Confronting Root Vegetables

By Sarah Courteau

My mother met my father in her early twenties, fresh from a solidly suburban upbringing. He was significantly older than she and lived on an Ozark farm where he raised and grew much of what he ate. The first fall they were together, he butchered a hog and gave her the head of the animal to make into head cheese, which he prized as a delicacy. Horrified at this elemental presentation of pork, my mother put the hog’s head in a pot, slapped a lid on it, and pushed it to the back of the stove. It remained there, undisturbed, until the smell of decay outed her. 

In summers past, to my shame, the few root vegetables I received in CSAs got roughly the same treatment. They tended to molder in the veggie crisper until they were beyond salvaging while I salivated over the immediate accessibility of juicy tomatoes and crisp cucumbers. I found turnips intimidating. Becoming a member of a winter CSA—which is all about root vegetables—for the first time has forced me to overcome my phobia through exposure therapy. And it’s shown me just how wrong I’ve been about vegetables pulled from the earth. 

So far, of everything we’ve received, the garlic is what pleases me most. The plump, spicy bulbs we’ve been getting are nothing like the desiccated offerings in most supermarkets at this time of year. The single bulb that was in our box this week was gone within 24 hours. The carrots, too, so crunchy and with such personality in their twisted roots, have been a revelation. Since we got our first box of the winter season, my husband and I have eaten more healthily and been able to stretch out our trips to the grocery store to once every couple of weeks as we den up during this winter’s Covid surge. 

Here are a few things I’ve made with this week’s bounty.

Winter Salad

(Serves 2)

I was excited to try the kohlrabi salad recipe linked to in this week’s list of the CSA veggies, but our box didn’t have one. What we did have was lots of daikon radishes and tender beet greens. I made the following salad, loosely adapted from the kohlrabi recipe. I usually go with simple vinegar and oil dressings, but for a salad like this, the creamy, sweet tang of the mayo dressing is a welcome note.

Salad:

2-3 large handfuls of beet greens (or the green of your choice), washed, de-stemmed, and dried

½ giant daikon radish, peeled and thinly sliced 

1 large rainbow carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

½ a tart apple, thinly sliced (I used Granny Smith)

1-2 handfuls of pecans (or the nut of your choice), toast for 7-10 minutes on a cookie sheet in a 350-degree oven

Dressing:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 ½ to 2 Tbsp. of white wine vinegar

A pinch or two of sugar or a dollop of honey

Salt and pepper

Directions: Toss salad ingredients together. Mix dressing, making sure to fully incorporate honey, if using, and adjusting proportions to your taste. Drizzle over salad and enjoy!

Breakfast Hash

(Serves 2)

This recipe is adapted from a Blue Apron recipe I stumbled on when I typed a few ingredients from the first CSA box into Google. It uses many different CSA items, is extremely adaptable in terms of portions and ingredient substitutions, and is just delicious. I’ve made it three times so far and plan to make it many more.

8-10 fingerling potatoes, scrubbed and sliced into ¼-inch coins

½ cup of sliced pepper of your choice (I use red bell, but any peppers—even jalapenos!—will do)

1 small to medium onion, diced

1 large clove of garlic, minced

A couple handfuls of the green of your choice (our CSA baby beet greens were a bit delicate for this dish, as you can see in the picture, though they tasted yummy; kale is particularly good here)

Two farm eggs

Grated or crumbled cheese (I’ve used cheddar, fresh mozzarella, and chevre—all delicious)

Olive oil

Hot sauce! (optional) 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium cast-iron skillet (or other oven-safe pan), liberally salt and pepper potatoes and sauté them in a bit of olive oil on medium-high heat until crisp, 8-10 minutes. Add onions, garlic, and peppers, salt and pepper again, and sauté a few minutes more until the onions begin to look translucent. Add greens to pan, season again, and cook briefly until wilted. Create two wells in the veggies and crack your eggs into them. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cheese in an amount to your liking, and bake 7-9 minutes, depending on how well done you like your eggs. (Nine minutes results in a fairly firm egg, in my oven, which runs a little hot.) Top with hot sauce, if desired, and enjoy. (I’m currently obsessed with this NYC-made variety, a Christmas present from my brother and sister-in-law.)

Cabbage Soup

This cozy cabbage and farro soup was a sleeper hit in our house. SmittenKitchen is one of my favorite recipe sites—Deb Perelman never fails me. But I live with a cabbage skeptic, and I was myself a little dubious that this soup could be as full of flavor as promised. Ha! We gobbled it up, and I was sorry that I hadn’t taken Deb’s advice to double the recipe. The tartness of the vinegar and lemon juice balance out the sweetness of the cabbage. I used Italian barley instead of farro and cooked the cabbage way longer than the 30 minutes recommended. (It got very soft but never caramelized.) Will definitely make again.

What I’m looking forward to cooking next … is this New York Times recipe for three-cup vegetables. I’ve made three-cup chicken and am eager to apply the same treatment to potatoes and turnips. I plan to throw in a little tofu, as some reviewers of the recipe suggest.

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