Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | Farmers' Market Report: Colorful Roots Los Angeles

Farmers' Market Report: Colorful Roots
Los Angeles

We don't always think of January as a time for brilliantly colored produce, but on a recent trip to the farmers' market, we were dazzled by the array of root vegetables like turnips, beets, and rutabagas. These lovely pink, purple, and orange jewels bring color, flavor, and earthy comfort to our winter table.

Beets get a lot of attention here at The Kitchn, and for good reason. They're sweet, earthy, and versatile – equally delicious roasted or raw.

Other winter roots like turnips and rutabagas tend to be underappreciated, but we've been incorporating them into our cooking more and more. Not only are they inexpensive, but they're subtly sweet and tender when roasted, braised, or puréed.

When buying beets, turnips, and rutabagas, look for firm, smooth roots and fresh green tops. To store, trim any leaves down to half an inch and keep the unwashed roots in a bag in the refrigerator for up to two or three weeks.

(Images: Gregory Han and Emily Ho)

Comments (2)

Last night I took one scarlet turnip, one tiny rhutabega, one carrot and two small yukon gold potatoes, washed, peeled and trimmed them, cut into chunks, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper and roasted them.

The twist though was tossing them with some bright green Indian cilantro chutney when they came out of the oven.

posted by art on January 5th 2009 at 1:27pm
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I always forget how perfect radishes and turnips are in Asian noodle bowls, soups, and broths. I tossed in a few radishes rolling around in the fridge into our miso noodle bowl last night and they were perfect!

posted by lotusmoss on January 5th 2009 at 11:05pm
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