Come September, everyone’s ready for cool season cooking. In South Carolina, root vegetables fit the bill. You can’t beat veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes to add earthiness and substance to comfort food fit for everyday cooking or special celebrations. Let the following recipes be your guide to coaxing the best flavor from beneath the peel of these root crops.
Roasted Pumpkin, Pears and Potatoes with Goat Cheese
Makes 4 to 6 servings
- 1 medium (about 2 pounds) pie pumpkin or 2-pound butternut squash, halved, seeded and cut into 8 wedges
- 1 pound small white potatoes, halved lengthwise
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled
- 3 medium pears, cored and cut into wedges
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
- 2 ounces aged goat cheese, such as Bucheron
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped toasted walnuts
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large (15-by-10-by-2-inch) roasting pan, toss the pumpkin or butternut squash wedges and potatoes with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the salt and pepper. Spread vegetables in pan. Roast, uncovered, for about 40 minutes, stirring vegetables once halfway through the cooking time.
2. Toss the garlic cloves with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Scatter garlic over vegetables in pan. Roast for 10 minutes more.
3. Toss the pears with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and the fresh thyme. Add pears to pan. Roast 15 minutes more.
4. Drizzle vegetables and pears with the balsamic vinegar; toss to coat evenly. Transfer roasted vegetables and pears to an ovenproof platter. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Place platter in oven and bake for 2 minutes to warm the cheese slightly. Sprinkle with walnuts; serve immediately.
Pork, Carrot and Cabbage Stew
Makes 4 servings
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 2-inch cubes
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock or commercially prepared low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 pound green cabbage, shredded (about 2 cups)
- 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 2 tart green apples, such as Granny Smith, unpeeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
1. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Coat the pork tenderloin with 2 tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add the pork to the pan and brown, turning occasionally, about 8 to 9 minutes. Transfer meat to a plate.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and onion. Cook until the onion softens and becomes translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons flour. Stir in chicken stock or broth, water, cabbage and carrots. Season to taste with salt. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce the heat. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the apples; continue cooking, covered, for 12 minutes.
3. Add the reserved pork and any accumulated meat juices to the Dutch oven before serving. Simmer the stew until the meat is heated through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Ladle stew into serving bowls, garnish with parsley and serve.
Focus on a Farmer: John Warren
Fall Bounty in the Lowcountry
Located on Johns Island, Spade & Clover Gardens (spadeandclovergardens.com) is dedicated to cultivating sustainable produce. Owner John Warren grows familiar vegetables such as cucumbers, kale and tomatoes in addition to ginger, galangal and turmeric using sustainable agricultural principles. Spade & Clover Gardens began in 2013 through the Dirt Works Incubator Program supported by Lowcountry Local First. Today, the farm supplies the freshest produce to restaurants and farmers markets in the Charleston area. Warren shares his techniques for cultivating and cooking with root crops below.
Q: What are your favorite root crops to grow?
A: I love growing root crops of all kinds. If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be taro, which I know is not a common vegetable here in the Lowcountry, but it’s a beautiful plant with large, tropical leaves and delicious corms and tubers that can be eaten using a variety of preparations. I anticipate this crop to come into vogue in the near future.
As far as more traditional root crops go, I have a reverence for sweet potatoes. They’re easy to grow. You can eat the greens — vital in midsummer when greens are in short supply — and they’re highly nutritious. They’re inexpensive to grow, and they’re one of the most productive yielding plants out there. I love them all, but Okinawan sweet potatoes are my favorite. Of the ones I grow, I like the Murasaki purple skin, white flesh variety.
Q: How do you incorporate these vegetables into your seasonal cooking?
A: For taro, I typically roast and eat it similarly to sweet potatoes. Peel it first! I don’t add a lot to it. I’ve made poi — mashed raw taro that is sometimes fermented to make it last — before, and I would like to do a workshop on that process one day.
I’ll eat sweet potatoes in roasted root medleys, but I’ll also cut them in half and bake them to have on hand. I’ll eat them that way — cold on the go for breakfast or lunch. I prefer a traditional orange sweet potato for this.
Q: What are your tips for growing root crops in the Lowcountry?
A: Most root crops do amazing in the Lowcountry with the exception of salsify, yucca and parsnips. One reason they do well is that we have soils that are high in phosphorus, which root crops need. They also like sandy soils that they can easily penetrate to reach for nutrients and water deeper in the soil. People tend to overwater traditional root crops, which, when the seeds are first planted is okay, but you want them to have periods where the root is searching for nutrients and is slightly stressed. That signals the plant to fill out the root with what nutrients are available.
You also want to go a little higher on the application of nitrogen and heavier on the potassium. Micronutrients and compost are always recommended. The watering rule does not apply to taro, ginger, turmeric or galangal [a spice native to Southern Asia]. Water away, and once those are a foot tall, I recommend regular light applications of nitrogen until temps start dropping, then I recommend more phosphorus.
By Michael Vyskocil
