for you. Along with a big batch of lemonade, the whole meal (plus you) would be a crowd-pleaser.
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Beef and Broccoli Ramen Stir Fry
Nick Evans It may be hard to replicate good Chinese takeout, but this simple recipe makes it possible. Lean on pantry ingredients (including instant ramen noodles), tender beef, and perfectly cooked broccoli that is crunchy and not squishy. Plus, it comes together in 30 minutes or less.
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Creamy Polenta with White Beans and Roasted Broccoli
Erin Alderson The smooth polenta and creamy white bean purée create a bed for the lightly charred broccoli. Don’t open the oven door or stir it mid-roast for the best chance of perfectly roasted broccoli. Did you know that broccoli stalks are edible? Use it for this slaw.
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Italian Sausage and Cabbage Stew
Elise Bauer This stew is easy, versatile and hearty. The sausage is pork but you could easily swap it for turkey or even chicken sausage. Use your favorite white bean—cannellini, great northern or navy beans would all work, and if you want to add an extra dose of green feel free to stir in some spinach at the end.
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Polish Hunter’s Stew
Elise Bauer A hearty stew that calls for three kinds of pork (bacon, kielbasa, and Polish sausage) also calls for sturdy vegetables that won’t become mushy: mushrooms and cabbage.
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Cider Vinaigrette Roasted Root Vegetables
Elise Bauer Root vegetables are made for roasting because the natural sugars intensify and caramelize in the hot oven. The result can be decidedly sweet, so a generous splash of apple cider vinegar tames them.
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Autumn Tabbouleh with Cauliflower, Carrots, and Golden Beets
Elizabeth Stark A seasonal twist to a traditional Lebanese recipe, this tabbouleh leans on raw crunchy cauliflower, carrots, golden beets, and of course, lots of chopped parsley. It would be the perfect side dish for this Braised, Stuffed Pork Shoulder. A note: Red beets would be tasty, but the whole salad will turn beet red.
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Chicken Curry with Sweet Potato and Lemongrass
Alison Conklin Andrea Nguyen is brilliant at coaxing flavors into simple dishes like this chicken curry. Here it’s lemongrass and cilantro that brightens up the sweet potatoes and coconut milk.
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Easy Vegetable Tart with Carrots, Fennel, and Chèvre
Sally Vargas This tart dough isn’t finicky and comes together quickly in a food processor. Make it, pile the roasted vegetable in the center and make this classic kale salad while it bakes.
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Celery Root Fennel Soup
Elise Bauer Don’t let the hairy, knobby celery root intimidate you. We got this: Instead of using a vegetable peeler use a sharp chef’s knife to cut off the stem and root sides. Now, with a smooth flat side firmly on your cutting board, use your knife to trim the remaining skin.
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Roasted Root Vegetables with Tomatoes and Kale
Elise Bauer This is the perfect recipe to use up straggling root vegetables like parsnips, rutabagas, carrots, potatoes, beets (red ones will turn the whole dish red, so stick with golden beets), turnips, or celery root. Cheesy Bread would be perfect for sopping up juices.
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Healthy Shepherd’s Pie
Alison Bickel Don’t let the word “healthy” throw you off—we still mean delicious. Our resident culinary dietician, Katie Morford, had the brilliant idea of incorporating cauliflower into the mashed potatoes for a topping with fewer carbs and calories.
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Fennel Gratin
Elise Bauer Of all the delicious recipes our founder Elise Bauer has created for Simply Recipes, this crunchy, creamy, and delicious gratin is the one I’ve made the most. I’m impatient, so I don’t blanch the fennel, and instead add 5 minutes to the bake time. It’s always perfect.
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Breakfast Casserole with Butternut Squash and Kale
Rachael Narins If you read the whole recipe, including the story, you’ll see that the ingredients listed are merely suggestions. The bread, the seasonings, the butternut, the kale, and the cheeses can all be swapped out to your liking.
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Artichoke Leek Frittata
Elise Bauer The recipe instructions mention it, but it’s worth mentioning again: the key to a moist and tender frittata is to cook it slowly and gently. This Orange and Beet Salad would be the perfect side dish for a casual but special brunch.
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Spinach Artichoke Dip with Bacon
Aaron Hutcherson Unsurprisingly, adding crispy bits of bacon to a creamy dip is a very good idea. I find pita chips to be sturdier and a better match for this chunky dip than tortilla chips or crackers.
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Kale, Mushroom, and Cheddar Bake
Elise Bauer This bread-based casserole is layered with sautéed kale, mushrooms, and onions, slices of ciabatta bread, and cheddar cheese. Any kind of dark greens (chard or spinach) will do. If you are unable to exercise restraint, use a combination of your favorite melty cheeses. Mine are Gruyere, Parmesan, and Pecorino.
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Artichoke and Shrimp Risotto
Elise Bauer This risotto is creamy and rich in a way you would expect from a dish that has been stirred lovingly and slowly. It calls for a dry white wine, like a Sauvignon Blanc, so pour yourself a glass for lingering against the kitchen counter while you nurse the risotto.
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Freekeh Vegetable Soup
This is the kind of hearty vegetarian soup that will stick to your ribs, but not in a heavy coma inducing way. Freekeh is a roasted wheat that has a subtle smoky flavor and chewy texture.
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Chicken Soup with Ginger and Shiitake Mushrooms
Elise Bauer The depth of flavor you’ll get from little more than chicken, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, and soy sauce is shocking. Don’t toss the mushroom soaking liquid! Consider it “free” stock that will flavor the soup even more.
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Braised Lamb Shanks with Celery Root and Rosemary
Elise Bauer Braising makes otherwise tough cuts of meat like lamb shanks fall-of-the-bone tender. Cabbage and celery root braise beautifully because they don’t disintegrate during long cooks. This dish is festive enough to make for a dinner party (keep the meat on the bone for an impressive look), but easy enough to keep in rotation for a cozy family meal. I equally love this Lamb Braised in Milk and Fennel, but that would be two braised lambs. I’m leaving this right here in case you’re inclined to make both this fall, like I am.
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Roasted Chicken Thighs with Fennel and Orange
Aaron Hutcherson A surprisingly simple one-skillet meal that roasts the chicken on top of sliced fennel and oranges. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, any ovenproof baking dish works too!
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Roasted Cauliflower and Mushroom Bolognese
Sally Vargas Here’s how to bring out both the cauliflower and mushroom’s deep flavors: roast them until deeply golden. If you have a food processor, chopping the vegetables will take almost no time. If you don’t, try for small pieces and take comfort that everything will break down even further as it cooks.
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Bread Soup (Panade) with Onions, Chard, and Mushrooms
Elise Bauer Is it a casserole? Is it a soup? Is it a stew? It’s a panade! It has the making of a casserole (cheese, bread, layers, and big batch cooking), but it’s brothy like a soup.
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Radicchio Salad with Green Olives, Chickpeas, and Parmesan
Emma Christensen Adding one whole cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese to this salad is not only a good idea, it’s also smart. Its saltiness pairs beautifully with the bitter radicchio and sweet balsamic vinaigrette. Grana Padano is a more affordable substitute for Parmesan.
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Farro with Swiss Chard and Radicchio
Elise Bauer This nutty grain salad is threaded with ribbons of wilted swiss chard and radicchio. The farro cooking water is generously flavored with onions, bay leaves, and six cloves of garlic.
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Whole Wheat Pasta with Kale Pesto
Sally Vargas This might be the best pasta sauce you can make with hearty greens in, oh, about 15 minutes or less. Yes, you can use any type of pasta you have on hand.
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Green Gumbo
Elise Bauer Typically eaten during lent in Louisiana, this delicious and hearty gumbo calls for a celebration whenever it’s made. Hear! Hear! Fall is here! It calls for 3 pounds of assorted dark greens like kale, collards, mustard greens, spinach, and chard to make a giant pot of gumbo to share with friends and family or stretch over several days.