Vegetables that Don’t Get No Respect —
A Tribute to Rodney Dangerfield

By Uncle Paul

In the winter we have the tendency to stay inside and miss the wonderful adventures the storms have to offer. However, walkers here in the Northwest miss very few adventures. Walkers are brave souls, and it is an adventure that I want to take you on today.

The adventure we are about to embark upon is the adventure of tastes from vegetables that are frequently forgotten or overlooked. These are the vegetables that get little respect.

Our first adventure begins in Mexico and leads us further south into South America. I call this “The Jicama Trail.” The jicama is a humble vegetable and a little homely in appearance. For some reason it is never described for itself but always compared to something else. No one gives it credit for its own slightly sweet, crisp taste. It is usually described by likening it to another vegetable. “Use it like a water chestnut,” some say or maybe “grate it and substitute if for the diakon radish.” “You know the jicama is like a cross between an apple and a potato.” No one ever says that the Yukon gold potato is like a cross between an apple and a jicama. The jicama gets no respect.

The jicama is a member of the morning glory family that hails from Mexico and South America. It is a cousin of the sweet potato. In South America the jicama is the street food. It is sold with a squeeze of lime and shake of fiery chili powder. Like potatoes, jicamas can be steamed, baked, boiled, mashed, or fried. But unlike potatoes, however, they can also be eaten raw. Sliced into wide sticks jicama makes a crunchy carrier for salsas, dips, and guacamole. It will absorb and reflect the surrounding flavors. Jicama is an incredible and versatile cooked vegetable when sautéed with other vegetables, added to you favorite stir fry, or just simmered in a delightful stew. Jicama, unlike the potato, is low in starch. It is also low in calories, flavorful, and satisfying and nowhere near as strange as it looks. It is truly a humble, incredible vegetable.

The next adventure I would like to take you on is to Boston. We must be careful not to get beet up — just kidding. Here is what Lizzie Kander says about beets in her 1930 edition of The Settlement Cook Book when she advises the cook to pickle the old beets and can the young ones. At harvest time the beet was too common, too reliable, and too durable to use fresh. Besides, it was a bleeder. Another vegetable with no respect. I bet you that Rodney loved beets.

In Russia, the word “borscht” (which now means any kind of soup with beets in it) originally meant “cow parsnips,” or cow beets. In mainstream America, beets became associated at the turn of the century with poverty and were a food for cows. In 1896 Fannie Farmer, the author of an incredible cookbook used in professional cooking schools, tried to upgrade the dish by giving it an Ivy League name, “Harvard Beets.” Yalies, not to be outdone, substituted flour and butter for cornstarch, and orange juice for vinegar, to produce “Yale Beets.”

Beets are notable for their sweetness. They have the highest sugar content of any vegetable, but they are low in calories. Their sweet flavor comes through whether the beets are fresh or canned. Unlike many other processed vegetables, canned beets are perfectly acceptable in both taste and texture; if not pickled, their sweet flavor is largely unaffected by the canning process. Fresh beets, however, have twice the folate (folic acid) and potassium, and have a distinctive flavor and a crisp texture not found in canned beets. Fresh beets also supply a nutritional bonus. Their green tops are an excellent source of betacarotene, calcium, and iron. The pigment that gives beets their rich, purple-crimson color, betacyanin, is also a powerful cancer-fighting agent. The beet’s potential effectiveness against colon cancer, in particular, has been demonstrated in several studies.

The third adventure I would like to take you on is to China and India to discover ginger root. Ginger is earning great respect. No one is sure how old ginger is, or where it came from, since it has never been found growing wild. It was one of the important spices that led to the opening of the spice trade routes. The word ginger comes from the Sanskrit word “sinabera” meaning “shaped like a horn” because of its resemblance to an antler. In the 19th century it was popular to keep a shaker of ginger on the counter in English pubs so the patrons could shake some into their drinks. This practice was the origin of ginger ale. Crystallized ginger is fresh ginger root cooked in syrup and dried. According to 15th century folklore, gingerbread became a gift of love and respect. With its sweet yet pungent flavor, ginger has become a mainstay of many of the world’s cuisines. European cooks like to use dried, ground ginger to flavor bread and other baked goods. Asian and East Indian cooks prefer their ginger fresh, and they use it in spicy sauces and stir-fries. Mature ginger has a tough skin that preserves a peppery, slightly sweet-hot flesh underneath. Its fine-grained aromatic white flesh offers a spicy, sharp, pungent, and warm flavor that is distinctly and deliciously its own. Ginger is popular for flavoring beverages, bread, cakes, cookies and other pastries, sliced, grated or peeled; ginger enhances sauces, condiments, marinades, glazes, and stir-fries. A key ingredient in curry powder, ginger makes tasty pickles, stews, soups, and even cheese. Grate it and add it to chilies, tamari, sesame oil, shallots, and chopped spring onions. Add its zest to young tender vegetables, cucumber or bean sprouts. Ginger root tea is a special warming refreshment to drink in cool climates.

Ginger not only tastes good, it’s also believed by some people to have medicinal properties, and people sometimes use it to soothe their upset stomachs and boost their energy. Ginger has also played an important role in Asian medicine as a folk remedy to promote cleansing of the body through perspiration, to calm nausea, and to stimulate the appetite. Ginger root is thought to be a remedy for upset stomach, indigestion, cramps, and to dispel chills. Ancient Indians used it to treat digestive problems and as a spiritual and physical cleanser. The Chinese use it for colds, fever, chills, tetanus, and leprosy. Chinese sailors chewed on ginger root to combat seasickness. For centuries Chinese women drank ginger tea to alleviate the onset of female discomfort. The Chinese also considered ginger root to be an antidote to shellfish poisoning, explaining why it is found in so many seafood dishes. In England, ginger added to beer, the forerunner to ginger ale, was applied as a remedy for diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

Ginger root is low in calories; 3 ounces contain 49 calories and is sodium free. Fresh ginger roots can be shredded, finely minced, sliced, or grated. The most tender portion of the root is directly beneath the skin. The center has a much more powerful flavor and is more fibrous. The fibers run vertically down the root, so when shredding fresh ginger it should be sliced in the same direction as the fibers. It is not necessary to peel the root unless personal preference or a specific recipe requires peeling. To substitute fresh ginger for the ground spice, use about 1 tablespoon grated fresh root for 1/8-teaspoon ground ginger.

This winter take an adventure with crisp and slightly sweet jicama, the super sweet beet, and the aromatic spicy ginger root that are so often overlooked. They will truly win over your heart, make delightful eating, and earn your respect.

Uncle Paul, along with his wife Calla, owns Uncle Paul’s European Style Open Air Produce Market, 2310 SE Hawthorne, 503-484-8612.