by Graham Kerr
Stir in the mashed potatoes, salt, and black pepper. Heat through and serve.
Per serving: 116 calories, 3 g fat, 1 g saturated fat (8% calories from saturated fat), 18 g carbohydrate, 4 g protein, 2 g dietary fiber, 146 mg sodium. Exchanges: 1 Starch, 1 Vegetable, ½ Fat
Radish
Raphanus sativus
If you still have young children around you, in your role as parent, teacher, grandparent, or—phew, we just made it!—great-grandparent, then radishes are just the thing you want to add to your kitchen garden.
Admittedly, they can have a too-adult taste/ texture for the very young—crunchy and a little spicy. However, if you are encouraging your young ones to plant out their own little garden, then these colorful vegetables will come up first and be special companions to carrots, which can be sown at the same time. In other words, there are lots of things happening at once to engage little minds and hands!
You might want to go the whole hog (so to speak) and get a packet each of the various colors: the standard red as well as white, purple, cream, yellow, and even black.
From my very limited experience, if children are involved in planting, watering (and even weeding), and harvesting, they are much more likely to enjoy the adventure of eating.
Because of their small size and rapid growth, radishes make excellent fillers that can be sown directly into spaces that will later be filled by such plants as peppers, cabbage, and tomatoes. By the time these plants mature, your radishes will have been harvested. Remember that the faster they grow, the more tender they will be.
If you harvest the radish at just the right time, the leaves will be tender enough to add to salad (along with other early greens, like beet greens). You might be surprised to learn that small radishes cook up very well in casseroles and stews, where they provide unusual texture and eye appeal.
The Numbers
Radishes are an excellent source of calcium and vitamin C (if used raw; cooking destroys the C content).
For each 100 g raw roots (3.5 oz; ½ cup): 18 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 0 g dietary fiber, 29 mg sodium
Radish
Biennial/Annual/Cool Season
Water: Moderate/even, drip irrigation
Sun: Full to part shade
Companion Planting:
PRO: Carrots, beans, beets, peas, peppers
CON: Fennel
Pests: Aphids, white butterflies, nematodes
Diseases: Clubroot, mildew
Soil: Stone-free light soil, drains well but keep moist
Fertilizer: Good compost
pH: 5.5-6.5
Varieties:
SPRING: Red, Comet; white, Burpee White
FALL/WINTER: Long Black Spanish (carrot shaped) ALL SEASON: Large, long Daikon-style
Zones: 2-10
Planting: Early spring and autumn; seed ½ inch deep, 1 inch apart; thin to 4 inches
Germinates: 4-10 days
Harvest: From seed, 21-35 days; for later fall plantings, 50-60 days
Rotation: Plant in beds previously used for legumes
Edible: Roots and young leaves
MISO SOBA
We enjoyed this dish so much in Japan that we couldn’t wait to try it out with the new season’s radishes. It could become a rite of passage to mark the start of the growing season.
SERVES 4
1 quart water
1 pound daikon (large Japanese radish), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (or 1 pound small red or other colored radishes)
1 medium turnip, peeled and cut into eighths
2 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into eighths
1 small winter squash (I prefer delicata or
butternut), peeled, seeded, and cut into
1-inch chunks
12 ounces low-fat extra-firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
8 cups low-sodium vegetable stock
(see page 288)
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 (10-ounce) jar gefilte fish in broth
2 tablespoons mustard powder
2 tablespoons arrowroot
½ cup water
2 hard-boiled eggs, shelled
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. Drop in the radish, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Add the turnip, potatoes, and squash, and cook 12 minutes more. Drain, discarding the water, and set aside. This precooking will ensure a clear broth and good texture for the vegetables.
Pour boiling water over the tofu to cover and let it soak while you do the next step.
Combine the stock, soy sauce, and brown sugar in a heavy Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Drop in the precooked vegetables. Turn the heat down as low as possible and simmer, uncovered, for 60 minutes. The liquid should be reduced by a little more than half, about 3 cups. Then add the drained tofu and gefilte fish with broth. Combine the mustard, arrowroot, and water to make a slurry. Pour into the stew, stirring while it thickens.
Divide among 4 warm bowls. Set half a hard-boiled egg, yolk side up, in each, and scatter chopped parsley over the top.
Per serving: 358 calories, 12 g fat, 1 g saturated fat (3% calories from saturated fat), 38 g carbohydrate, 22 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 1,312 mg sodium. Exchanges: ½ Starch, 1 Lean Meat, 1 Vegetable, 1 Fat, 1 Carbohydrate
SIMMERED RADISHES
The color will fade a little in the cooking but can, to a degree, be recaptured with the glossy cornstarch sauce. Please be careful not to use too much cornstarch, as it will goop and become slimy.
SERVES 4
16 red round radishes
1 cup low-sodium vegetable stock
(see page 288)
2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with
2 tablespoons water (slurry)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Trim the radishes, leaving a little of the green stems and cutting off the root end. Place in a saucepan with the stock, bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat, and simmer 10 minutes until tender.
Stir in the slurry and boil 30 seconds to thicken and clear. Don’t overthicken, please! Dust with black pepper and serve as a side dish.
Per serving: 19 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 0 g dietary fiber, 49 mg sodium. Exchanges: Free Food
SPRING VEGETABLE SAUTÉ
If the vegetables are small, they may cook a little quicker than indicated here, so be careful not to overcook.
SERVES 4
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ cup sliced sweet onion
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
¾ cup quartered tiny new potatoes
¾ cup baby carrots, cut in half diagonally
¾ cup asparagus pieces
¾ cup sugar snap peas
½ cup quartered radishes
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill or ½ teaspoon dried
Heat the oil in a high-sided skillet over medium-high. Cook the onion 2 minutes, add the garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Stir in the potatoes and carrots, cover, turn the heat to low, and cook about 8 minutes until almost tender. If the vegetables start to brown, add 1-2 tablespoons of water.
Now add the asparagus, peas, radishes, salt, black pepper, and dill. Cook, stirring often, about 4 minutes more until just tender. Try this with a piece of barbecued fish for a complete spring meal.
Per serving: 75 calories, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 12 g carbohydrate, 2 g protein, 3 g dietary fiber, 199 mg sodium. Exchanges: ½ Starch, 1 Vegetable
Rhubarb
Rheum rhabarbarum
Let’s assume for a moment that your garden patch has a quiet side that faces north, a place where you could gather some permanent plantings of tall or large-foliaged vegetables like Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), Brussels sprouts, or rhubarb. Their sheer size could block the sun if planted on the
east or west.
Here we have another patient plant that’s going to take 2-4 years to produce a meaningful harvest, but after that, rhubarb is virtually indestructible for up to 15 years. After the third year, you can divide the crown and plant at least 24 inches apart. The red color can be intensified by cold weather and frosts, which they tolerate quite well.
The best size for harvest are stalks 1 inch in diameter and leaves 24 inches long. To harvest rhubarb, you should bend the stalk, twisting it sideways, and pull—don’t cut.
Please don’t ever eat the leaves; they contain enough oxalic acid to be toxic.
Rhubarb is very sour on its own, though less so for the varieties Valentine and Strawberry. Because of this, it takes a good deal of sweetening, and that can offset the plant’s nutritional advantage. You may want to cook it along with a very sweet fruit, like Bosc pears, and see how you like the natural association.
The Numbers
For each 100 g raw (3.5 oz; ½ cup): 21 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 5 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 2 g dietary fiber, 4 mg sodium
Rhubarb
Perennial/Hardy/Cool Season
Water: Moderate/even
Sun: Partial shade to full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Okay with other established perennial beds and cabbage family
CON: Legumes, root vegetables
Pests: Aphids, flea beetles
Diseases: Crown rot
Soil: If lots of clay, add sand or gypsum; well-drained, fertile, lots of compost
Fertilizer: Low in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium
pH: 6.0-6.8
Varieties: Valentine, Strawberry (naturally sweeter); Canada Red (retains color after cooking)
Zones: 3-9
Planting: Early spring, from roots (crowns), 1-3 inches, eventually spaced 3 feet apart
Harvest: Stalks; wait 2 years, then pull; over 4-5 weeks in spring
Rotation: Does not rotate
Edible: Stalks (leaves are toxic)
BUMBLEBERRY STRUDEL
Just outside the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, you’ll find the village of Oak Harbor and an expanded (to cover all meals) English-style tea shop called the Blethering (which means “endless talking”) Place. It is there that I found this admirable dessert.
SERVES 6
FOR THE SAUCE
1 tablespoon honey (fireweed is preferable)
1 cup yogurt cheese (see page 290)
FOR THE STRUDEL
Olive oil cooking spray
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored,
and chopped into ¼-inch dice
2 cups finely sliced rhubarb
1 cup blackberries
1 cup raspberries
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
½ teaspoon ground cloves
8 sheets phyllo dough, thawed (see note on
page 148)
½ cup dried bread crumbs
2 tablespoons honey
6 mint sprigs
For the sauce, mix the honey and the yogurt cheese until smooth, and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 360ºF. Spray a cookie sheet lightly with olive oil.
For the strudel, combine the apple, rhubarb, blackberries, raspberries, brown sugar, lemon zest, and cloves in a large mixing bowl.
On a flat surface, stretch out a slightly damp dishtowel. Lay a sheet of phyllo dough on top of the towel running lengthwise. Spray lightly with olive oil and repeat with 3 more sheets of pastry. (Keep remaining pastry covered to prevent drying out.)
Sprinkle ¼ cup of the bread crumbs in a strip 3 inches wide down the length of the pastry, leaving 2 inches at either end. Spoon half of the fruit mixture carefully on top off the bread crumb strip.
With the long side of the pastry and fruit filling in front of you, lift the nearest edge of the damp towel and roll the pastry slowly away from you, as you would a jelly roll. Repeat for the remaining pastry and fruit mixture to make a second one.
Place the strudel seam-side down in the prepared pan. With a brush, lightly apply the honey to each roll. Bake for 30 minutes. Lift gently with a spatula to check that the underside is no longer doughy.
When done, place the cookie sheet on a wire rack and let the strudel cool for 15 minutes before slicing. Slice each roll into thirds and serve with a dollop of the yogurt sauce. Garnish with a sprig of mint.
Per serving: 257 calories, 2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 55 g carbohydrate, 6 g protein, 4 g dietary fiber, 459 mg sodium. Exchanges: ½ Fruit, ½ Starch
MOLDED RHUBARB STRAWBERRY DESSERT
Simply delicious with low-fat vanilla yogurt and a sprig of fresh mint.
SERVES 8
1 pound rhubarb, fresh or frozen
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
5 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
2 packets unflavored gelatin
½ cup cold water
1 cup strawberries, sliced
Cut the rhubarb into ½-inch chunks or use frozen rhubarb as is. Place in a saucepan and pour on the orange juice. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer 8 minutes or until soft. Stir in the brown sugar.
Sprinkle the gelatin over the water to soften for 10 minutes. Stir into the hot fruit to dissolve. Add the strawberries and mix gently. Pour into a mold or glass 8x8-inch baking pan and chill.
Unmold the dessert by setting in hot water for 30 seconds or until it loosens. Tip onto a plate. Cut in wedges and serve. If you’ve chosen the glass pan, cut in squares and serve.
Per serving: 60 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 13 g carbohydrate, 2 g protein, 1 g dietary fiber, 8 mg sodium. Exchanges: ½ Fruit, ½ Carbohydrate
Rutabaga
Brassica napus
It is entirely possible that a carrot and a cabbage found some kind of vegetative bliss in a natural (no human intervention) habitat and had an unusual offspring. At least that’s what some well-informed botanists suggest.
The prodigy was, of course, the rutabaga.
Now I happen to really enjoy this root vegetable, regardless of its reasonably unattractive appearance. It’s round, light to darker yellow, and squat—a perfect description. It has to be peeled, which, depending on its size, can be an awkward task. Once the skin is gone (and popped into a stockpot), the flesh is fairly evenly golden—much more attractive.
You can eat the leaves (like turnip greens) of the young plant, but I find them an acquired taste and not worth the effort.
As they begin to reach their maximum height of 12-15 inches, it’s a good idea to gently bend the stalks over until the tops point to the ground (a little like onions and garlic) so that the energy flowing into the leaf growth is directed into the root. This technique—called lodging—promotes growth and sweetness. The vegetable is best when it’s about 4 inches in diameter, although the rutabaga can grow up to 8 inches.
They will take a good deal of time to grow—more than 120 days in my case—and, like other roots, do very well after a mild to moderate frost, which again encourages sweetness. If you leave rutabagas to winter, they’ll need lots of mulch; and throughout their growth, the soil must be kept evenly moist to prevent cracking.
I used the rutabaga in a special multivegetable soup for some close neighbors. The idea was to gain maximum nourishment at minimum cost and to achieve this by doing enough volume to last for several meals, each of which could be modified with added garnishes to create variety. It really is a perfect dish for tough economic times—or any time, for that matter. (You’ll find the recipe for this superb soup on page 230.)
The Numbers
For each 100 g boiled (3.5 oz; ½ cup): 39 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 9 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 2 g dietary fiber, 20 mg sodium
Rutabaga
Biennial/Annual/Cool Season
Water: Moderate
Sun: Full
Companion Planting:
PRO: Be
ets, carrots, peas, turnips
CON: Potatoes
Pests: Armyworms, cabbage root maggots, flea beetles
Diseases : Black rot, turnip mosaic virus
Soil: Light, sandy loam; good drainage; compost well
Fertilizer: Low nitrogen, moderate phosphorus and potassium (add nitrogen when plants are 5 inches tall)
pH: 5.5-6.8
Varieties : York (smooth, rich), Gilfeather (sweet heirloom)
Zones: 3-10
Planting: Early spring; seed ¼-½ inch deep, 1 inch apart; thin to 6-8 inches
Germinates: 7-15 days
Harvest: From seed, 90-125 days
Rotation: Follow onions/scallions
Edible: Roots, young leaves
KAREENA’S SOUP BASE
Our youngest daughter now has two daughters of her own and lots of reasons to get more vegetables into their young and vibrant lives. Like so many of our neighbors, they wanted something they could make in a reasonable quantity to get ahead of the typical busy day, when, so often, the easy way out was pizza.
I went looking in the fall season for a soup/ stew base that could be frozen and nuked back to life in minutes, and then created a list of simple add-ons that took no time and created a sense of variety.
It worked for us and them, and now, I hope, for you.
When the vegetables are in season, this is also an example of good nutrition at a great price. When I tested this, not one of the enhanced soups cost more than $2.00 a portion!
SERVES 30 (EVENTUALLY!)
1½ pounds sweet onions, cut into ½-inch dice
(save peelings)
2 ounces grated gingerroot (optional)
5 garlic cloves, crushed (optional)
1½ pounds rutabagas, peeled and cut into
½-inch dice (save peelings)
1½ pounds turnips, peeled and cut into
