randompersonrandom
GLP-1 Specialist
We know potatoes are good, and so are onions, corn, and tomatoes. But there are a billion other kinds of vegetables that aren't in every shopping cart. Share which ones you found out at some point are good enough to have at home!
Mine's a three-way tie:
Turnips and radishes, roasted. Both of them have a total change in their flavor when cubed to about half an inch, oiled (I use a spray bottle with avocado oil to get full coverage without adding too much oil) salted, seasoned (I like to hit them with herbes de provence and garlic, but any root vegetable is good with any seasoning), and roast in the convection oven at around 450, stirring them around the sheet pan after 30 minutes until they turn brown and crispy on the corners. Radishes are like "potatoes but less potatoey" (and both the red small ones and the daikon are excellent, but I like daikon because it's less of a hassle to cube) and turnips have their own flavor that's a little sharp like all the non-potato root vegetables (think carrots and parsnips, but less sweet.)
Amaranth leaves. If you're in Texas, you may have wild amaranth growing as a weed near you; they call it "pigweed" down here and it's invasive. Don't forage it by the levee in dfw, it's not safe because there's too much lead in the soil. But you can grow it yourself, just spread it when it gets reasonably warm, water it til it's established, and then mostly ignore it. It gets huge and the leaves are delicious when cooked like collard greens. I love them in soup; they add better body than spinach and are milder in flavor than mustard greens. If I stew them in a crockpot with stock, a ham bone and some turkey sausage, any chopped summer squash, and seasoning, then add some tortellini or gniocchi or chickpeas, quinoa, rice whatever, it's wonderful. Red, green and bronze is all very good, and the bugs don't usually get them too badly. I get the seeds for the wild stuff and grow from that, too, because I sure do love that variety even if I can't forage it.
Mine's a three-way tie:
Turnips and radishes, roasted. Both of them have a total change in their flavor when cubed to about half an inch, oiled (I use a spray bottle with avocado oil to get full coverage without adding too much oil) salted, seasoned (I like to hit them with herbes de provence and garlic, but any root vegetable is good with any seasoning), and roast in the convection oven at around 450, stirring them around the sheet pan after 30 minutes until they turn brown and crispy on the corners. Radishes are like "potatoes but less potatoey" (and both the red small ones and the daikon are excellent, but I like daikon because it's less of a hassle to cube) and turnips have their own flavor that's a little sharp like all the non-potato root vegetables (think carrots and parsnips, but less sweet.)
Amaranth leaves. If you're in Texas, you may have wild amaranth growing as a weed near you; they call it "pigweed" down here and it's invasive. Don't forage it by the levee in dfw, it's not safe because there's too much lead in the soil. But you can grow it yourself, just spread it when it gets reasonably warm, water it til it's established, and then mostly ignore it. It gets huge and the leaves are delicious when cooked like collard greens. I love them in soup; they add better body than spinach and are milder in flavor than mustard greens. If I stew them in a crockpot with stock, a ham bone and some turkey sausage, any chopped summer squash, and seasoning, then add some tortellini or gniocchi or chickpeas, quinoa, rice whatever, it's wonderful. Red, green and bronze is all very good, and the bugs don't usually get them too badly. I get the seeds for the wild stuff and grow from that, too, because I sure do love that variety even if I can't forage it.
