New Years Resolutions: Eating Your Vegetables

Here in the South, spring is tentatively approaching. Cold spells are coming every 4-7 longer days, and lows barely dip into freezing. I don't even care that someone stole the floating row cover off my garden. 

All year long, vegetables tend to be on about an 8-week delay. So in October and November, you get flashbacks to summer with eggplants and tomatoes. But in March? It looks like straight up January at the market stands: roots and greens and greens and a few more roots.  It's a challenging time to be trying to eat from the farmer's market.

Years ago, around March or April, I got to go foraging with Patricia Howell, a brilliant herbalist in North Georgia. She showed us the extraordinary productivity in the rain forests around Tallulah Falls, and talked about the unique flavors of early-spring greens, describing the bitterness and intensity as stimulants for our bodies--they "get everything gushing."

That phrase comes back to me every Spring when I'm trying to shake off the dark chill of winter, and look to food to wake me back up. 

Vegetables this time of year share two characteristics that we can take advantage of: youth and sweetness. They have grown and matured during the last frosts, concentrating sugars in braising greens, carrots (if you're lucky enough to get them), winter radishes and turnips. Lettuces, salad radishes and arugula briefly sucked up water and meager light to convert into bright, stimulating crispness. And of course there are the outliers in the chicory families: long in the tooth and assertively bitter rather than sweet.  

All of that sounds much more appealing than "All they had at the market was greens and some radishes. Am I supposed to eat nothing but salads?" but how do we make more than salads from this? 

I've been making chunky, garlicky mashed potatoes mixed with braised green, a pinch of chili flakes and an indulgent amount of good olive oil ever since reading an article describing it as the Italian Bubble and Squeak. I've lost the original to time and the internet, but I found this poetic writeup. It's fantastic with an egg, but what isn't?

Roasted carrots, turnips and winter radishes with a rough-chopped pesto of bitter greens, mint, lemon and nuts if you feel like, is comforting and bracing. Toasted bread takes it to panzanella territory. 

Chilled marinated tofu and sauteed spinach in a simple dressing of light soy, yuzu and sesame oil is exactly what Wednesday night in calls for.

If you followed my advice last week and want to stretch a pork shoulder for the week, braise it in tomatoes and stock, adding greens for the last hour. Eat a little as is, maybe with some cornbread, then pull off some pork and sauce to dress pasta (with greens if you want) and Percorino. Stretch the last bit with beans and cumin to make something like chili.  Cilantro is a cold weather herb, so it's an excellent addition.

Returning to pasta: saute some red onion till just browning, wilt your bitter greens and give it a shot of lemon juice and zest. Canned tuna, chili flakes if you so desire. 

The top image is what you get when Brussels sprouts are left on the stem. I got tough thick leaves that I prepared like stuffed cabbage, a tiny tender baby head cabbage, and sproutlets the size of my fingertips. I have no idea what I'll do with them: maybe the roasting pan with my carrots.

Have a great week, and eat your vegetables.