It’s dark and cold down in the root cellar. A little boy hangs a smoky kerosene lamp on a nail to light the gloom. The light glows on wooden bins next to an earthen wall. Almanzo picks through the turnips and beets quickly but carefully: He wants to choose the most perfect vegetables for Mother.
Winter root vegetables—beets, turnips, celery root and more—conjure images of 19th century farm life for me. I see Almanzo—the young boy in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy—on his family’s upstate New York farm. I feel the warmth of Mother’s black cook stove as ‘Manzo comes in from the cold. I smell the comforting scents of wood fire and roasting vegetables.
Root vegetables: victims of a Fast Food Nation
Hardy, nutritious and delicious as they are, root vegetables fell out of favor in the 20th century. The rise of fast and processed foods industries and factory farming played a role in their dismissal from the dinner plate. But other more subtle psychosocial factors and marketing trends may also have played a part.
Maybe it was root vegetables’ taste—stronger and more earthy than commercially farmed green beans and carrots. Or root veggies’ few extra minutes’ prep time, relative to nuke-n-serve frozen corn or French fries. Or maybe, just maybe, these winter mainstay foods reminded newly named “consumers” of their not-so-distant agrarian roots.
A can of peas may well have embodied urbanity, as much as convenience and taste.
Ironic isn’t it, in light of urban foodie demand—and accompanying accusations of elitism—for organics, heirloom varietals and seasonal, locally grown produce.
If you haven’t already, it’s time for you to take another look at root vegetables.
These Herb and Garlic Roasted Winter Root Vegetables provide a great introduction. Here in Copywriters’ Kitchen they were gobbled down by our most ardent vegetable hater.
Hesitant foodies find comfort in this melange’s familiar carrots and potatoes. Stronger flavored celery root and turnips punctuate, rather than dominate, the mix. And roasted beets—for many who gag on Harvard beets’ sweet-sour vinaigrette—prove a revelation.
After the initial peel-and-chop preparation, Herb and Garlic Roasted Winter Root Vegetables are effortless: Slide vegetables into the oven, bake, turn veggies once and return to your computer screen, book or household chores.
A 40 minute bake transforms these roots from dull knobs into sybaritic delight: The vegetables’ crackling crusts yield to soft, mealy, silky textures inside. Potatoes and turnips tinted pink with beet juice, the dish make a pretty presentation.
While olive oil and garlic would have been foreign flavors for 19th century Yankees, I think Almanzo’s mother would have enjoyed this recipe.
Herb and Garlic Roasted Winter Root Vegetables
8-10 cups peeled, chopped root vegetables. Choose from:
- Beets
- Turnips
- Celery root
- Potatoes—all varieties
- Carrots
You’ll also need:
- Extra virgin olive oil—2-3 tablespoons
- Garlic, crushed—at least two cloves
- Dried herbs: oregano, rosemary, thyme, crushed—2-3 teaspoons total
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Peel vegetables. You may use a vegetable peeler for some thinner skinned vegetables, such as carrots and beets. Thicker skinned vegetables, such as celery root, require knife-paring.
- Cut vegetables into chunks—larger pieces for milder veggies such as carrots, and smaller for stronger flavored roots such as turnips and celery root.
- Toss vegetables into a large, shallow baking pan and drizzle with olive oil.
- Sprinkle chopped roots with garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Toss to coat vegetables.
- Cover pan with aluminum foil.
- Slide pan into oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from oven. Using spatula, scoop and turn vegetables.
- Return pan to oven and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes or until vegetables are crisp and slightly crinkly. Serve while warm.
Serves 6-8.
