Roasted Fennel, Turnip, Leek Salad with Horseradish

Pre-dressed roasted veggies

While at the Seward this weekend I one, bought a half hog (!?), and two, bought some really random veggies with no plan of what to do with them. I was trying to get things grown more locally than not, and the last hangers-on as purely local that are still in stock at the co-op are beets and turnips. There might be a few watermelon radishes left too. (I just came across a really nice roasted radish recipe that looks super delicious for the upcoming radish season!) So I got some of the WI root veggies and a few California sourced veggies too, including fennel and leeks.

I was browsing the magazines at My Charming Companion's parent's house yesterday at Easter dinner, most particularly Bon Appetit (which includes aforementioned roasted radish ideas). So tonight I came home in search of something I could do with these random veggies in my fridge - and thought of Bon Appetit's recipe collection online. There I came across the inspiration for this AMAZING salad (that they pair with trout). Their recipe uses fingerling potatoes and shallots, mine uses turnips and leeks, but is otherwise the same. Turnips, incidentally, have less carbs than beets or carrots, and I think they are delicious when roasted. I forgot about how good they are - sort of sweet and earthy at the same time.

This recipe seems pretty flexible to what you have - I tried the dressing with beets, and that was tasty, and I think carrots would be nice in here too. Play around and adjust as you want - the horseradish-mustard dressing is so nice, and the fennel and leeks are such a springy change! Yum. I ate mine with some venison steak, but I am sure fish would be nice with some of the dressing poured on top.

Fennel, Turnip, Leek Salad with Horseradish

4 medium sized turnips, unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch wedges

1 medium fennel bulbs, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch wedges with some core intact 

2 leeks, sliced about 1-inch thick 

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided 

2 teaspoons Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper 

1 tablespoons prepared horseradish 

1 tablespoons red wine vinegar 

1 1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard 

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Here they are before they went in the oven

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Toss turnips, fennel, and shallots with 2 tablespoons oil on a large rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper and arrange vegetables cut side down. Roast on low rack of oven until beginning to brown, about 20 minutes. 

2. Toss vegetables on a baking sheet and continue to roast until vegetables are tender 5-8 minutes longer. 

3. Whisk horseradish, vinegar, and mustard in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons oil and season vinaigrette with salt and pepper. 

4. Drizzle vinaigrette over vegetables, add parsley, and toss to combine. I also put a few fennel fronds in there. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Wild rice, zucchini, leek and chevre tart

I recently came across a new food blog via The Heavy Table. It's called All About Food, and I was hooked after seeing many wild rice recipes and reading about her Hungarian and German/Czech ancestry. And she talks about the Mississippi River, and I just appreciate midwestern pride, so there we go.

Anyway - I tried her wild rice pie crust this week, and OMG. It's a whole new kind of savory tart crust: chewy, super flavorful, and not so rich as pastry. I also find an appeal to having a whole-food sort of crust - which could be entirely locally sourced except for the lemon. I can't wait to try this crust with a variety of fillings.

The recipe is definitely on the rich side - she recommends that you stick with the heavy cream for the filling, and I would argue that half and half would be a bit lighter and nice too. I really like the zucchini/leek combo, and chevre always reminds me of the year I worked at a small farm making goat cheese in Iowa. The little cheese kitchen was next to the milking room in the barn and always smelled like tart goat milk; there were flies stuck to fly paper all over the ceiling and the farm kittens would wait by the door to drink up the whey. I often went to help pick and package veggies for the CSA shares while the milk pasteurized. Fresh goat cheese with just picked spinach = total bliss as far as I am concerned!

This tart is tasty - though beware of that 10" pie pan. Who has a 10? pie pan?? I happened to have a 10" cast iron, but kind of rare size. I ate the tart with my last jar of pickled beets on some salad greens from WI. And I was able to plant my own lettuce, arugula, beets, and radish before the big rains - so soon I'll be eating out of my own garden. Yay!

Potato leek soup

When I got my first apartment in college (and hence my first kitchen) I was totally lost, subsisting largely on cereal, rice and chili from a box. After listening to me gripe enough about my severe lack of good, home-cooked food, my grandma nudged me in the direction of my first potato soup ("Really, honey, it's very easy"). I'll never forget how lovingly she walked me step-by-step through what must have seemed so elementary to her (chicken broth, oil, onions, potatoes).



Fast forward 10 (?!) years and potato soup is still a regular fixture in my fall/winter kitchen. And since it's finally been feeling consistently fall-like I decided to give in and make my first pot of potato leek soup this season. Based loosely on Mark Bittman's and Irene Oster's (that's my grandma) recipes.

Some leeks (2-4), cleaned and thinly chopped
Some potatoes (4-6), diced, skins on when possible
Some salt and pepper
Some butter
Some stock
Some cream, if you want
Some garlic, if you want

In a frying pan, brown the leeks and garlic until they're good and flavorful. If you're feeling ambitious, brown the potatoes a bit too. Deglaze the pan and put everything into a soup kettle. Add enough stock to just cover the leeks and potatoes. Salt and pepper as much as you like and boil until the potatoes are tender. I like the soup better blended, and an immersion blender (about $10 on Craigslist) does the trick nicely. Stir in a bit of cream just before serving if you like a richer soup.

Ok, this is the most important part: MAKE EXTRA. The flavors in this soup improve markedly as it sits in your fridge and waits for the inevitable leftover night.