Notes From Underground by Bittman

[elleng]

There was a time when the only root vegetables anyone paid attention to were carrots and potatoes. (I know potatoes are tubers. Whatever.) Turnips were déclassé, celeriac unheard of, beets a pain to clean. The perception has changed, in part because it was all wrong; in part because if you’re going to eat seasonal and local, you are going to eat roots in winter, even if you live in California; and in part because roasted root vegetables, which most of us have discovered only recently, are, like, the greatest thing ever, and even the company cafeteria can’t ruin them. . .

So here are six recipes, each based on a given root, but the point is this: Mess around. Bake beets instead of celeriac; make creamy potato soup, braise carrots, braise parsnips and so on. And don’t stop there: please consider turnips, rutabaga and yams, as well as taro, yucca, boniato and cassava.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/root-vegetables.html?hpw

[Tindalos]

1. Yum. Thanks.

My family cooks a lot of root vegetables. Probably because those vegetables are cheap and easy to store. I think I'm going to try a non-dairy version of the parsnip gratin.

[Warpy]

2. My poverty diet was heavy on root veg, cabbage and winter squash

and roasting them tames the most gnarly of them, the yellow turnip. Some can even be pickled and become quite sweet.

Szechuan pickled veg, sold in cans, lasts forever as a seasoning for soups and is a root veggie pickled in hot pepper.

I'm not mired in poverty now so yellow turnip is off the menu. However, the bottom has fallen out before and if it does again, I know what to do about it: roast those suckers.

[Denninmi]

3. Well, I'm a big proponent of ALL of those.

I love them all. This past season, I grew carrots, parsnips, celeriac, turnips, daikon, leeks (sort of a root veggie), sugar beets. Alas, some things I just didn't get planted last year -- rutabagas, root parsley among them.

Will do better in 2012!

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. Funny you should mention this

At the supermarket the other day we happened to be standing near the Rutebegas and I mentioned to the wife that I had never eaten one. Well, she hadn't either so we bought a couple. I have absolutly no idea what to do with them. I tried looking up some recipies and all I've found so far are recipies in which Rutebegas are but a small portion of the whole recipie. I really want something wherin the rutebega is the main ingredient so I can figure out exactly what a rutebega is but so far have come up with not much. Any ideas?

Beets on the other hand, beets I can do all kinds of good things with. Love me some beets. Love me some beet greens too.

[Denninmi]

6. This sounds good:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Smashed-Rutabagas-with-Ginger-Roasted-Pears-240414

[maddezmom]

5. Yucca is a treat in my house

we lived in Peru when the kids were little and they loved them. They are great as fries, mashed, grilled or just mashed and stuffed with cheese then fried.