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UNEARTH CULINARY INSPIRATION
It's that time of year to dig deep into the earth for nourishing tubers—or root vegetables. Ready to usher in the season and expand your root vegetable repertoire? Then go beyond standard potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots. Think beets, turnips, parsnips, rutabagas, and celeriac!
Chefs often roast root vegetables to extract wonderful natural sugars, but remember they can also provide comfort-food satisfaction and menu interest. Why not include them in sandwiches and salads, or even invigorate your sides with a root vegetable purée? |
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At the Riverhouse Restaurant, in Palm Beach, Florida, Executive Chef Harold Laman elaborated how he winterizes a green salad by tossing in different colored beets that have been boiled and julienned. "It's like a confetti of beets," he says.
"Beets add beautiful color and interest, and they're inexpensive, offsetting the cost of proteins."
—Executive Chef Harold Laman
Chef Laman uses steamed parsnips tossed in honey instead of potato. "You've got to add honey for that extra sweetness, or people just won't order them."
Jim Gerhardt, Chef and co-owner, of Limestone Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, serves a root-vegetable purée. "The beauty of root vegetables is that they all get along so well together," he says with a smile.
He boils Yukon golds, rutabagas and turnips in chicken stock, then adds a little milk and butter. "They go very well with lighter meats—roasted chicken, pork medallions. I wouldn't serve them with beef because the mild flavor of the vegetables wouldn't stand up to the meat."
Gerhardt also uses root vegetables as a sauce thickener for beef short ribs. First he braises carrots, celery and parsnips with the meat, then purées the vegetables and adds them back into the sauce.
"They give wonderful flavor and texture, and I don't have to use flour."
— Chef Jim Gerhardt, on the thickening properties of root vegetables
Meanwhile, Damian Martineau, Executive Chef at Guest Services, Inc., Upper Marlboro, Maryland, adds sliced roasted beets to his South American pulled-chicken sandwich. He points out that, "Beets are under-utilized, and fresh ones offer such a different flavor in comparison to canned".
Martineau also makes dumplings using yuca (or cassava). He forms little patties from boiled and mashed yuca, adds a filling such as ground beef, then pinches the dumplings closed and pan-fries them. "The purée is very starchy," he adds, "which gives it good structure for the dumplings."
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| Tuber |
Color & flavor |
Fun facts |
Benefits |
| Beets |
•Garnet-red globes
•Edible leafy green tops
•Sweet, earthy flavor |
•Other varieties include Swiss chard and sugar beets |
•Vitamin A
•Vitamin B
•Vitamin C
•Potassium
•Iron |
| Carrots |
•Orange
•Sweetest when young and slender |
•Member of the parsley family |
•Vitamin A |
| Celeriac |
•White-ish brown
•Knobby shape
•Hints of celery and parsley flavor |
•Also known as celery root
•Can be eaten raw or cooked |
•Vitamin C |
| Jicama |
•Thick brown skin and white crunchy flesh
•Nutty, sweet flavor |
•Also known as a Mexican potato
•Great raw or cooked |
•Vitamin C
•Potassium |
| Parsnips |
•Creamy flesh
•Mild, sweet flavor |
•Used more for flavor than for nutritional content |
•Iron
•Vitamin C |
| Potatoes |
•Skin varies from light to deep brown, to russet
•Flesh from snow white to buttery yellow |
Varieties include:
•russet
•long white
•fingerling
•round white
•round red
•Yukon gold
•All Blue
•new potato |
•Vitamin C |
| Radishes |
•Red or black skin
•White flesh
•Crisp and peppery flavor |
•From the mustard family
•Best eaten raw |
•Potassium
•Vitamin A |
| Rutabaga |
•Mild, sweet flavor
•Skin is purplish at the top of its globe
•Flesh is creamy yellow
•Larger than the turnip |
•Also known as a Swede
•Cross of a cabbage and a turnip |
•Vitamin A
•Vitamin C |
| Salsify |
•Delicate flavor similar to artichokes with a touch of coconut
•Reminiscent of oysters |
•Also known as an oyster plant
•Eaten as a vegetable
•Add to soups and savory pies |
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| Sunchoke |
•Brown-skinned
•Nutty and sweet
•Crunchy texture |
•Also known as Jerusalem artichoke |
•Iron |
| Sweet potatoes |
•Shades of orange
•The darker variety has a sweet, moist flesh when cooked |
•Akin to potatoes, can be prepared in as many ways |
•Vitamin A
•Vitamin C |
| Taro root |
•Soft brown with white flesh
•Nutty flavor |
•Also known as a dasheen
•Its greens can be prepared like turnip or mustard greens |
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| Turnips |
•Skin is purplish at the top of its globe
•Flesh is creamy
•Sweet, delicate when young; woodier when older |
•Cousin to the rutabaga, but smaller and less dense
•"Turnip greens" are popular |
•Vitamin C |
| Yuca |
•White, firm flesh
•Long, tapered root
•Sweet flavor
•Crisp and starchy texture |
•Also known as a cassava or manioc |
•Vitamin C
•Iron |
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