Since You Asked: Can 1 recipe fit all types of vegetables?

I could use a good, quick and healthful recipe for cooking vegetables. Any suggestions?

— Bekah H., Central Point

There are scores of vegetables, and they're all very different. But a couple approaches work with almost any vegetable, from asparagus to zucchini.

The first is pan-braising: Trim the vegetables and cut into large but still bite-sized pieces. Place in a skillet with a scant 1/4 cup water, about 2 tablespoons olive oil and any seasonings you like.

Cover the skillet and bring to a boil. Cook maybe two or three minutes for a lighter-green vegetable like broccoli or greens, a little longer for something dense like winter squash or root vegetables. You want the vegetables to be just fork-tender.

Remove the lid and continue cooking a few minutes until the water has cooked away and what's left is the oil flavored with the vegetable juices. Stir-fry for a minute and serve.

The second method is roasting, which adds browned bits and a wonderful, rich sweetness. Cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces, toss with olive oil and a little coarse or flaky sea salt, spread on a roasting pan in a single layer and roast in the oven (anywhere from 325 to 425 F, depending on how dense the vegetables are), until they get a little brown in spots. Stir a couple of times to keep them from sticking.

The time varies depending on the vegetable and the heat, as long as 30 to 40 minutes for carrots or potatoes at 325 F to as little as 10 minutes for asparagus or green beans at a higher temperature. To add more flavor, drizzle the vegetables with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar as soon as the pan comes out of the oven.

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Recipe: Spring soup with leeks, parsnips, potatoes and horseradish

There are many indications we have emerged from the white, insular cold of winter into the fresh, warm green of spring. These two colors, white and green, that mark this transition also are found in the foods available to us in April.

Once the snow has melted, and the ground is workable, you can go out with your pitchfork and dig up white tubers and roots that have been storing starches and carbohydrates underground all winter. The three that come to mind are parsnips, horseradish and Jerusalem artichokes. All look strikingly similar though they are nuanced in taste, texture and appearance.

Parsnips are planted in the spring and grow until fall, when they can be covered with mulch and harvested the following spring. Parsnips also can be harvested in the fall or winter as long as they have been through a few frosts to sweeten them up.

Horseradish, on the other hand, is a perennial plant, and its roots can be harvested in the spring every year. If you harvest too early they won?t have developed much heat. The horseradish roots look strikingly similar to the other white vegetables of spring and are dug around the same time. You peel the roots, chop them up and store them in vinegar or use fresh.

Jerusalem artichokes, also known as sunchokes, are an interesting tuber. They are made up primarily of carbohydrates rather than starch like in potatoes. They are crisp when fresh but can become mushy if overcooked. The flowers look similar to sunflowers. Sunchokes easily can become a weed in any garden if they aren?t properly managed.

While the previous year?s bounty can be dug up in the spring garden, there are also myriad green things shooting up everywhere to be harvested. Many gardeners and farmers are growing spring greens in greenhouses, and others are out foraging in the woods. The food theme is green and leafy.

My two favorite foods to harvest this time of year are wild leeks, commonly known as ramps, and fiddleheads. The fiddlehead season hasn?t hit this area of Vermont yet, but the ramps are prolific and have been since Easter. Both the bulb and the green leafy part of the ramp are edible. Ramps are easily identifiable in the woods.

If you are interested in learning to forage wild edibles check out, ?Stalking the Wild Asparagus,? or have an experienced forager take you out. There also are many courses about wild edibles offered in Vermont in the spring.

It?s great to be in the kitchen this time of year with a new variety of vegetables and wild edibles to work with. Think: leek and garlic pesto, or leek, sunchoke and parsnip quiche!

Most recently I made a leek, parsnip, potato and horseradish soup. The parsnips and horseradish were harvested from our garden, the leeks from a local patch, and the potatoes from the root cellar. The base of the soup is glorious dairy. Of course, there is always ample dairy to be found in Vermont, so I used goat?s milk from our farm, butter from Cabot and cream from Strafford Organic Creamery. Even though the days are warming up, it is still chilly enough at night to enjoy a warm soup.

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Recipe: Egg Noodles with Chicken, Vegetables and Ginger

 

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SERVES:
4-6

INGREDIENTS:

1 12-ounce bag egg noodles
Approx. 2 cups pre-cooked, diced chicken meat
4 cups chicken stock
1 medium onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
3-4 small-medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 Tbs peeled and minced fresh ginger
Approx. 3 cups small broccoli florets
Salt and pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

Get all the vegetables ready to go, and get a large pot of water going for eventually cooking the noodles.

Then use a large pot with a splash of olive oil to saute 1 medium sliced onion cooking it until it softens up.

At that point, add your peeled and chopped carrots, 3-4 finely minced cloves of garlic and about 2 Tbs of finely minced fresh ginger, let those go for a minute and then add 4 cups of chicken stock and bring it up to a simmer.

Once the carrots have been simmering along for 3-4 minutes add the bag of egg noodles to the boiling water.

When you are just about ready to drain the cooking noodles through a colander in the sink, add 2-3 cups of broccoli florets to the simmering chicken stock and cook those until they are tender crisp.

Then add the diced cooked chicken meat and the still hot drained noodles, season with salt and pepper to taste and it is time to eat.

HINTS:

Add the cooked noodles to the individual bowls and then add the vegetables and broth to that. That way, if there are leftovers, the noodles aren't soaking up the broth and getting too soft for the next meal.

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