The Recipes You Should Be Cooking This December

Scoop up these spiced carrots and seasoned yogurt with freshly toasted pita chips.

“Celeriac or Napa cabbage pairs well with the crab. I like how celeriac’s texture mimics that of the crab, but I also love the distinct crunch that the cabbage provides,” says chef Gabriela Cámara and author of My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions. Grating celeriac on the large holes of a box grater yields tender pieces.

This salad tastes great with freshly cracked crab or store-bought lump crab meat, which is available at most seafood counters year-round.

If you’ve never had raw Brussels sprouts before, this salad will be a revelation. To save time, use a handheld slicer for the sprouts and onion.

A watermelon radish has, at first glance, a plain greenish-white root. But slice it open to reveal a stunning fuchsia interior. Roasting radishes gives them a smooth texture and sweet, earthy flavor similar to that of roasted turnips.

Mashed potatoes are even better blended with celery root, which has a gentle but noticeable flavor. Don’t be deterred by the root’s hairy exterior; just trim it off with a knife.

Think mac and cheese, but with vegetables instead of noodles. This gratin is a warming winter side dish, though it’s so good you might be tempted to call it dinner.

Baked in the half-shell until sizzling, these buttery, crumb-topped mussels are irresistible. Portland chefs Jaret Foster and Mona Johnson created them for their Portland catering company, Tournant. They serve them on a bed of whole hazelnuts or rock salt and suggest you get the biggest, fattest mussels you can find because they’ll shrink as they cook.

Imagine a lighter take on Chinese orange-peel beef, and you’ll get the idea here. The generous amount of roasted tangerine peel stays sweet and tender, thanks to a few prep tricks before it goes into the oven.

Browning the ribs and adding cocoa powder, cranberries, ginger, and orange zest give the stew warmth while you also get freshness from the ginger and citrus.

While Dungeness crab may seem like a splurge for a weeknight, when you add it to this family favorite, a little goes a long way.

Brilliant orange roasted pumpkin replaces the traditional mashed potato topping here, giving new life to classic English pub grub.

The warm spices of this one-pan dinner complement the roasted carrots.

Knobbly celery root (also called celeriac) looks a little wild, but it has a mild, woodsy taste. Here we’ve used it to make the classic French salad céleri rémoulade but given it an unexpected role as a topping for chicken sandwiches.

Watch out, carrot cake. An intriguing mix of spices, plus coconut sugar for subtle sweetness, put this butternut squash cake over the top. (And did we mention the bourbon?) You’ll need three round, 8-inch cake pans.

Basically an open-face pie, this galette is a great dessert for pie-phobes to make because the crust is so easy to handle, you don’t even need a pie pan. For a more seasonal winter approach, swap the apples for sliced persimmons.

If you’re a fan of marmalade, you’ll love the quick-candied citrus in the filling and on top of this elegant dessert. Its slight bitterness echoes the flavors in the cake, which is made with more tangerines plus olio nuovo—the fresh, unfiltered “new olive oil” of the season. Choose bright orange fruit with fairly tight-fitting skins, such as Clementines or Gold Nuggets.

These pretty cookies have a light filling from the stiff egg whites that make it easy to eat a dozen on your own—though we can picture a certain someone being delighted to see a plate of these left out for them on Christmas Eve.

With their buttery cookie base and caramelized pecan pie-type filling, these bars are nothing short of addictive. Chopping some of the nuts and leaving others whole creates a pretty mosaic effect.