WP: Root Vegetables. Digging Deep

WEATHER PERMITTING

Root Vegetables. Digging Deep

by JUDITH MARA

Grown beneath the earth in dark damp soil, splendid flavors, colors and textures develop. You can’t see their progress until they are pulled from the ground gnarly and dusty with roots that look like they need a shave.

When scraped clean, gemlike colors emerge in garnet red, citrine yellow and diamond white. Root vegetables are oddly similar to jewels in that they also begin their lives underground.

Gems of cold climate farmer’s markets

All across our winter wonderland states, root vegetables are the gems of cold climate farmer’s markets. It’s lovely to see purpletipped white turnips, deep red, orange and gold beets, cream-colored parsnips and rutabagas, and blue, red, purple and gold potatoes piled high in bunches and baskets. The most popular root vegetable today is the potato, including the sweet potato. Is there anyone who doesn’t know what a potato tastes like or the many ways to eat them? The same is true for carrots, which have been popular much longer than potatoes—all the way back to the 900’s. Then there are beets. While they have long been part of our diets, many people say they hated beets growing up. But a few years ago chefs started to glorify beets in salads, soups and roasted side dishes. Then beets began appearing as carpaccio, on pizza, in curries and in desserts. Never has a root vegetable been so fully explored. Or had so many new fans.

While a red potato tastes more or less like a gold potato and a purple carrot tastes almost exactly like an orange carrot, there are very distinct tastes between the various types of root vegetables.

A raw turnip tastes like a radish, but when cooked its flavor is closer to a potato. Rutabagas are described as tasting like a cross between a turnip and cabbage. Celeriac, unsurprisingly, tastes like celery. Parsnips are hard to describe; they look like a white carrot but they have their own distinct flavor that can be called nutty, sweet, oniony, and carroty all rolled into this wonderful gem.

Give these a try

This list goes beyond the usual choices of roots (potato, radish, carrot, beet) that are found at farmer’s markets. Here’s a cool tip: Most of these can be eaten raw or lightly cooked in salads; just shave or cut the roots into matchstick pieces to keep them tender.

· CELERIAC/CELERY ROOT · JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE · JICAMA · LOTUS ROOT · PARSNIP · RUTABAGA · TURNIP · YAM

· KOHLRABI (not really a root, but people think it is)