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Place the spinach in a large bowl. Pour the warm dressing, with the bacon and morels, over the spinach and toss until the leaves are wilted and coated.

Divide the spinach salad among four plates and top each with a fried egg.

SHAVED FENNEL SALAD WITH ORANGES, LEMON, DILL, AND WATERCRESS

Fennel may be my favorite vegetable because it’s so versatile: you can eat it raw, you can shave it, you can roast it, braise it, pickle it, stuff it into birds, sauté it, garnish with it, use it as an aromatic, make it into a main course or side dish. How many vegetables can you do that with?

This is a refreshing salad of raw, shaved fennel with orange and dill. It works well as a side salad or it can be used as a base for a lean white fish.

Serves 4

3 oranges

1 garlic clove, minced

1 shallot, thinly sliced, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes and drained

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 small or 1 large fennel bulb, core removed, shaved

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fennel fronds

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh dill

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup loosely packed watercress

Grate the zest of one of the oranges and reserve. Segment all three oranges (see Symon Says) and reserve with their juice.

In a large bowl, combine the garlic, shallot, salt, lemon zest and juice, and the orange zest and juice (reserve the segments for now), and whisk to combine. Add the shaved fennel, fennel fronds, and dill and toss them in the juices. Add the orange segments, a few grinds of black pepper, the coriander, extra-virgin olive oil, and watercress. Toss gently and divide the salad among four plates. Spoon additional dressing from the bottom of the bowl over each portion.

Segmenting citrus fruits into what are called “supremes” allows you to serve them in an elegant way. To segment an orange or grapefruit, slice off the top and bottom of the rind. Then remove the rest of the rind, slicing from top to bottom, making sure to remove all the pith but leaving as much fruit as possible. When the fruit is peeled, slice through the fruit along either side of each membrane to remove only the fruit sections. Work over a bowl to capture the juices. When you have cut out all the segments, squeeze the remaining juice from the fruit into the bowl over the segments.

SLOW-ROASTED BEETS WITH BUTTERMILK BLUE CHEESE, WATERCRESS, AND TOASTED WALNUTS

I love using vegetables people don’t think they like or didn’t like as children, such as beets and Brussels sprouts, to show people how fantastic the vegetables can be when they’re handled right. Beets especially are a great starter vegetable for kids because they’re so sweet. When the spring and summer vegetables—fava beans, peas, corn, and tomatoes—have ended, that’s when I turn to beets to fill the void; for me they’re fall and winter vegetables.

This is a straightforward beet salad we’ve done since the original Lola: sweet roasted beets with peppery watercress, tangy blue cheese, and some crunch and nuttiness from walnuts, all tied together by a sweet and acidic vinaigrette using orange, honey, balsamic (the better your balsamic, the better your salad will be) and extra-virgin olive oil. With big vegetable salads like this, or with tomato salads, I like to serve lots of vinaigrette so that the salad is very juicy. Because the vinaigrette is not highly acidic, you can use it plentifully; the acidity of the cheese, Buttermilk Blue from Roth Käse in Wisconsin (see Sources), picks up the slack.

Serves 4 to 6

½ cup walnut pieces

Kosher salt

3 medium golden beets

3 medium red beets

1 head of garlic, halved through its equator

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

Freshly ground black pepper

1 shallot, minced

1 large garlic clove, minced

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 ounces Roth Käse Buttermilk Blue or Maytag blue cheese, crumbled