Hot Vegetables for Cold Weather

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesSauteed Shredded Winter Squash and Cabbage and a Winter Vegetable Gratin

Salad is great for summer, but winter meals demand heartier fare. Consider heating up your dinnertime with these hot and flavorful vegetable dishes from Martha Rose Shulman. She writes:

I made two great discoveries while coming up with these simple and delicious vegetarian skillet suppers. One is that a wok should not be limited to Asian stir-fries. A well-seasoned carbon steel wok makes a great natural nonstick pan that you can get hot enough to obtain a wonderful seared flavor when you cook vegetables, no matter what the seasonings.

The other thing I discovered is that the cooking water drained off from cooked barley or brown rice can be added to cooked vegetables the way pasta cooking water is sometimes used to moisten and add texture to an accompaniment. The starch in the nutrient-dense water enriches the vegetables like a sauce. Just add more water than the usual proportion that you’d use — say a quart for a cup of brown rice or barley — and drain the grains through a strainer set over a bowl when they’re tender.

Simmered Beet Greens With Roasted Beets, Lemon and Yogurt: The Greeks serve this dish as a salad, but if you want to make a meal of this, serve the greens and beets with a whole grain, like barley or quinoa.

Skillet Mushrooms and Chard With Barley or Brown Rice: Mushrooms and barley are a classic combination, but brown rice is also very nice with this dish, and it cooks faster.

Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts and Red Beans With Lemon and Mustard: You can cook this beautiful, lemony skillet dinner in a well-seasoned wok or a heavy nonstick pan. You’ll get the best seared flavor in a wok.

Sautéed Shredded Winter Squash and Cabbage and a Winter Vegetable Gratin: You can just cook these vegetables in a skillet and serve them with grains for a great vegan dinner, or turn them into a hearty vegetarian (but not vegan) Provençal-style gratin.

Skillet Collards and Winter Squash With Barley: Barley water is used to make nutritious beverages in many cuisines; it can also be useful as a sort of sauce, adding rich flavor and texture to vegetables.

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