Root Vegetable Season

Root vegetable season has begun! Autumn is my favorite time of year, and I love the comforting, earthy flavors of fall and winter vegetables. In my research, I found this poem, so there are obviously others as passionate as I about the humble root vegetable:

Root Vegetable Ghazal

The moon swings off in a bag like a market lettuce

And everyone gropes home by ant glint & beetle shine.

In the Hotel Potato, in waxy marble ballrooms,

The waltzers rustle to the croon of enzymes.

In the curved corridors of the onion palace,

The smell of mushrooms seeps from unlit closets.

Our city is littered with wormseed & forcemeat;

Mummies are hymning in our turnip-purple church.

Radishes cruise through the revenant storage warehouse.

The bones of a goose mark the way to an amphitheater.

Now we can scale the carrot, our tapering campanile,

To watch the platoons of gravel, the water-bead parade.

We with our thorn-wrapped hearts & ivory foreheads!

We with our mineral tunnels awash in mole-glow!

from David Young, The Planet on the Desk. (1991)

When I came home at 9 pm tonight, after teaching my class, I found Chef Andrew hard at work preparing dinner from the vegetables we got in our CSA box last week. He created a fantastic curried leek, potato, and carrot soup, which was a scrumptious meal - especially with his homemade bread, too. What a cozy way to finish my evening, and what a spectacular husband I have!

Recipe:

Sautee one leek (or whatever you have) in the bottom of a soup pot with a bit of water, olive oil, and 2 cloves of minced garlic. Add to this a few chopped vegetables: sweet potatoes, one regular potato, and approximately 6 carrots. Cover with chicken or vegetable stock (homemade is always good!), and add 1 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. dried mustard, 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. ground black pepper, and salt to taste. Let this simmer until veggies are soft, then blend into a soup. Add water, milk, or soy milk to adjust the consistency.