Comforting Root Vegetables
An Economical Way To Stretch Your Meals, and Add Comforting Familiar
Dec 17, 2007
You probably remember Root Vegetables as the obligatory holiday side dishes like mashed potatoes, turnips, and candied sweet potatoes but amazingly enough these “plant root” vegetables are used more often then you think every day.
Sure mashed potatoes with your meat for dinner is one, but garlic and shallots are in this family and used in cooking many dishes. Latin Americans use taro root, yucca and jicama for their daily carbohydrates, while Asians use daikon radish to supplement their stews besides garnishing sushi platters with these white “spaghetti like” curls.
If you are not going to mash your root vegetables, the key to success is cutting them into similar sized pieces. If roasting; cut in similar sized wedges to ensure even cooking and roasting. Fairly good sized pieces work well, larger pieces will get a nice roasting color and stay al dente, where-as smaller pieces loose texture and get “mushy”. For Boiling; similar sized cubes, once again to retain a similar consistency if you are using a variety.
Here are a few Examples of Recipes Utilizing Hearty Root Vegetables;
ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES
4-6 each Carrots and Parsnips
1 small head Fennel (or Baby Fennel)
2 each Red or Golden Beets
3 each Red bliss or Gold New Potatoes
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon thyme or rosemary
Wash all vegetables well leaving the skin on for a rustic look. Cut the carrots and parsnips in half lengthwise, then cut in half or in thirds widthwise depending on the girth to create even wedges. Cut the fennel in half then in similar size wedges as the carrots and parsnips. Cut the beets and potatoes in half then into 1/3’s or ¼’s once again to make them similar in size to the other vegetables. Toss the vegetables with the soy, olive oil, salt and your choice of thyme or rosemary
Place the vegetables in a roasting pan or cookie sheet that will allow them to lay pretty flat and not overlap. Place in a 350 degree preheated oven and cook until “Al Dente” and slightly charred, about 50 minutes.
ONE DISH OSSO BUCCO- Normally Osso Bucco is cooked with aromatic vegetables then served on Risotto Milanese. Here we add some extra root vegetables for heartiness and to eliminate cooking the extra risotto side dish
1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon dried thyme
4 lb veal shank; cut 2" thick
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion chopped
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped
1 potato, peeled and chopped
1 sweet potato
1 cup turnip, peeled and chopped
2 ounces red wine
1 ½ cups beef broth
½ tablespoon parsley springs, chopped
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch cinnamon
¼ cup flour
1/8 teaspoon thyme
Season shanks with salt and pepper. Combine flour and thyme and dredge shanks in mixture. Heat oil in a skillet large enough to cook all shanks. Brown the Veal nicely on all sides and remove from pan. Sauté diced root vegetables until translucent. Add remaining flour and toast for a few minutes. Deglaze with red wine and add beef stock, nutmeg and cinnamon. Cover the shanks with vegetables and broth in an oven proof dish. Cover and bake in the oven two hours until the veal is very tender. Check seasoning and plate shanks over the vegetable mixture on serving plates.
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