Winter Vegetables

Winter in Chicago is long. Really long. By the end of January I go crazy for sun, and right about now I'm seriously craving the glorious vegetable bounty of summer in the Midwest. But I'm trying hard to be positive. I recently re-started ordering produce boxes from Fresh Picks. I used to get them regularly in the summer and early fall, but stopped once school started. I figured that I wouldn't have time to use up all the veggie, plus I didn't want what I imagined would be box after box of potatoes.

As it turns out, I'm cooking even more now than I did in the summer. I've also spent the last couple of months learning to love a lot of new vegetables, ones that I hated as a kid. Of particular note are brussels sprouts. I used to gag at the thought of them, but these days, we eat them at least once a week. Like many winter vegetables, they are glorious roasted, and pretty icky cooked almost any other way.

Getting to the (recipe) point. I started getting Fresh Picks deliveries last week. In my box, in addition to some beautiful lacinato kale, arugula, and cauliflower, was this huge bag of assorted root vegetables. As you can see, they are a far cry from the mounds of potatoes I had feared. At first, I wondered what I would do with three pounds of roots, but it has been going great so far. I made a big batch of chicken stock with some of the carrots and parsnips, enjoyed a beautiful celery root salad (more on this later), and, last night, we had this awesome dish. I happily took a large jar for lunch today, and I hate to eat the same thing two meals in a row. You should make it before winter ends.

Roasted Root Vegetable and Wheat Berry Salad (adapted from David Lebovitz)

serves 4

-1 and 1/2 pounds assorted root vegetables (I used purple carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and turnips)

-1 cup wheat berries (or barley, quinoa, etc.)

-1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

-1 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

-large handful arugula, washed and roughly chopped

-1/2 cup dried cranberries

-1/4 cup olive oil + more for coating the roots

-squeeze of lemon juice

-1 tablespoon walnut oil (optional)

-salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425

1. Bring about 4 cups of heavily salted water to a boil, and add the wheat berries. Cook until tender, about 40 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cut all the root vegetables into small, uniformly sized pieces, toss with a little oil and salt. Spread the vegetables out on a baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes, turning halfway through, until they are tender and browned.

2. Drain the cooked root berries, and toss with 1/4 cup olive oil, dried cranberries, onion, arugula, walnuts, and salt. Mix in the root vegetables.

3. Drizzle the walnut oil on top, squeeze a lemon over the whole thing, grind some pepper on, and serve. You may want to add a little more salt at this point, as the wheat berries taste odd if not sufficiently salted. We crumbled some feta on top, but that's completely optional.