SALAD DAYS

Winter’s adversity can be a gift, both for vegetables and for cooks

We’ve reached the cold heart of winter, the toughest time for vegetables and the cooks who love them. The autumnal thrill we felt for the first teensy heads of Brussels sprouts and colorful cauliflowers has waned; the novelty of turnips and cabbages stirs less enthusiasm as the weeks trudge by.

But winter’s adversity can be a gift, both for vegetables and for cooks. The quiet calm of the season can give cooks an opportunity to lavish time and care on the vegetables that remain, taking them to even greater heights.

And for many winter vegetables, what they lack in variety, they make up for in quality, turning sweeter as the temperatures drop.

Winter’s nadir is exactly when you should seek out root vegetables like parsnips and Jerusalem artichokes. Vegetables in the brassica family — cabbages, Brussels sprouts, kale and the like — can also benefit when the mercury dips.

The sugars in some vegetables act like a natural antifreeze, helping plants stay alive in icy climates, said Lane Selman, a professor of horticulture at Oregon State University and director of the Culinary Breeding Network. Brassica vegetables, in particular, she said, accumulate sugars, which helps them better withstand the cold while also affecting their flavor.

A winter field of Brussels sprouts may look barren, the stalks covered in withering yellow leaves. But pull them back, and you’ll find some of the most flavorful sprouts just waiting to be roasted until their outsides caramelize, or shaved, raw, into a crunchy slaw.

Or you can do both, tossing shaved and roasted sprouts with a lemony, garlicky Caesar-like dressing and garnishing it with crisp croutons.

Although not a member of the brassica family, radicchio also mellows in the winter, its strident flavor softening in the cold without losing its innately bitter personality.

Whether roasted or shaved raw, Brussels sprouts and their plush, soft flesh can be a perfect complement to the sharpness of other winter vegetables.

Another strategy, Selman suggests, is pairing robustly flavored winter produce with other assertive ingredients like vinegar, chiles, garlic and ginger. You can combine all of these into a pungent dressing for roasted carrots or parsnips, inspired by smashed cucumber salads.

That same dressing would also be delightful on raw cabbage, or steamed cauliflower or broccoli.

You might see fennel turning up now, because, even though it’s not strictly a winter vegetable, it holds up well if harvested before the first frost. Its licorice intensity plays nicely with tangy, juicy citrus fruit.

Roasting fennel concentrates its flavor, and adding some hearty farro, along with the orange, olives, dates and feta, turns a side salad into a light meal.

DAVID MALOSH/THE NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOS A fennel-farro salad gains savoriness from briny olives and sweetness from thinly sliced dates.