Winter Jewels

Photo via Perpetual Feast

This week's box is a classic mixture of winter root vegetables.  I'd love to give you some elegant suggestions you can use to show off your cooking techniques, but unfortunately this week doesn't lend itself to fancy-fancy.  This week is about home and hearth, comfort food.  From a cooking perspective, I think of a plate of root vegetables like this not as a dish to make better, but to avoid messing up.   The ingredients are going to work so well together, Mother Nature was our chef this week.

How does one "avoid messing up?"  Simple.  Peel it, cut into bite sized pieces, and toss with olive oil.  Generous salt and pepper and in the oven.  Around 350˚ for half an hour or so, put it on a plate.  Ta-da.  The "big secret" is to chop up all of the vegetables into equal size pieces as best you can.  They all have that hard texture, and they're all going to cook at pretty much the same rate.  By using equal pieces, they all cook in the same amount of time.

Photo via Food & Wine

Yes, there are some avenues for creativity.

• After you roast them, toss with some finely chopped herbs, like parsley.  A little thyme can work too.  Keep it simple.
• Glaze sparingly with something sweet, like honey or maple syrup.  Prepared this way, my 5-year-old thinks they're dessert.
• Toss with a little vinaigrette.  Again, use sparingly.  While that link only uses parsnips, any of these vegetables can substitute for each other.
• Roast them with an apple or some other winter fruit (cranberries, for example).

I guess the arrival of winter isn't all bad!

Staples of Fall

There were lots and lots of turnips in the box this week.  Fall is the season for root veggies:  turnips, potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, onions, lots of goodness.  These are the components of good, hearty fall meals.

Lots of people wonder what to do with turnips.  Honestly, use them in anything where you'd use potatoes or carrots.  Turnips are related to horseradish, and they'll add some of that sharp, in-the-nose quality, albeit in much milder form.  Turnips contain a fair amount of sugar, too, which you can caramelize.  Let's make a simple stew.

Photo via Epicurious

Veggie Stew

Pick whichever root veggies you'd like.  Some of those turnips, for example.  Peel and cut into bite-sized chunks.  Add some aromatics too, like onions, celery, and/or fennel.  Again, chop into bite size pieces.  It doesn't matter how much of what ingredient.  Use more of the ones you like more.

Here's my Stew Secret.  Put a pan (or a wok, if you have one) over high heat, and let the pan pre-heat for a minute or two.  Put in some high smoke point oil, such as grape seed or peanut, and let it warm up for a few seconds. Toss the veggies in and stir continuously just until they've got some brown on them, but not black.  The brown is caramelized sugars.  Good stuff. Turn the heat to low, sprinkle on some flour (a tablespoon or two), then stir well for maybe a minute.  Put the veggies into a pot or slow cooker.  

Add some flavorful liquid. This could be wine, stock, or a robust beer.  My favorite stews use a good Belgian beer.  (Even if you don't like to drink them, those beers take on a different character in a stew.) Optionally, you can put in some herbs (bay, thyme, etc.).  Let it cook low and slooooooow all day.  Salt & pepper only after its done.  Now, how easy was that?

Photo via Food & Wine

Variations on a Theme

That's a vegetable stew, and it's heartier than you think.  Of course you can add meat of any kind, especially the cheaper cuts, which benefits from lots of low heat cooking.  Just like the veggies, cut into bite-size pieces, brown, add a little flour, and in the pot.

Here are some good recipes I've used, but you'll see that they're all variations on this theme.  Many stew recipes will only list carrots, but adding in other root vegetables can't be a bad thing!  Tomato paste enriches and sets apart this classic Bistro stew.  And, speaking of flavorful liquids, how about some cognac in your beef stew?  Fall is football season, and stews are great for watching the game.  Our family's absolute favorite stew, though, has to be this southwest-inspired one.  Here's another southwestern stew, this time a bit spicier.

Happy fall!

Beets! Pass the honey.

Photo via nutribulletblog.com

Plums... now beets.  I think the powers that be had something about making this week's basket all purple.  But, in addition, it's all sweet, too.  In millennia past, beets were used as a sugar source.  Yes, they are naturally quite sweet.  Just remember, they're also naturally quite purple, too.  In millennia past, and even to today, beet juice has been used to make dyes.  So when you cook with beets, wear a shirt you really don't care about.

It's the sugar in the beets that we're going to focus on for now, though.  Beets were used historically as a sweetener, and so was honey.  I love combining beets and honey to make a savory-sweet side dish that's almost dessert!

Photo via Seed to Saucepan

Beets are typically too firm to eat raw.  They can be boiled, roasted or steamed to prepare them to eat.   In doing so, let the skin be your guide.  Wash them very thoroughly and trim off stems and roots.  Whatever route you use to heat them, when they're soft enough to eat the skin will slide off very easily.  And plan ahead, as they take some time to cook.  Halving or quartering the bigger ones does speed the process.  As for the honey, the simplest thing to do is once the beets are soft enough, slice them into 1/4" disks, sprinkle lightly with salt, and toss them in some honey.  Balsamic makes a fantastic glaze, too.  And if you reduce that balsamic a bit first... wow.  Just wow.

Photo via mccormick.com

This recipe is an excellent illustration, and a big favorite in my family.  While parsnips are a little hard to come by this time of year, I have substituted turnips in the spring and the recipe still works very well.  Most any root vegetables will work in that recipe, actually.  Here is a great recipe to use as a starting point for sweetening with balsamic.  Don't forget, brown sugar is a great sweetener too, as in this one.  Note that it also includes lemon, and the acid does help temper the sweetness.  (Weren't the balsamic glazed ones good?  You see what I mean.)

Have a great sugar rush!

Baked Turnip & Potato Pancakes

Whether it's a boxty or a latke, I'm a big supporter of all things potato pancake.  So since I'm not a huge fan of the taste of turnips, I found a great way to disguise them is to throw them in with potato for some savory pancakes.  Turnips are great cubed and roasted, but there's and aftertaste I pick up on that I just can't escape, so masking them this way worked perfect for me.  And unlike most potato cake recipes, these are baked and not fried, so it greatly cuts down on the calories.

Baked Turnip & Potato Pancakes

Ingredients:

1/2 lb turnips, peeled and diced into 1/4" cubes
1/2 lb potato, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
2 1/2 Tbsp scallions, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten (or 1 egg equivalent of Ener-G Egg Replacer or 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)
1 handful of shredded cheddar cheese (I use Daiya cheddar shreds for dairy-free)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (any flour of your choosing)
Coarse ground salt & pepper
2 dashes of ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a pot of lightly salted boiling water, add in turnips and potatoes for 10-15 minutes or until cubes are fork tender.  Drain off water and then use a hand masher to to mash them up.  You want it more of a rough mash, not a smooth mashed potato consistency, so hand mashing is best.

Stir in scallions, egg, cheese, flour and seasonings, until fully combined.  Take about 1/4 cup portions and pat into patties of even thickness and place onto a lightly greased baking sheet.  Don't crowd your baking sheet, so you'll have to do these in batches like you would with cookies.  Bake each set at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then flip each pancake and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until each side has crisped and is golden brown.

Serve with applesauce or sour cream for dipping on the side.

Turnips

Hi Guys! You will be getting turnips in your share this week. Rather than give you another recipe, I am just going to link to an oldie but goodie. This recipe is in our top 5 most popular posts and is still wiggling around Pinterest.

Simple Roasted Turnips

It is simple and they get so tasty when they get all nice and roasty.
Enjoy!

Simple Roasted Turnips

Root vegetables make me think of winter comfort foods. I think of them in stews, soups and of course as warm sides. My favorite way to cook root vegetables is roasting them. And this fabulous recipes from Taylor Takes A Taste, is the perfect way to enjoy turnips.  You can pair these with just about anything.

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 medium sized turnips (peeled)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and Pepper

View the rest of the recipe from Taylor Takes A Taste here: Roasted Turnips