What am I supposed to do with *this*?

[Moo]

Share with us here your woes of ingredients you just do not know how to cook.

I get a box of organic veg delivered every week - so I don't have any power over what's in it - and in winter it's full of stuff I just don't know what to do with. I didn't grow up with these vegetables so I don't know how to cook it and I don't much like them just boiled up.

I recently discovered two recipes that help towards this: Jamie Oliver's Italian cabbage soup and some delish potato-parsnip hashbrowns/rosti. I want to try Jamie's bubble and squeak next in the hope that I can stop getting cold shivers at the sight of the huge chunk of swede (rutabaga) in my fridge.

So, any other tips for cabbage, swede, parsnips or beets? Any other things you wish you knew how to cook?

[Zohar]

When in doubt, make a soup?

Nothing comes to mind at the moment, though... But I think soups are, generally, a good way to make vegetables and test their taste.

[Moo]

Ah yes, soup. I have about a 50% success rate with soup but this may be due to my own laziness. I can tell you though that beetroot and tomato soup sounds better than it tastes! Thanks for the input though.

[cypherspace]

It's hard to better roast parsnips. You could always make a vegetable curry, that usually works with most things. Perhaps not cabbage though.

[Toeofdoom]

I was going to suggest mashing it all up, forming it into chips and deep frying it. But then, I'm not known for valuing the edibility of food I'm not going to eat. That said, I would like to see the results if you try that

[Moo]

I am opposed to frying, but I might try croquets? Thanks.

[PatrickRsGhost]

Not sure how well-known it is over there but here in the US, especially in the South, cabbage is sometimes made into cole slaw. Using a cheese grater, shred the cabbage into a large bowl. Add in shredded carrots. Mix in mayonnaise, celery seed, salt, and pepper. Some people like to add chopped onion, pineapple chunks, chopped apples, chopped celery, or a combination of any of those ingredients. If you don't want to shred the cabbage, just chop it up very fine.

[Eps]

Not sure how well-known it is over there but here in the US, especially in the South, cabbage is sometimes made into cole slaw.

Very well known: the word 'Coleslaw' originally comes from the Low Countries. It's popular all over the world - my brother loves the stuff. It's definitely used differently in the US though; whereas in England you put it on cold meats, etc., I've grown to like the use of it in the US to put on dogs, accompany fried fish, etc.

[Ren]

I'm not sure about swede, parsnips, and beets, but cabbage is *excellent* turned into cabbage rolls and covered in sour cream.

[stockpot]

Parsnips (with celery and carrots) make wonderful vegetable soup stocks. Cabbage is always good for stir frying, or, if it's red cabbage, you can make rotkraut.

[PictureSarah]

Shredded cabbage + fish + fruity salsa and canned mandarin oranges + grilled or baked white fish of some sort + corn tortillas = awesome tacos!

[Robin S]

I have five eggs in my fridge and no faith in my own cooking skills. I rarely cook, and bought six eggs so that I could use one to make pancakes, because that's the smallest number which sells in supermarkets.

I also have a small amount of milk and plenty of flour; however, I'm not sure if all of the ingredients (milk and/or eggs) will still be good when I have time to use them.

[Azrael]

French toast. It's not just for breakfast.

[Moo]

I have the simplest quiche recipe ever. It's not proper quiche but it's yummy anyway. 2 eggs, one cup of milk, 3 tablespoons of flour (these amounts must still be verified when I get home). Then add at least a cup of grated cheese and whatever other savoury filling (spinach, bacon, salmon, or just cheese works too!) and add cheese until it's not overly runny. Spoon into muffin pans (or ok if you want one big container, whatever you call it where you're from, a tart or flan dish, you know, a thingy) and bake at around 180degrees C until they're nice and brown and a knife stuck into the centre comes out clean.

I will go check my recipe when I get home.

[PatrickRsGhost]

I have five eggs in my fridge and no faith in my own cooking skills. I rarely cook, and bought six eggs so that I could use one to make pancakes, because that's the smallest number which sells in supermarkets.

I also have a small amount of milk and plenty of flour; however, I'm not sure if all of the ingredients (milk and/or eggs) will still be good when I have time to use them.

French toast. It's not just for breakfast.

That, or pancakes. You just need sugar and a bit of vanilla. Or waffles, if you have a waffle iron.

(or ok if you want one big container, whatever you call it where you're from, a tart or flan dish, you know, a thingy)

(all images spoiler'd due to size)

Pie pan

Spoiler:

or cake pan?

Spoiler:

There's also a fluted pie pan, which is also known as a quiche pan:

Spoiler:

[Moo]

Last one is the one I meant, first one would also work, the middle one may not cook as effectively in the middle before the rest is too cooked but may also work.

...and one last edit to say, thank you.

[hermaj]

I have the simplest quiche recipe ever. It's not proper quiche but it's yummy anyway. 2 eggs, one cup of milk, 3 tablespoons of flour (these amounts must still be verified when I get home). Then add at least a cup of grated cheese and whatever other savoury filling (spinach, bacon, salmon, or just cheese works too!) and add cheese until it's not overly runny. Spoon into muffin pans (or ok if you want one big container, whatever you call it where you're from, a tart or flan dish, you know, a thingy) and bake at around 180degrees C until they're nice and brown and a knife stuck into the centre comes out clean.

I will go check my recipe when I get home.

That sounds a bit like impossible pie. Does it kind of make its own crust at the bottom?

[Kendo_Bunny]

Parsnips are good mashed or roasted (no idea if you eat butter, but if you do, they're best with plenty of butter, and if not, olive oil is also good). Use a firmly flavored spice like rosemary to counterbalance the flavor. They also make a very good addition to savory stews, but not so much to thinner soups. I find the flavor is too strong for broths. I don't know whether you're a vegetarian or not (I'll assume not since you posted a recipe with cheese), but parsnips are very tasty in beef or lamb stew. Also, pan-frying a cold mash in a little butter until it's hot and crisp is delicious, especially with kielbasa or bacon.

For the cabbage, if you like spicy fermented food, you could always make it into kimchi. I don't care for it myself, but if you do, I'll try to get my Korean stepmother's recipe.

For the swede and the beets, I don't know, unless you like borscht. I hate it, so yeah... You can always juice the beets- they're supposed to make really nutritious drinks and it apparently tastes good with some citrus added.

[Zohar]

I don't know whether you're a vegetarian or not (I'll assume not since you posted a recipe with cheese), but parsnips are very tasty in beef or lamb stew. Also, pan-frying a cold mash in a little butter until it's hot and crisp is delicious, especially with kielbasa or bacon.

<nitpick>Vegetarians eat egg and dairy products, they don't eat meat (and fish, usually). Vegans also don't eat egg and dairy. </nitpick>

[Moo]

Hermaj, it does hold itself together once baked and doesn't need a crust (rather than actually forming one). I can go find the proper recipe if you'd like to verify for yourself. Seriously, it works a treat.

Kendo-Bunny, thanks for all the tips. I hadn't considered juicing beets but I will try, I just hope my juicing attachment is up to the job (it's the one part of the food processor I've never used). Also good ideas with parsnips.

What is kimchi like? I am entirely unfamiliar with it. I don't think I generally like fermented stuff, but I've not tried that many dishes; although I liked pickled things.

[wery67564]

Batter and fry it!

I used to live in a co-op that had the same problem. We would sit around staring at 50 lbs of beets being like, wtf do we do with these. Then we had beet fries, beet tempura, and all other kinds of fryed awesomeness.

Not exactly haute cuisine, but its better than wasting the poor red guys...

[arbivark]

So, any other tips for cabbage, swede, parsnips or beets?

Cabbage: it's useful to know that after 6 minutes of cooking, cabbage goes through a chemical change that gives it a smell some people don't like.
I think it's great either way; stirfried with other veggies, serve with rice or noodles,
or stew it till soggy and bland, basic peasant food the world over.
When I worked in the dalai lama's nephew's restaurant, stirfried cabbage carrots peas and onions were the basis of pretty much every dish.
Or, blanch cabbage (pour boiling water over it briefly) then use it like lettuce in salad.

Swede, which I know as rutabaga, is something I don't cook much, but the best way I ever had it was diced and roasted with balsamic vinegar and a bit of rosemary.
(The trick with rosemary is don't use too much)
Back when I had a girlfriend, our safeword was "rutabaga", so it's a vegetable with certain associations for me.

Parsnips are like carrots only more so. Twice the price, twice the flavor.
So cook em (or raw, shredded, in salad) any way you like carrots.

Beets: I grew up having beets, and most other veggies, boiled to death and served with butter. Not how I like veggies. They are great raw. You probably don't want to just munch on a beet, they are kinda chewy, so shredded or sliced thin.
Beet juice will turn the rest of the dish red; it's a natural food coloring.
Good stirfried, or as above frenchfried or tempura.

[0xDEADBEEF]

I think parsnips are delicious just sliced and simmered. They cry out for too much butter, though!

Beets, Turnips, and Rutabagas should be planted in the ground until they come to life, and then cook the greens. The roots aren't worth eating!

As for cabbage, I accidentally invented a great soup, about 20 years ago, and I still make it several times a winter.

I was originally trying to make corned beef and cabbage, but I was poor, so I bought the canned "corned beef" instead of the real thing.

Anyway, I put the can of corned beef, half a head of cabbage, chopped into squares, and a can of Ro-Tel tomatoes in a big pot, and covered them with water. (I don't know how wide-spread the Ro-Tel brand is, but it's diced stewed tomatoes with green chile peppers, slightly spicy, but not too hot.) The canned corned beef is not a solid piece of real brisket; it's some kind of shredded meat just packed into the can, so it just falls apart when simmered, and I put way too much water in to just soften the cabbage. I thought it turned out to be a disaster, but then I tasted the broth. Damn! It was really good! (especially on a cold winter day; it's the kind of broth that really warms you up from the inside.)

Henceforth, the recipe for my disaster became "Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup!"

[Kendo_Bunny]

I know vegans are the ones that don't eat egg or dairy, but a lot of the vegetarians I know don't use much of either.

Per kimchi- it's like really spicy sauerkraut. Like I said, I think it's gross, but if it's the kind of thing you like.

For juicing beets, just make sure you've peeled them well. The skin is pretty fibrous, and not good for juicers.

[justaman]

Best cabbage recipe ever:

Warning can be very spicy...

half a cabbage head diced into 1-2 inch squares
half a dozen chili (e.g birdseye, fresh is best, but dried will do)
10-20 szechuan peppercorns (also known a prickly ash, tastes a bit lemony and numbs the tongue if bitten http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_Pepper)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
salt to taste

Heat oil in pan until smoking hot and add chili and peppercorns
Add cabbage and stirfry for 1-2 min
Add brown sugar and fry for a further minute
Add rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and salt and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Serve immediately

Beets are great baked, especially if small.
Swedes/turnips/rutabaga - mash with potato
Parsnip - roast, anything else is heathen!

[hermaj]

Moo, going back to your exciting box of random vegetables, I was flicking through a cookbook of mine and I find a recipe you might want to try. I've never made it myself, but the recipes from The Women's Weekly are extremely reliable.

Braised Root Vegtables with Gremolata - serves 4

1T olive oil (I would not even bother measuring this, just a generous dash for each part?)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 large parsnips, coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
2 medium turnips, coarsely chopped
1 cup vegetable stock (250ml)
3 medium beetroots, thin wedges
1/4 cup (60mL) lemon juice

Gremolata:
1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1T finely grated lemon rind
1 clove garlic, crushed

1. Heat half the oil in a large frying pan; cook the garlic, parsnips, carrots and turnips, stirring until vegetables are lightly browned. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer for about 40 minutes until vegetables are tender.
2. Meanwhile, combine the remaining oil and beetroot wedges in a medium sized shallow baking dish and roast at 200^oC for about 40 minutes or until tender.
3. Combine gremolata ingredients.
4. Stir lemon juice and beetroot into braised vegetables, top with gremolata.

It also suggests you could serve it with cous cous, which might be yummy. And if you hate turnips, it sounds like it would be okay if you used red onion instead, or maybe even white or brown. Red would be good for the colour, though.

[Moo]

Thanks for the many suggestions all.
Re: roasted parsnips; I don't like parsnips!
Hermaj, I am DEFINITELY trying that, thanks.

[tiny]

(...)parsnips are very tasty in beef or lamb stew. (...)

Parsnips fried in a pan with lamb steak... *purrs*

Cabbage: Blanch, add bacon bits and a bit of cream and spices. Serve with potatoes.

[Kendo_Bunny]

Well, if you don't like the taste of parsnips, you can actually make them into a skin treatment. Mash the parsnips, add a bit of honey, olive oil, and a bit of lemon juice if your skin is oily, or a bit of milk or cream if your skin is dry. Apply to a clean face, leave on for 15 minutes, then rinse, following up with a splash of cool water.

Because if you can't eat it, it can probably still do some good applied to the outside.

[Charlie!]

If you don't like the "boiled cabbage" flavor, I HIGHLY recommend cabbage stir fried with sesame oil (possibly diluted with some vegetable oil). Maybe some simple flavors like chopped ginger or garlic, too. It's shockingly tasty.

Like someone mentioned, parsnips are great for adding a bit of a sweet flavor to soups, and both parsnips and beets are great roasted. Parsnips get the butter and beets (around me) get something sour like lemon juice or vinegar.

[cathrl]

Stirfry, soup, stew, chop fine and add to pasta sauce...

(looking nervously at four sticks of black salsify from my veggie box which don't really lend themselves to any of the above).

[justaman]

Salsify should be peeled and plunged into water containing vinegar or lemon juice to stop discolouration. Then boil and enjoy.

It is a real pity that a lot of these types of foods aren't used much any more, many are really tasty and good for you too. I must start gathering wild foods, dandelion, watercress and wild spinach salad sounds good to me.

[cathrl]

The internet suggested boiling first then peeling, which I did. Worked pretty well (and the kids LIKED it! which is fortunate, because this week's box just showed up and look! More sticks )

[pooteeweet]

Casseroles! Chop up all your assorted vegetable (and meat?) oddments, possibly pre-cook some (like onions, fried onions make everything taste good) and mix or layer them together in a casserole dish, brownie pan, pie pan, bread pan, or whatever you have available. If you have stale bread or leftover toast you need to get rid of, put that on the bottom (in chunks or slices) and/or crumbs on top. Leftover spaghetti or potatoes are also fair game. Use your judgment/past experience/educated guesses and crossed fingers when deciding on a combination of spices, sauces, and other flavorful items to add (ex: thyme, basil, cayenne, leftover puttanesca sauce, balsamic vinegar, turned wine, mustard, those bottom-of-the-jar bits of salsa, olive tapenade, etc). Add enough liquid that the bottom won't burn and the middle won't dry out (milk perhaps), then grate all the bits of random cheeses you have in your fridge on top of it. Well, again, use your judgment. I usually do some combination of cheddar, parmesan, and mozzarella. Everything is delicious when you put cheese on it. 350F is generally a good temperature-- it's low enough that you can cook it for a while (to ensure nothing is raw) but not burn the top.

The above formula, slightly altered, also works for making soups and for spicing up polenta.


OK my mystifying ingredient: I have had the same can of coconut milk in my cupboard for... well... probably years now. I know I should probably make Thai food with it but when I look up Thai recipes they always look really long and complicated and full of other obscure ingredients I wouldn't know how to use up the remains of. Does anyone know any really tasty but simple recipes involving coconut milk?

[Delalyra]

Well, you could drink it. Or possibly mixed drinks? Or coconut-flavored ice cream, I'm sure, if you're into that.

[Zohar]

OK my mystifying ingredient: I have had the same can of coconut milk in my cupboard for... well... probably years now. I know I should probably make Thai food with it but when I look up Thai recipes they always look really long and complicated and full of other obscure ingredients I wouldn't know how to use up the remains of. Does anyone know any really tasty but simple recipes involving coconut milk?

Wow, that casserole "recipe" sounds delicious. I'll have to try it on the weekend, when I'll have some time to let it cook.

Anyway, you can just stir-fry stuff. It's very easy and quick. No special ingredients needed. The only problem is that most people (including myself) don't have a large enough fire at home. So either make small portions each time (it's OK since it should take less than 10 minutes to actually stir-fry it) or do it on a campfire (which I tried about a month ago and it was awesome!).

Use regular oil, heat it real good, add some:
Carrots
Garlic
Tofu/Chicken
Peppers
Hot peppers
Green onions
String beansThose alfalfa thingies or some similar "string" thing (I don't remember the name)
Cabbage
Zuchinnies (sp?)
Mushrooms
Noodles (almost cooked to completion and drained)

In that order. Everything that can be sliced to stripes should. You can add peanunts or any other nut you like close to the end. Also add fresh chopped green onion on the dish itself.

As for seasoning, before the noodles you can add soy sauce, chili sauce (be careful if you add hot peppers) and the coconut milk. After you're done cooking it you can drizzle a few drops of sesame oil on top. Very tasty but don't add too much.

Another option I just thought of is to make coconut and curry soup. I haven't actually made any myself but it's supposed to be very good.

[Moo]

I buy premade Thai curry pastes (alternating between red, green and yellow depending on mood, what the shop has, and what we last had in the house) and use coconut milk for that. You can also make a delicious coconut curry; off the top of my head I'd say saute meat of choice and onions, add the usual assortment of spices (eg. a combination of cinnamon, ginger, garam masala, turmeric, cumin, coriander seed powder, chilli, cardamom pods, fennel seeds, anise seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, etc, etc, or just even ready-mixed curry powder). Add coconut milk and simmer over low heat until yummy.

I have lots of proper Indian curry recipes that use coconut milk, if you want I will post them.

Also, butternut and coconut soup is very good. Boil butternut squash; puree with cononut milk; eat. Optional Thai style spices like ginger and turmeric may improve flavour but are not a requirement. Proper recipes are probably in abundance via Google.

[pooteeweet]

Ooh, butternut-ginger soup has always been one of my staples; I think I might have to try it with coconut. I will also definitely be referring to those stir-fry instructions. And I've had those thai-coconut-curry-soup things and they are so delightful that I assumed them to be beyond my levels of skill/time/commitment. In fact, I may just go out and buy more cans of coconut milk so that I can try several of these suggestions (methinks I may decide to subsist largely on coconut-ice-cream-float cocktails, come the summer months...).

[fuschia]

Ooh this is making me hungry!

Beetroot: I like it either peeled, quartered and baked in a parcel of tinfoil with butter, garlic, shallots and red wine, or briefly boiled, cooled and peeled, then sliced and served as a mezze type thing with a sauce made of yogurt, grated cucumber, roasted and crushed cumin, pepper, salt and lemon juice. Parsley or tahini wouldn't be bad additions either.

Coconut milk: I usually do the vaguely thai thing but I literally just make a basic stirfry with whatever is lying around, and in a separate little pan fry fresh ginger and chilli, add the coconut, heat through and add ungodly amounts of coriander, then pour over the stirfry once you've plated it up. Sprinkle with crushed peanuts, squeeze over lime juice. Om nom nom.

Alternatively, make pina coladas!

I memorised a sentence about how during WW2 the french had to eat swedes and turnips, which they usually thought were only fit for pigs, for my French A-level. But I've forgotten it. I only really eat turnip for Burn's night related festivities, mashed with bitter, but wouldn't say it was delicious. Neeps and rutabaga are good words though.

[ThorFluff]

ANYTHING that's not ... actually, ANYTHING! Wok it! chop it up put it in a pan, add oil and season after taste! Cabbage is a great Filler really.

Also, I'M a swede, WTF is a rutabaga?