FLAVORS
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Roots our
Root vegetables star on winter menus.
By Karen Weisberg
The National Culinary Review | January 2011
IT’S TIME to menu root vegetables,
which fit the bill by not only being seasonal
and available locally, but also by being ideal
components of heartier, cold-weather fare.
Indeed, these underground storehouses of
plant energy pack solid nutrition to get us
healthfully through the winter.
are considered root vegetables. Corms and
bulbs encompass onion, garlic, shallot and
fennel, among others.
When thinking of root vegetables, carrots,
beets, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, radishes
and perhaps celery root come to mind.
These are taproots, with plant roots that
grow downward. Those in the tuberous
category have lateral roots, and include sweet
potatoes, cassava and native ginger. Stem
tubers are considered root vegetables when
they grow underground and yield potatoes,
yams, Jerusalem artichokes, etc. Rhizomes
are usually stems, but some members of the
family, such as ginseng, ginger and arrowroot,
COLORFUL MUESLI
At Ninety Acres Culinary Center in Peapack-Gladstone, N. J.—described as “a table at
the farm”—the approach to building the
menu is all about farm-to-table. Twenty of
the farm’s 90 acres are devoted to organic
