Roots and Tubers

Root and tuberous vegetables, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, eddoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beetroots, salsifys, radishes, swedes, celeriacs and Jerusalem artichokes, are great favourites with me. They are extremely versatile and can form the base of marvellous soups, fritters, purées, soufflés and so on, while for vegetarians they can provide the sustaining body and sweetness which most green vegetables lack.

Celeriac, despite its unprepossessing, knobbly appearance, has a wonderful flavour, combining the freshness of celery and the sweet taste of a root. I also like the pepper-iness of swede, but it suffers from a rather watery consistency so it is best pureed and enriched with butter or cream, and sometimes combined with a finer, smoother root such as potatoes. The pleasurable qualities of carrots made into a purée or soup are by now well known, and their brilliant colour and sweetness enhances many creations, both savoury and sweet, cooked or raw. Parsnip is definitely one of the roots I eat most, perhaps because I so often use spices in my cooking, and all roots, but parsnips in particular, have a great affinity with spices.