cooking for people who don't: random fruits and vegetables edition?

[ursula]

commodorified is organizing a blog "carnival" with the theme "Cooking for People who Don't: Food Security". As far as cooking goes, I am definitely a Person Who Does; I didn't exactly learn to cook at my mother's knee (we're too territorial about our kitchens, in my family), but I did acquire a general sense of fearlessness. That means I can't give good advice on overcoming one's trepidation in the kitchen (as far as I'm concerned, the best strategy is to cook all the time and use sharper knives), but maybe I can suggest specific recipes for scary foodstuffs?

In particular, I'd like to write a post (or three) on How To Make That Fruit or Vegetable Into Dinner. I'm taking nominations for fruits and vegetables. Is there a fruit or vegetable you particularly love, that you'd like more recipes for? Is there a fruit or vegetable that you don't know how to use? Right now I'm thinking of apples and beets, because of the season, but I'm open to suggestions.

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

I'm a pretty serious cook, but I know lots of people are utterly mystified by kale. It has tons of health benefits so everyone wants to cook with it, but it often rots in the fridge.

[aedifica]

Lentils? Zucchini?

[crystalpyramid]

I would love ideas for lentils and lentil-type things. Also, I am mystified by turnips, and whatever other root vegetables besides carrots, potatoes, and onions tend to show up in farmer's markets and such.

[ursula]

Beets and parsnips are the other common ones.

Usually mixing your random root vegetable half-and-half with potatoes works well. The default here is to roast a mix of cubed/diced root vegetables with cloves of garlic, olive oil, salt, and lots of black pepper, and eat them with some sort of protein (I would add fried eggs, or maybe sausage since I live in Wisconsin now and fancy sausage is easy to come by).

The taste of turnips varies based on how old they are. The little young ones that still have greens attached tend to be quite sweet-- sometimes you can even treat them like radishes. I would buy those for the greens. Fat older turnips can be bitter. Mixing with potatoes mellows the effect: if I didn't want to make roasted vegetables and I had some turnips I'd probably try a curry or an Indian potatoes/greens dish with part turnips. You can also try the medieval trick of parboiling your turnips and rinsing in fresh water before adding them to whatever you're planning; that will cut the bitterness.

I have lots of ideas for things to do with lentils, because glasseye loves them, & therefore I collect recipes; if that doesn't become a post, ping me and I'll send you some recipes.

[zhelana]

Well almost on topic, I'm trying to make Svekol'nik, and I can't figure out what to do with the beets. The recipe just says put them in the water, but certainly you do something to them first that i should know and don't??

[ursula]

Rinse them (you may need to pull out a clean scrubby pad and scrub them), and use a sharp knife to trim off the tops and any especially dirty or rough patches. If you have some big beets and some smaller ones, you might also want to cut the bigger beets into halves or quarters, so they cook at an even rate.

[zhelana]

So the outsides go into the pot too, or just the insides?

[ursula]

If there are actual leaves on top, you can keep those and cook them separately (mix them with spinach or chard, and cook however you like to cook spinach). Bits of the root that you trim off because they're rough or dirty should be thrown away. Everything else goes in the pot. I personally do not bother with peeling beets.

[zhelana]

Thanks! :) I have no idea what made me think this was a good idea - I didn't know what a beet was until I went to the grocery store last week to buy this stuff (honestly, I thought it was a turnip!)

[ursula]

We used to get a farm share, so I have lots of practice figuring out how to use mysterious vegetables!

The beets will turn the water you wash & cook them in pink. They might also turn your pee pink (I think this is a genetic thing?) Either way it's normal!

[zhelana]

Well! Kevin will have a fit then! Guess this soup is all for me!