cleansing root veggies

I overdid it during the holidays. Sweets, snacks, and I think I ate more pork in three days that I have in the past three years. Consequently, we've been trying to tone it down around here lately: lots of kale, less meat.

My new food processor was going to be used for experiments in building pie crusts, but I have decided to hold off on that for a while. Instead, I used the grating blade to make an enormous bowl of root vegetable matchsticks: celery root, parsnip, carrot, and red beets. I also threw in an apple for a little sweetness. This makes an amazing raw salad with just a little lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Some toasted almonds might be a nice addition. Or you could add soy sauce, mirin, brown rice vinegar, and a little minced garlic and ginger. The soy sauce root veggie mixture makes a fantastic stuffing for baked spaghetti squash, which, in turn, would pair beautifully with some braised short ribs (although we're holding off on that for a while!)

We used about the last 3 cups of the unseasoned raw root veggies to make untraditional latkes. Just add one beaten egg and a half teaspoon of non-GMO corn starch (or potato starch) as a binder. Season generously with salt and pepper, then gently add 1/4 cup bunches of the eggy mixture into a cast iron skillet with a little less than a 1/4 inch of high heat vegetable oil (safflower, canola, sunflower, etc.) Fry over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes on the first side, and less than a minute on the second. Remove from the pan and drain excess oil on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Less than $5 of vegetables--one carrot, one red beet, one apple, one celery root, and one parsnip--fed us for about a week (not exclusively, of course, but you get the idea). So many options with just one simple preparation! The other great thing about root vegetables is that they store beautifully. Once grated, you just need to add a bit of lemon juice to keep them from browning.

More "resolution recipes" coming, I think.