Spring Root Vegetables with Fresh Herbs

I recently relocated back to Montana, where spring is just beginning and the temperatures are still cool.  The local farmer’s market is in full swing but fresh vegetables are just starting to arrive.  Among them are radishes and Japanese or baby turnips, some of the most delicious brassicas due to their spicy yet tender nature.  Turnips are so often overlooked or overcooked and radishes are rare, generally relegated to salads and garnish, I wanted to offer a spring side dish featuring both roots in all their flavorful glory.  Though both brassicas can easily be eaten raw, steaming them mellows their flavor and softens their crunch.  I have a variety of fresh herbs growing on my back porch and I simply pruned a few, chopped them and added them to the marinade, which leads me to believe most combinations would be excellent.  These spring root vegetables would go well with a leek galette and roasted green beans.

I used a combination of savory, basil, parsley and sage in the marinade, but any fresh herbs will work.

1 bunch or 8-10 radishes, trimmed and halved if large

1 bunch or 8-10 Japanese or baby turnips, trimmed and halved if large

1 tbsp red onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp fresh herbs, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Combine herbs, olive oil and red onion in a small bowl and set aside.  Meanwhile, steam the turnips and radishes until barely tender.  Once the vegetables are tender, remove from heat, place in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. After the vegetables have cooled slightly, pour the marinade over the vegetables and gently fold to thoroughly combine.  Marinate for at least one hour before serving.  

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve warm, room temperature or chilled.  

Serves 3-4

Wilted Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing

Like many classic American dishes involving bacon, Germans settlers, specifically those settling New England and Pennsylvania, including the Amish and Mennonites, likely brought spinach salad to the Americas.  German immigrants brought a salad recipe which they served in springtime, composed of dandelion greens, bacon, vinegar and hardboiled eggs.  The dandelion salad later evolved into the more familiar spinach salad, which substitutes the dandelion greens for spinach, another spring green, and includes red onions and mushrooms.  Pennsylvania produces the greatest number of mushrooms, an industry started by the Quakers in the late 19th century and increases the likelihood the spinach salad has Pennsylvanian Dutch roots.  The mushrooms and onions can be added raw, but I like to slightly warm both ingredients before add them, so the spinach becomes even more warm and wilted when served as a salad.  Spinach salad is delicious with another German dish, potato salad.  

4 c spinach, roughly torn

½ red onion, thinly sliced

8 button mushrooms, quartered

2 eggs, hardboiled, peeled and roughly chopped

8 strips bacon, cut into 1" pieces

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

¼ tsp mustard

¼ tsp honey

salt and pepper

1. Place the spinach in a large bowl and set aside.  Combine the vinegar, mustard and honey in a small bowl, whisk and set aside. 

2. Heat a large pan over medium heat, add the bacon and fry until golden brown.  Remove the bacon, leaving the fat in the pan and toss the bacon with the spinach.

3. Reduce the heat to medium low, add the onion and sauté until slightly browned.  Add the mushrooms and gently sauté with the onions until they are lightly cooked.  Turn the heat off and remove the onions and mushrooms and toss them with the spinach and bacon. 

4. Pour the vinegar mixture into the pan, whisk well pour over the ingredients in the bowl and toss well.  Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately. 

Serves 2-4

Maple Glazed Carrots

In early April, I was in Vermont, where spring was just beginning and maple syrup season was already in full swing and advertised everywhere.  Admittedly, most of my prior maple syrup knowledge comes from Laura Ingles Wilder stories, inspiring many failed attempts at making maple syrup candy made on a bed of snow.  Maple trees store starch in their roots during the winter and then converts that starch into sugar, which is held in the sap that rises in the tree during the spring.  Any number of maples, though predominately sugar, red or black, can be tapped in the spring to allow the sap to be collected, boiled to evaporate the water, creating thick syrup known as maple syrup.  The native peoples of North America have made maple syrup for hundreds of years, if not longer, and now the majority of the maple syrup consumed in the world is produced in Canada.  Maple syrup, composed mostly of sucrose and water, is an excellent replacement for other sweeteners and adds a rich earthy flavor to any number of dishes.  Maple glazed carrots are delicious with baked leeks and potato pancakes.

For Amy, who inspired these carrots.

4 medium carrots, quartered

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp maple syrup

salt and pepper

1. Melt the butter large pan over medium-low heat.  Add the onions and sauté until light golden brown.

2. Next, pour the maple syrup into the pan and stir to combine with the butter and onions.  Bring the maple syrup to a simmer, arrange the carrots evenly in the pan, cover and braise the carrots until just tender, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, 10-15 minutes.

3. Once the carrots are tender, remove them from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve the carrots warm or room temperature.  

Serves 3-4

Creamy Celeriac Soup

I was recently able to visit my friends who run Six River Farm in Maine, where spring is just beginning and a few roadside banks of melting snow remained. Though they are able to sell produce year round, the selection is more limited than their summer and fall abundance as the outdoor growing season is just getting started. However, I was able to bring home greens including spring mix, spinach, cabbage and kale and root vegetables including carrots, potatoes and one of my favorites, celeriac. I have featured celeriac before, purée with carrots and I continue to cook with this often-overlooked root vegetable. Roasting the celeriac for the soup creates a rich and well-balanced flavor, allowing few ingredients to be used for a simple creamy soup, especially delicious with an arugula and orange or beet and goat cheese salad.

For a vegan alternative, olive oil and water may be used in place of butter and cream.

2 medium celeriac roots, peeled and roughly chopped into 2" pieces

1 yellow onion, roughly chopped

2 tbsp butter

2 c water

¼ c cream

salt and pepper

olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Drizzle the celeriac with enough olive oil to coat, toss and spread on a roasting sheet. Place the celeriac in the oven and roast until tender, 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Once the celeriac is golden brown and tender, remove from the oven and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, heat butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent. Continue sautéing, adding the roasted celeriac and water, cover the soup and simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes. Remove the soup from heat and cool slightly before blending.

3. Place the soup in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add cream and continue blending, adding small amounts of water as desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm or room temperature.

Serves 3-4

Tabbouleh

Edible herbs are part of longstanding culinary traditions in the Middle East, so much so that the word tabbouleh comes from tabil, the Arabic term for seasoning. Tabbouleh, a traditional Middle Eastern salad served as part of lunch and dinner, is most often made from fresh herbs, tomatoes and bulgur. Wheat berries are made into bulgur through a process of soaking, cooking, drying and cracking the whole kernels and is one of the oldest human culinary uses of wheat. Depending on the region, different tabbouleh recipes may have different proportions of bulgur to fresh herbs; however, I like to make mine about equal, so the herbs are fragrant against the chewy texture of the wheat berries. Homemade tabbouleh is delicious with roasted eggplant salad and balsamic marinated vegetables.

½ c bulgur

1 bunch parsley, finely chopped

2 tbsp mint, finely chopped

1 medium tomato, finely diced

1 small onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, pressed or finely chopped

1 lemon, juiced

½ tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Soak the bulgar in water until tender, about 1 hour, drain thoroughly and set aside in a medium-mixing bowl.

2. Add the remaining ingredients to the bulgar and gently fold to combine. Marinate the tabbouleh for at least an hour before serving. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve room temperature or chilled.

Serves 3-4

Sweet Rosemary Potato Pancakes

The longer I cook, the more I enjoy using rosemary, maybe because it reminds me of the pines in which I was raised and also because I try to always have a rosemary plant around. Rosemary seems to be one of the more versatile herbs one can use in a kitchen, as it lends itself immensely well to both sweet and savory dishes, and frankly I cannot think of a more well rounded flavor which suits both. Like many herbs we use today, rosemary, an evergreen a related to the mint family, is native to the Mediterranean. The name rosemary derived from the Latin ros marinus or dew of the sea, due to its ability to use humid sea air as its primary source of moisture. Aside from culinary usage, rosemary has long been thought of as a medicinal plant to improve circulation, memory, digestion and the immune system, as well as providing anti-inflammatory properties. Sweet potatoes and rosemary pair very well indeed, as the bold piney flavors taste delicious upon a rich sweet background. These sweet rosemary potato pancakes are made in the style of latkes, with sweet potatoes taking the place of white potatoes.

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and grated

1 yellow onion, trimmed and grated

1 tsp fresh rosemary, leaves removed from stem

2 eggs

1 tsp starch, potato or corn

¼ tsp pepper

½ tsp salt

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1. Combine the grated sweet potatoes and salt in a medium-mixing bowl, set potatoes aside for about 10-15 minutes. Drain liquid from potatoes by squeezing them and tightly wrapping them in a clean towel, removing as much excess water as possible. Return drained potatoes to original mixing bowl.

2. Next, combine the potatoes with the onions and rosemary. Add the eggs, starch and pepper and thoroughly combine with the vegetables creating the batter for the pancakes.

3. In a medium frying pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium-low heat. Place a tablespoon of batter in the pan, flatten into a pancake and fry each side until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Repeat process with remaining batter, adding additional oil as necessary.

4. Serve pancakes warm or room temperature.

Serves 3-4

Chili sin Carne

Chili has been a staple of the American diet for hundreds of years, first documented by Spanish conquistadors in writings about their findings in Mexico, which included the dish chili con carne in 1519. Most commonly in Mexico, the dish consisted of meat endlessly stewed with spices, but the ingredients would vary when it reached the American west depending upon availability. Chili became especially popular in Texas, where they saw both the chili queens, who would cook chili in the plaza over open fires in the evening, and chili parlors, small dining establishments devoted to the dish. Currently, many current versions of chili seems a far cry from the stewed meat and spices, especially because beans and tomatoes are both questioned as to whether they truly belong in the dish. All conventions aside, chili, even without the key ingredient of meat, can be a great dish using surplus ingredients, which can be made ahead and either eaten immediately or frozen for later. Homemade tortillas are especially delicious with chili sin carne.

1 c black beans, cooked

2 c tomatoes, diced

1 onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely diced

1 stalk celery, finely diced

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

1 summer squash, finely diced

1 c mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, finely pressed or chopped

¼ c cilantro, finely chopped

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp ground cumin

salt

water

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat and add the chili powder and cumin and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the onion and garlic, stir and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the celery, carrot and mushrooms, stir to combine and continue sautéing until the vegetables are tender, stirring continually to prevent burning.

2. Next, add the red bell pepper and summer squash and sauté until tender. Fold in the beans and tomatoes, and add ¼-½ c water, so the liquid is not quite even with the vegetables, cover and simmer over medium-low, until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Once the liquid has been reduced and the vegetables are soft, remove from heat, stir in half the cilantro and season to taste with salt.

3. Serve the chili warm or room temperature with fresh cilantro and additional toppings as desired.

Serves 3-4

Sprouted Lentils with Asparagus

Sprouted lentils might be my favorite sprouted legume to eat raw, as they taste essentially like a cooked lentil with a little more flavor and crunch. Lentils sprout easily in a short amount of time, and once sprouted they are tender enough to eat raw or slightly cooked if desired. Any variety of lentil may be sprouted; however, because the red lentils are small and usually split, they sprout in rapid time and are generally sprouted and ready to eat within a day. Sprouted lentils with asparagus are delicious with stuffed bell peppers and beets and tangerines.

1 c sprouted lentils

½ lb asparagus, trimmed and roughly chopped

1 small yellow onion, finely diced

1 tbsp fresh basil, roughly chopped

¼ red bell pepper, thinly julienned

½ lemon, juiced

2 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1. First, sprout lentils, which takes 8-24 hours, depending upon the variety of lentil.

2. Next, heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion and sauté until golden brown and caramelized, about 20 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Once onions are caramelized, add asparagus and bell peppers, stir until combined and remove from heat.

3. Combine sprouted lentils, caramelized onions and vegetables, basil and lemon juice and gently fold to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Serve salad room temperature or chilled.

Serves 3-4

Purple Cabbage with Bacon and Apple

I am not quite sure what the world would do without bacon, as it seems to be the ingredient of choice in a wide variety of culinary concoctions, including chocolate bars and ice cream. For those of us who do eat meat, and even some who make a bacon exception, it is a deliciously salty and smoky ingredient to add flavor and intensity to so many different dishes. Bacon, from Old French and Old High German, describing the buttock or ham of an animal, can be made from many different cuts of pork, using any number of various curing techniques. However, all bacon is first cured in salt, either brine or dry pack, before being served as fresh bacon, or further cured and dried. Cabbage cooked with bacon is particularly nice and is an easy dish to make and eat as a part of a meal or on its own and goes well with summer squash fritters and succotash.

Green cabbage may be used instead or in addition to purple.

For Jen, who loves bacon.

2 strips bacon, roughly chopped

1 small head purple cabbage, thinly sliced

1 onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 small green apple, halved and thinly sliced

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper

1. Place the bacon in a large heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Fry the bacon until golden brown, stirring continuously. Once the bacon is golden brown, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2. Add the onion to the pan and fry in the bacon fat over medium heat until the onion begins to brown. Return the bacon to the pan along with the cabbage and stir well to combine. Pour the apple cider vinegar over the cabbage, cover the pan and reduce the heat to medium-low or low, so the cabbage is braising steadily. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking and cook evenly.

3. Once the cabbage tender, gently fold in the apple and cover, allowing the apple to braise with the cabbage until it is soft, 5-10 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Serve the braised cabbage warm or room temperature.

Serves 3-4

Portobello Mushrooms

Frankly, portobello mushrooms are not my favorite, I often find them much more tough and dry than most mushrooms, maybe because we consume them at an older age than most other mushrooms. However, when portobellos are allowed to braise slowly with onions, fresh herbs and garlic, they become very flavorful and quite delicious. Portobellos, conversely portabellas, are, in fact, a mature variation of Agaricus bisporus, the common white or brown mushroom native to Europe and North America, which is known by many different names depending upon their coloring, age and location. Braising the mushroom cap on top of the onion gill side up, lets the onion caramelize and the mushroom to braise in its own juices, creating a rich and hearty dish. They are lovely served with greens, asparagus and salad.

4 portobello mushrooms, stems removed

1 small onion, sliced into 4 ¼" thick rounds

4 cloves garlic, pressed or finely chopped

4 sprigs rosemary

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Coat the bottom of a large skillet or shallow pan with olive oil and arrange the onion rounds so they are evenly spaced in the skillet or pan. Place the portobello mushroom caps on top of the onion rounds, gill side up. Generously season the mushrooms and place a clove of garlic and sprig of rosemary on each mushroom cap.

2. Turn the heat on to medium-low, cover the mushrooms and braise until tender, 15-20 minutes. Occasionally check the heat, to make sure the onions are not burning, and reduce as necessary. Once the mushrooms are fully cooked and tender, remove from heat and set aside for 5-10 minutes.

3. Serve the portobello mushrooms warm, along with the cooked onions and juices from the pan, season to taste with salt and pepper.

Makes 4 portobello mushrooms

Succotash

Succotash, from the Narragansett word msickquatash for boiled corn kernels, is a traditional American dish with a base of beans and corn. Based upon similar dishes made by the Algonquian tribes, American colonists are thought to have interpreted and incorporated succotash into American cuisine during the 16th or 17th century. Many believe succotash was served during early American Thanksgiving meals and later became a staple during the Great Depression due to available, inexpensive and filling ingredients. Succotash can be made with any number of different ingredients including various meats and vegetables and cooked in a variety of ways including casseroles and potpies. I prefer the simplicity of a vegetarian succotash salad, though browned bacon is a delicious addition, because it can be served as a side dish, salad or entrée and tastes great at most any temperature. Succotash pairs well with german potato salad, zucchini-squash fritters and stuffed bell peppers.

2 c frozen lima beans, defrosted

2 ears corn, kernels removed

1 medium tomato, finely diced

1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

1 small yellow onion, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, pressed or finely chopped

1 tbsp butter

salt and pepper

1. Heat butter in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and parsley, stir to combine and remove from heat.

2. Place lima beans, corn, tomato and sautéed onions in a medium mixing bowl and gently fold to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm, room temperature or cold.

Serves 3-4

Potato Pancakes

Potatoes were most likely introduced to Europe by Spanish explorer during the 16th century, so potato pancakes were born after their introduction. Potato pancakes are a staple of many traditional European cuisines especially in Eastern and Northern Europe and one of my favorite ways to eat potatoes. The vegetable pancakes are made using any number of different ingredients depending upon the culinary tradition followed, though all contain either raw or pre-cooked potatoes. I love them because they are reminiscent of the hash browns I loved as a child and can be eaten warm, room temperature or chilled with any number of toppings. Potato pancakes are delicious served with dark greens including collard or kale and bacon braised chicken.

1 lb new potatoes, grated

1 yellow onion, trimmed and grated

2 scallions, finely sliced

1 stalk celery, finely sliced

1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

2 eggs

1 tsp starch, potato or corn

¼ tsp pepper

½ tsp salt

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1. Combine the grated potatoes and salt in a medium-mixing bowl, set potatoes aside for about 10-15 minutes. Drain liquid from potatoes by squeezing them and tightly wrapping them in a clean towel, removing as much excess water as possible. Return drained potatoes to original mixing bowl.

2. Next, combine the potatoes with the scallions, parsley, onions and celery. Add the eggs, starch and pepper and thoroughly combine with the vegetables creating the batter for the pancakes.

3. In a medium frying pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium-low heat. Place a tablespoon of batter in the pan, flatten into a pancake and fry each side until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Repeat process with remaining batter, adding additional oil as necessary.

4. Serve pancakes warm or room temperature, with sour cream or applesauce if desired.

Serves 3-4