Onions and Potatoes Roasted in the Coals

This is the most basic, primal way to cook root vegetables—a method as old as mankind itself. The process is simple enough: You bury the vegetables in a mound of glowing coals. The exterior burns, imparting a wonderful smoke flavor, leaving the flesh inside sweet and tender. Sweet onions like Vidalias or Walla Wallas are particularly good cooked this way, as are rich-fleshed potatoes, like Yukon Golds.