Winter Recipes

Making your own yogurt may sound ambitious, but it's really not. All it takes is two ingredients and 20 minutes of hands-on time.

Sweet roasted butternut squash tempers the heat of fresh ginger in this vegan soup. Coconut milk is swirled in for creaminess, while toasted squash seeds add a pleasing crunch.

Our vegetarian bean soup is made with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen, including carrots, onions, celery, and garlic, canned beans, and canned tomatoes. The hearty dish makes a great dinner and requires just 25 minutes of prep; then, the soup simmers on the stovetop until the vegetables are tender. If you omit the parmesan for serving, this soup is also vegan.

Aromatic and satisfying, a comforting bowl of beef stew always hits the mark on extra chilly nights. Here, seared pieces of marbled beef simmer away until fall-apart-tender in broth, with punchy aromatics added to it like tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, and fire-roasted tomatoes for a subtle smokiness.

You'll like the convenience of this comforting dish. Unlike other shepherd's pie recipes, this one calls for frozen vegetables instead of fresh and can be made the day before. Shepherd's pie has never been so easy—or so tasty!

Hearty and comforting, this is a soup you'll enjoy all through fall and winter. Our split pea soup is made with a ham bone for flavor, and leftover ham is added to the soup for serving. Use your blender or immersion blender to purée the soup so it's smooth and delicious—and don't skip the homemade croutons, they're a delightful crunchy accent.

For super-flavorful gravy, scatter cut oranges, onion, and garlic, along with a few rosemary and sage sprigs, in the bottom of the pan before you begin roasting the turkey. This recipe for upside-down turkey is a fun way to prepare your Thanksgiving meal. 

There's nothing like French onion soup on a cold day, and thankfully, this bistro classic is easy to make at home. We use sweet Vidalia onions and cook them slowly so they caramelize—that’s the key to this recipe. A touch of Marsala, Madeira, or Port adds richness to the beef stock. Serve the soup in ovenproof bowls so you can broil the Gruyere-topped toast in each portion.

Studded with meaty chestnuts and fragrant with parsley and sage, this stuffing is equally good cooked inside or outside the turkey (try our Classic Brined and Roasted Turkey recipe). You will need to dry the bread cubes overnight; transfer them to resealable plastic bags until you're ready to make the stuffing, up to 1 day more.

This cookie recipe is beloved by our food editors, who make it every Christmas as part of their holiday cookie boxes. What makes the cookies so irresistible? We think it's the combination of fresh and ground ginger, molasses, and chunks of semisweet chocolate. These chocolate ginger cookies are sophisticated enough for adults, but chocolatey enough for children.

Stuffed cabbage is not only filling, but it's also simple to prepare. Our hearty stuffed cabbage recipe calls for meat, veggies, and more. Serve stuffed cabbage with hot tomato sauce and sour cream for the ultimate comforting winter meal.

A riff on Swiss rosti, this casserole tastes like a loaded baked potato, but with the crispness of hash browns. A mixture of cheese, shredded potato, broccoli, and egg is first cooked in a skillet and then baked in the oven until golden brown. Crumbled bacon adds a delicious finishing touch.

For a classic pot roast—a tough cut of beef braised until succulent and tender—we start with a well-marbled chuck. Pair it with familiar carrots and potatoes and place in the slow cooker. This recipe comes from Martha's latest book "One Pot: 120+ Easy Meals from Your Skillet, Slow Cooker, Stockpot, and More."

Keep a bag of frozen dumplings on hand and mix our tasty dipping sauce while you heat them -- they make fine hors d'oeuvres for last-minute holiday visitors, or a light, easy dinner with steamed vegetables or rice.

This quick bread is the ultimate fall treat that works morning, noon, and night: You'll enjoy it with a cup of coffee before school drop-off and your kids will gobble it up once they return home. The pumpkin bread recipe starts with canned pumpkin purée and uses two different types of sugar—granulated and dark brown. The latter adds a touch of molasses flavor and chewy texture. We amped up the autumnal flavor, too, with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. And since the recipe makes two loaves, there's plenty to share.

For a holiday or special occasion, nothing beats cooking a prime rib in the oven. This spectacular roast is very simple to make; let the meat come to room temperature and season with salt and pepper. Then roast in a heavy-duty roasting pan at 450°F before reducing the temperature to 325°F to finish cooking. Martha loves to serve this beef roast with its traditional side dish, Yorkshire Pudding.

Fancy something cold instead? This recipe is also the base for our Rich Frozen Hot Chocolate.

Our homemade hot chocolate is a winter treat. This recipe makes a big batch of hot chocolate mix so it's economical and you'll have plenty on hand for cold days, after school or sledging snacks, bedtime drinks, and more. And this version is delicious and natural—containing only cocoa, sugar, and salt.

A smooth, creamy sauce comes together quickly when seasoned butternut squash and garlic are pureed in a food processor with water. 

Rich, buttery, and made with lots of vanilla, these cookies are simple to make. Use a cookie press—a hollow tube fitted with a decorative nozzle at one end and a plunger at the other—to press the cookies directly onto the baking sheet.

This reinterpretation of meatballs combines breakfast sausage, cheddar cheese, and onion for a very flavorful holiday appetizer, enough for a crowd of hungry folks.

This seafood stew, an impressive crowd-pleaser, can be prepared ahead of time and finished just 15 minutes before you serve it. If you leave out the crab legs, use an additional 8 ounces of white fish to keep the stew hearty.

If you need to get dinner on the table fast but you're tight on time, you can make this restorative, immunity-boosting soup with store-bought broth and rotisserie chicken.

Drying the bread cubes and cooking the vegetables a day in advance helps this stuffing come together quickly on Thanksgiving Day.