Vegetables

This wintry combination of carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and shallots starts on the stove top, covered for a portion of the time to facilitate cooking. Cast-iron skillets often do not have lids, so if needed, borrow one from a similarly sized pot or simply set a baking sheet on top. After a toss with butter and a savory-sweet mixture of umami-rich miso, ginger, and honey, the vegetables finish in a moderately hot oven, where the even heat renders them fully tender and nicely browned.

Patatas panaderas, a simple yet luxurious dish of thinly sliced potatoes accented with onions and garlic and baked in white wine and plenty of olive oil, is little known outside of Spain, but it deserves a place among the iconic potato dishes of Europe. In our version, we covered the potatoes with a tight foil lid so that the potatoes could soften. We withheld the wine for the first 40 minutes of cooking to prevent its acid from interfering with the softening of the potatoes.

Most sweet potato soup recipes call for so many other ingredients that the sweet potato flavor is muted. By cutting back to just shallot, thyme, and butter and using water instead of broth, we put the focus back on the main ingredient. We also puree some of the potato skins into the soup for extra earthiness. However, the real key to intensifying the sweet potato flavor was using only a minimal amount of flavor-diluting water. To do so, we let the sweet potatoes sit in hot water off heat for 20 minutes to make use of an enzyme that reduces their starch content.

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor’s 1970 cookbook, “Vibration Cooking, or the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl,” combined memoir and recipes in a new way, and introduced many readers to a brilliant new voice in American food culture. This onion-pie recipe is like many of her recipes, simple and deeply satisfying home cooking rooted in the South, but with a truly global point of view. If you want, you can toss a handful of cooked ham or grated cheese or fresh chopped herbs into the mix before putting it in the oven.

Chicken adobo, the national dish of the Philippines, is made by braising chicken in a salty, sour and sweet mixture of mostly soy sauce and vinegar. In this vegetarian version, cauliflower, rather than chicken, is caramelized on one side, then simmered in the pungent but not prickly sauce until toothsome yet tender. The simmer mellows the vinegar and soy sauce into a sauce interlaced with pepper, garlic and something herbal but not immediately traceable — that’s the bay leaves. Serve the cauliflower and sauce over rice or another grain with something green on the side.

Carrots work beautifully in this simple tart, but onions, parsnips, beets, zucchini or pumpkin work just as well. The key is to cook the vegetables before putting them on the tart, since the moisture released by baking raw vegetables would make the puff pastry soggy and prevent it from rising. Once you remove the tart from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes before cutting to allow the cheese to firm up slightly. The tart can be served warm, or cooled to room temperature, and would make a great addition to a picnic.

This smart weeknight dinner offers all the comforting flavors of a classic Parmigiana, but with minimal work. Earthy portobello mushrooms are used here, offering a perfect cradle for the red sauce and creamy mozzarella. Use good quality store-bought marinara sauce (vodka, arrabiata or amatriciana), a much-underrated pantry item that can turn around a meal quickly. This flexible recipe can be scaled up or down without too much fuss. It accounts for two portobello mushrooms per person, but if you’re serving them with pasta or a salad, you could reduce to one each.

To make crispy, flavorful tofu without having to press it first, use this smart method from Andrea Nguyen, the author of “Asian Tofu” (Ten Speed Press, 2012) and other cookbooks: Warm the tofu in a pan with a small amount of flavorful sauce. As it cooks, it will dry out and absorb the flavors of the sauce. Next, you add oil to the pan, which crisps the tofu. In Ms. Nguyen’s recipe, soy sauce is used, but here, the aromatics in Thai green curry paste and the sugars in coconut milk toast and caramelize on the tofu.

Keep a package or two of frozen dumplings in your freezer for this warming weeknight meal. This recipe is loosely inspired by wonton noodle soup, but replaces homemade wontons with store-bought frozen dumplings for a quick alternative. The soup base, which comes together in just 10 minutes, is surprisingly rich and full-bodied, thanks to the trio of ginger, garlic and turmeric. Miso paste brings extra savoriness, but you could substitute soy sauce or tamari. Scale up on veggies if you like; carrots, peas, snow peas or mushrooms would be excellent additions.

Similar to spanakorizo, a Greek spinach and rice dish, this easy, meatless meal features orzo, spinach, peas and scallions. It is deeply satisfying but still on the lighter side of pasta recipes, thanks to all those vegetables. A little feta gives it creaminess and tang, while some lemon zest brightens everything up. It makes a complete meal on its own, or, if you’re looking for something more substantial, serve this as a hearty side dish to roasted meats or fish.