Holiday dinner favorites like roast beef and turkey, served up with potatoes, stuffing and mac and cheese can leave your plate looking drab — all brown and white. I joined ABC7’s Britt Waters and Kidd O’Shea on Good Morning Washington to share four colorful sides to make your holiday dinner as merry and bright as the rest of your home this Christmas and New Years.

Sugary beets are tempered with tannic pomegranate and earthy fennel balanced against a floral fennel yogurt and tender greens in a bright, lemon vinaigrette. The bright red beets and pomegranate seeds pop against fresh lettuce providing a beautifully festive start to a special meal.

This fall salad celebrates the farmers market with candy-sweet, roasted Delicata squash, peppery arugula, meaty Shitake mushrooms, and toasted pepitas - hull-less pumpkin seeds - for a nutty crunch. A sweet balsamic vinaigrette brings together a salad special enough for Saturday guests and simple enough for a weekday, work-from-home lunch.

A crunchy, sweet, fall farmers-market-fresh take on the classic Lebanese dish. Quinoa replaces cracked bulgur wheat and apples add sweetness while toasted walnuts add a rich crunch. Make a double batch to break out for lunch or a quick snack.

Classic Italian flavors — sweet summer tomatoes, bitter, salty capers and a bright red wine vinaigrette loaded with fresh basil and oregano — come together with Farfalle bowties for a quick, fresh and clean pasta salad ready for your next cookout. It might inspire your guests, like mine, to say this is the best pasta salad ever.

Three years ago I gave my first TV appearance with Great Day Washington. Today I am back with Kristen Berset talking about the release of my new series, Jonathan’s Kitchen: Seasons to Taste, available on-demand now on Revry!

Crisp endive and peppery arugula receive sweet balance from a creamy balsamic vinaigrette, sweet/tart cranberries, the bright bite of candied ginger and nutty, toasted pepitas for a little crunch. This salad is as beautiful as it is delicious and a perfect hearty-yet-light-tasting winter lunch.

Happy holidays! Despite the changes to many plans this year the food I want to eat remains the same: lighter and light-tasting work-from-home lunches followed by small bites. Here's a roasted squash, dried cranberry and endive salad that transforms into an elegant hors d'oeuvre.

This salad with earthy lamb, dill and broccoli, and sharp feta, is bold, herbaceous and complex, the perfect companion for the rich, round flavors of the potato and pasta salads at your summer cookout. It is fabulously fresh for summer and hearty enough for a fall dinner when Brassicas like broccoli are really shining at the farm market.

Tackle the boredom of leftovers by transforming them into something entirely new. The work you’ve already done adds up delivering quick and easy meals packed with flavor. From a recent appearance on WJLA ABC7 Good Morning Washington.

This salad is so good it deserves hyperbole. Here goes. In the summertime, when the corn is high this simple salad celebrates tomatoes at their beautifully-balanced, sugary, acidic best. Sweet tomatoes, sharp, salty feta and the bright, earthy herb and red wine vinaigrette combine three big personalities on one stage and share the limelight in perfect balance delivering one delicious experience.

Tarragon, the paragon herb of light and fresh, pairs perfectly with delicately poached chicken for a not-too-heavy chicken salad perfect over crisp greens on in a sandwich. This recipe is a perfect way to reinvent leftover wine and herb poached chicken which means most of the work is done ahead of time.

Smashing cucumbers creates extra surface area to hold the vinaigrette. This dish is traditionally served as a respite for the palate amidst often spicy Szechuan cuisine. I think it’s wonderful with meats hot off the grill or alongside cold peanut noodles on a particularly sultry summer night.

Bright red Radicchio, soft green and white Belgian Endive and tender leaf lettuce combine for a colorful salad whose bitter greens are balanced by rich walnuts, blue cheese and a bright Champagne vinaigrette. The perfect show-stopping beginning to a winter holiday meal.

Finely sliced asparagus and roughly chopped herbs keep this savory and fresh tasting. With the complete proteins in quinoa, its the perfect take-to-work lunch or make-ahead light spring supper. Cook the quinoa ahead of time and the rest of the salad is done in 10-15 minutes!

Steamed cubes of pumpkin replace potato in this hearty fall cook-out inspired salad with a sweet tart Sherry Maple vinaigrette, fruity Castelvetrano olives and sharp capers.

Sweet potatoes get sweeter with a glaze of apple cider and a bright pinch of cayenne, while a hot bacon fat vinaigrette with melted jalapeño jelly lightly wilts field spinach for this hearty yet (relatively) light-tasting fall and winter salad.

Does egg salad seem to heavy and fatty? These finely-chopped, hard-boiled eggs are lightened with lots of fresh, earthy, sweet spinach and come together in a sharp vinaigrette. Served atop a rich bed of warm, creamy, olive oil and rosemary-tossed fingerling potatoes this salad is hearty enough for meal while tasting light like spring.

From summer through fall, my Mom’s arrival at our home is accompanied by food, harvested fresh from her garden and put up in her freezer. It always includes rich caponata, a classic Italian blend of eggplants and peppers, tomatoes, basil and capers. This dish captures those flavors in a quick, fresh, one-dish vegan homage to the end of summer.

Fresh mint, a sharp bright vinaigrette, and the bold, sweet garlicy flavor of the scapes make this the perfect light, fresh-tasting potato salad. Perfect with roast lamb or grilled chicken!