This is a classic winter salad that invites a lot of variations.  The tartness of the citrus is mellowed and complimented by the richness of the avocado.  I am transcribing a very simple version here with almost no adornment because I think it’s always best to start off with something simple and then embellish from there.

I don’t buy a lot of imported produce because I believe it’s important to eat mostly locally grown food but I allow myself a few indulgences and one of the regular indulgences I allow are avocados.  Because I let myself buy quite a lot of avocados I don’t let myself buy citrus very often.  A family friend sent me two boxes full of oranges, lemons, and grapefruits from her own yard that she grew without pesticides- it was a gift  beyond price!  I haven’t had a grapefruit avocado salad in years and it is the perfect antidote to the usual deep winter root vegetable flavors and the grey skies.

Ingredients:

4 cups lettuce

1  large avocado

1 grapefruit

4 tbsp mustard vinaigrette

(Serves 4 as a side salad or 2 as a main salad)

Method:
Divide lettuce onto your plates evenly.  Slice the grapefruit in half and then (using a small sharp knife) cut out the sections and divide the slices evenly between the plates.  Slice your avocado in half, remove the pit, and then slice long narrow slices lengthwise.  If serving only two plates of salad remove all the long slices from one half and arrange on one plate (fanning them out is pretty) and then do the same with the other half.  If making four side salads then I cut the long slices in half and divvy the avocado up between the four plates and arrange neatly.  Drizzle 1 tbsp of dressing on each side salad or 2 tbsp on each main salad.

Variations: Kalamata olives are very good with citrus and avocado.  Feta is wonderful on this salad.  Instead of a mustard vinaigrette you could use a balsamic or a dressing flavored with rosemary.  Slice red onions paper-thin and add to each plate sparingly.  The same can be done with shallots.  If you don’t have grapefruit but you have very good oranges on hand- use them!  Oranges go very well with the avocado too.

Rutabagas aren’t as commonly used in the US as turnips and yet they are, in my opinion, much more delicious.  In Scotland and other places in Europe rutabagas are known as “yellow turnips” or “Swedes”.  When raw they have a similar sharp peppery bitter smell and a watery crisp consistency but when roasted rutabagas are much richer than regular turnips.  They are a golden color and sweeten with roasting.

In this recipe I have seasoned rutabagas with turmeric which intensify the golden color of the rutabagas and add an additional earthy tone to the flavor.  This is a simple side to make to dinner whether you are having a vegetarian main course or a meat dish.  It is a fall and winter root vegetable which can be stored in root cellars so may also still be available in early spring, but by mid spring should no longer be making appearances on the dinner table.  Enjoy it now!

Turmeric is not a spice I use often but I got inspiration from my friend Riana here on her flickr pages in her series on healing herbs and spices and how to use them in everyday ways.

Ingredients:

4 medium to large rutabagas, trimmed cubed to 1″ pieces

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp turmeric

a couple of pinches of coarse sea salt

several grinds of pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.   In a large roasting pan or a large heavy duty baking sheet, spread out the rutabagas.  Sprinkle the salt and turmeric on the rutabagas.  Grind the salt on them.  Drizzle all of the oil on them and then, using a spatula, toss the vegetables in the oil and spices until thoroughly coated.

Put in the oven and every ten minutes turn the rutabagas with a spatula to be sure that all sides have a chance to roast.  When the rutabagas are soft and melting on the inside with crunchy golden roasted edges, they are ready to serve.  At this temperature it should take between 45 minutes and an hour.

Recipe Notes: You can cook these more quickly by increasing the oven heat to 400 degrees, but if you do this you need to check them more frequently to prevent scorching.  I like to use an herbed coarse salt on all my roasted vegetables, if you’d like to do the same but don’t have any you can simply add  1/2 teaspoon of your favorite dried herb combination.

It’s difficult to photograph cabbage soup to advantage.  You have to imagine the wonderful aroma of cabbage and carrots and rich vegetable stock punctuated with garlic and thyme to be suitably impressed.

This is fall and winter food.  You can use items from your freezer and pantry.  I made this soup from only things I already had on hand.  The title of the soup is my nod to the hard life and how humble ingredients such as cabbage and potatoes have kept a lot of poor humans from starving.  There are people who undervalue both the wonderful flavor of cabbage as well as its nutritional contribution to the fall and winter diet.  Common cabbage is a good source of vitamin C, calcium, and Potassium.

When I first made this soup I did a cost analysis on it.  Here were my results:

Can this stew be made more cheaply than going out to eat a fast food meal? It turns out that the reason why poor people eat so much soup is because it’s a cheap and nutritious way to feed your family. I priced out my ingredients (bearing in mind that my stock was free since I made it from my own vegetable scraps, and my thyme was almost free because I grew it and dried it myself) this soup cost .53 per serving.

That’s for a cup and a half of nutritious and very tasty soup. Can you get a nutritious meal at McDonald’s for .53 cents? That’s a trick question. You can’t actually get a nutritious meal there.  Try my tenement stew. It won’t break your pocketbook. It will hardly make a dent in it.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion, diced

3 large carrots, chopped

1 large russet potato, cut into 1/2″ cubes

1.5 pounds of chopped cabbage

2 cups cooked navy beans (or 1 can of rinsed white beans)

3 cloves garlic, minced fine or pressed

1 quart diced tomatoes (with its juice)

1 quart of stock (or water)

1/4 cup alphabet pasta (or orzo, or rice)

1 tbsp dried thyme

2 tsp salt (or to taste)
pepper to taste
a shake of cayenne pepper for heat

Method:

Heat oil in a soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and potatoes and stir frequently until the onions turn transparent. Add the stock and tomatoes. If the stock is still frozen just dump it in there and close the lid for a while, checking to keep vegetables from sticking. Now turn the heat down to medium and add the cabbage, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. If the soup is too thick, add some water to it. When all the vegetables are cooked through, add the cooked beans and the pasta and a shake of cayenne pepper. Cook for an additional ten minutes. When the pasta is done the soup is done.

This soup serves 6-8

Celery root is abundant throughout the fall and winter in the Pacific Northwest and if you, like me, try to eat both seasonally and locally then this might very well be abundant where you are too.    Like most potato based soups, this one is creamy and lightly earthy and with the addition of celery root it also has a wonderful delicate celery flavor.  Seasoning should to be taste but kept simple.  I like to add milk to my creamy potato based soups but I’ve also made them without the milk and it’s very good, so it’s worth making if you’re vegan.  The cheese garnish is optional if you’re not me.

Potato Celery Root Soup

Ingredients:

3 large starchy potatoes (either Russets or a similar type), diced medium

1 whole celery root, diced medium

1 giant carrot, diced medium

2 quarts vegetable or chicken broth, or water

Salt to taste

Pepper, about a kazillion grinds

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup of 2% milk, optional

Cheddar cheese garnish, optional

Method:

Heat up the olive oil and butter in a soup pot on medium high heat, then add all the vegetables at once.  Stirring frequently, saute the vegetables until they very slightly brown (about 10 minutes on my burner).  Don’t let them burn.  Add the stock (or water) and make sure nothing has stuck to the bottom of the pot.  Bring the soup to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer.  Cook until all the vegetables are soft and until the potatoes come apart easily.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Puree.

Recipe notes: With a delicate soup like this I would suggest the best choice for broth is vegetable or plain water.  Chicken would be alright, but beef broth would have too deep and heavy a taste of its own and may overpower the light flavors of the soup.  Always remember that a soup is highly personal and if you like it runnier than it turns out, add more liquid.  If you like it thicker, like I do, let it cook down a little bit.  There is no hard science to soup.  A lot of it is by preference and by feel.  I usually use more salt and pepper in this soup than my other soups.  I would say I use between 1 1/2 tsp and 2 tsp salt and I probably do about 40 grinds of pepper.  I use my immersion blender to blend it and don’t have to wait til it cools, but if you’re using a full size blender to puree the soup you’ll need to wait until it cools a bit or you might burn yourself.

To veganize this recipe all you need to do is use 2 tbsp of olive oil for the sauteing and don’t use the milk or add any cheese.  I promise it’s a very good soup without these additions.

This soup is gluten free through no merit or planning on my part.

This is a simple satisfying winter accompaniment to a meal.  It can also be put into hand-pies (what I lovingly refer to as “poorhouse pies”) and as soon as I have a couple of other necessary recipes posted I will give instructions on how to make poorhouse pies using this mash as one of the fillings.

Potato Celery Root Mash

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes (starchy type, such as russet), diced into 1/2″ pieces

1 whole celeriac (celery root), diced into 1/2″ pieces

1 medium sized turnip (or 2 small ones), diced into 1/2″ pices

1/2 stick of butter

salt to taste
pepper to taste

Method:

put all of the vegetables into a steamer basket fitted into a pot and steam them until very tender.  If your steaming basket will not accommodate them all at once, steam the potatoes first, then steam the celeriac and the turnips together.

Put all the hot vegetables in a medium sized bowl and cut up your butter into pieces and add it to the bowl and fold it into the vegetables until it is melted.

Use a potato masher to mash them into a smooth consistency.  Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  My guess is at least teaspoon of salt will be needed.

Serve hot.  (Reheat if necessary)

Recipe notes: Many people boil their root vegetables before mashing.  I don’t see any reason not to do it this way if you prefer it.  My mother always steamed rather than boiled vegetables because she believed it was healthier, and I tend to agree, but I haven’t got any proof to share either way.  I am a fan of mashed potatoes and I like, but don’t love, potatoes mashed with turnips, but this combination is divine!  The celery root and turnip keeps the mash from stiffening up because they aren’t starchy like the potatoes, and the celery root adds a delicate wonderful flavor.  This is one of those simple winter foods that take few ingredients or effort to make and so are not only budget friendly but also a great dish for people with little time.

Veganize this! To make this recipe vegan, simply use olive oil in place of the butter.  Use a mild golden variety rather than a green grassier flavored one.  Or you can use a vegan butter substitute if you like, however, I would always recommend using either butter or olive oil rather than an unnatural hydrogenated spread which may rely on a lot of unnecessary ingredients to help it mimic the butter experience.  If you can’t (or don’t wish) to eat dairy, olive oil is often the best substitute for butter.