Issue 4: Fall/Winter 2006

In Season


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Open-faced Beet Sandwiches

—from Rising River Farm in Olympia, WA

Ingredients:

  • toast (rye or sourdough is best)
  • cooked beets, sliced (1/4 - 3/8 inch thick)
  • dill pickles, sliced thin
  • sweet onion, sliced thin
  • veganaise or mayonaise
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

  1. Spread the veganaise (or mayonaise) on the toast.
  2. In layers, add beets, pickles and then onions to the toast.
  3. Season with salt and pepper.

— from Carolyn Cooley
San Francisco, CA

Carrot and Burdock Root Sauté

—adapted from Healing Wise by Susun Weed

Ingredients:

  • 1 carrot
  • 1 medium-sized burdock root
  • chopped onion or garlic (optional)
  • olive oil
  • tamari

Instructions:

  1. Grate the carrot and burdock.
  2. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
  3. If you're using onion, put that in first and fry until it's translucent.
  4. Then, add the carrot and burdock (and garlic if you're using it), or skip the onion and just throw the grated roots in.
  5. Stir it all around for a few minutes (maybe 4-6 min.), add some tamari and cook another minute.

Variations:

  • Add a few drops of sesame oil at the very end, after removing from heat.
  • Add red or yellow bell peppers to the sauté.
  • Add tofu and eat it with rice or another grain to make it a whole meal.
  • Mix the carrrot-burdock sauté with pasta.

— from Carolyn Cooley
San Francisco, CA

Dandelion Roots with Potatoes

I like to make this in the spring when I've been weeding lots of dandelions out of gardens.

Ingredients:

  • dandelion plants, roots and tops or just the roots
  • potatoes
  • sweet potatoes
  • onion
  • garlic
  • walnuts or other nuts

Instructions:

  1. Wash the dandelions really well— I find soaking them in a bowl of water and scrubbing them is needed. Be especially thorough to get the dirt out of the layers of leaves where they meet up with the roots. You may want to use more roots than leaves, because the leaves are somewhat bitter— some is good, too much is intense. They get more bitter later in the growing season— fresh little new plants are perfect.
  2. Chop the plants coarsely.
  3. Boil water in a medium or large pot and add cubed potatoes and sweet potatoes— I usually a little heavier on the sweet potatoes to balance out the bitter of the dandelion.
  4. After a few minutes, add dandelion roots and leaves. Cook till the potatoes are just barely done. Drain the water.
  5. In the meantime, sauté a half or whole onion in olive oil in a giant skillet or heavy-bottomed pot.
  6. When the potatoes and dandelions are done, add them to the onions (you might want some more oil in there).
  7. Season with tamari, and add some chopped-up nuts to put some crunch in the big mush. I can't say exact proportions, but the key things to balance are: sweet from sweet potatoes (or you could try other root veggies, too) with bitter dandelion greens; saltiness from tamari with sweet and bitter; and crunchy nuts with mushy potatoes and greens.

— from Carolyn Cooley
San Francisco, CA

Rosemary Baked Root Veggies

This dish is versatile and it is a perfect dish for the fall and winter as root vegetables will store for months.

Ingredients:

  • any combination of root vegetables (see below for suggestions)
  • 2 TBSP rosemary
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

         → Suggested Vegetables

  • yams
  • potatoes (red, white, fingerling, blue potatoes, etc)
  • beets
  • onions or leeks
  • garlic, whole and peeled
  • carrots
  • parsnips
  • parsley root
  • rutabagas
  • turnips

Instructions:

  1. Pick enough root veggies to fill a 9x13" pan. Consider using at least 5 or six different vegetables for variety and color.
  2. Cut root veggies into 1" cubes (consider cutting the harder veggies slightly smaller — i.e., beets, turnips, carrots — since they take longer than others to cook through).
  3. Place chopped vegetables in 9 x 13" pan, and coat them well with olive oil.
  4. Crush up rosemary in your hand and add along with salt and pepper.
  5. Bake at 400°F until the vegetables are all fork tender, about one hour. Be sure to stir them every 15 minutes or so to prevent sticking and burning.

— from Amelia LoDolce
Jamaica Plain, MA

Valerie's BlueBarry Coffee Cake

To this day, I've found nothing that evokes my mother as much as the scent of blueberries and cinnamon... (read Elizabeth's essay Mom & Blueberries).

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup butter or vegan margarine
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs or 2/3 cup of applesauce
  • 3/4 cup milk or soymilk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • lots of blueberries
  • 2 TBSP cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar

Instructions:

  1. Mix flour with baking powder and set aside.
  2. In another bowl, blend butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
  3. Stir in flour mixture alternatively with milk.
  4. Spread half the batter in a greased pan and layer with blueberries.
  5. Mix together the cinnamon and brown sugar, and sprinkle half of it over the layer of batter and blueberries.
  6. Layer remaining batter and sprinkle abundantly with blueberries and remaining cinnamon and brown sugar mixture.
  7. Bake at 350 ° F for 40-45 minutes. (If using vegan ingredients it may take longer to bake). Check to see if center is cooked by poking it with a knife. The knife should come out clean.

— from Elizabeth Barry
Toronto, ON