Agriview Web Extra

Winter Vegetables

One aspect of eating more local foods is adjusting our menus to reflect the seasons. In winter that means root vegetables. A little creativity can introduce these Vermont crops into favorite dishes in new way. Here are 3 examples.

Carrot Cake
The classic way to make dessert from roots. Vermont’s strong specialty food sector boasts many businesses run by pros in creating new taste treats from local products. Claire Fitts, at Butterfly Bakery, even runs classes to teach novices to develop their own baking recipes, particularly desserts that replace refined sugar with maple syrup. Claire enjoys working with the most popular root vegetable: carrots. She describes carrots as, “like crunchy fruit” and shows them off in her unique carrot cake recipe.

• 1 cup oil
• 1 ½ cups maple syrup
• 4 tbs arrowroot or corn starch dissolved in 4 tbs water
• 2 cup whole spelt flour or 1 cup whole wheat flour & 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 cups shredded carrots
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

• 2 cups cream cheese (at room temp)
• 1 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbs vanilla
• Chopped Walnuts (optional for decoration)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and grease two 9 inch cake pans
2. Whisk together the oil, maple syrup, and arrowroot mixture in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl mix together the spelt flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and whisk until smooth.
4. Add the carrots and walnuts to the batter and mix thoroughly. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about an hour at 350° F or until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pans.
5. In a food processor beat together the cream cheese, maple syrup and vanilla until smooth. Store in the fridge until the cake is ready for frosting.
6. When the cakes have cooled completely hold one pan at an angle and give them a nice hard tap against the counter to loosen the cake from the pan. Then invert the cake onto a plate. Frost the top and sides. Loosen the second cake and invert onto the first. Be careful here, these cakes crumble easily, so don’t try to hold the cake in your hands. Frost the whole cake and cover the sides with walnuts.

Beet Chocolate Cake (“Beetnick Cake”)
Vermont FEED (Food Education Every Day) works with some of the pickiest eaters: elementary school students. However, taste testing and working with students on recipes using local foods helps introduce them to new products. While VT FEED recommends serving fresh, raw vegetables when possible, they have also worked with students, parents, and food services to create fun, once-in-a-while recipes. This Beetnick Cake appears in the VT FEED guide to using local foods in schools (see www.vtfeed.org). It was contributed by Mary Lou LaPierre at Jericho Elementary School. Please note, this recipe is for a school cafeteria – reduce it for a home kitchen!

• 67 oz (approx 4 lbs) boiled and peeled beets (save some water for pureeing)
• 2 cups cocoa powder
• 1 ½ cups oil
• 1 cup applesauce
• 2 Tbsp vanilla
• 3 lbs sugar
• 3 Tbs baking soda
• 7 eggs
• 1 ½ lbs all purpose flour
• 1 ½ lbs whole wheat pastry flour

1. Puree beets in food processor with a little juice from cooking
2. Mix all ingredients in mixer
3. Pour into greased sheet cake pan
4. Bake 40 – 45 minutes, test with a toothpick
5. Top with sprinkled powder sugar or vanilla frosting

Turnip Pizza Dough
Pizza is a great way to make a local foods crowd pleaser. Even in winter, Vermont toppings like cheese (including a new pizza cheese line from VT Milk Company), sausage, chicken, hamburger, onions, and garlic are relatively easy to find. Plus, pizza dough is easy to make . . . and is a great way to use turnips. The turnips produce a thick crust pizza with a savory undertone that complements both tomato and white sauces.

• 1 cup peeled, pureed turnips (boil turnips for ~20 minutes or until soft, then puree in food processor or mash really well)
• 2 cups whole wheat bread flour
• 1-2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp sage
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tb. Yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp sugar

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar into warm water. Set aside to proof.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine whole wheat flour, sage, and salt.
3. Stir in turnips and yeast mixture.
4. Stir in white flour until a knead-able dough (don’t worry if it’s a little sticky).
5. Knead on a well floured surface until elastic. Place in a covered bowl in a warm place for an hour to rise.
6. Split dough in half, roll out, and place in two pizza pans dusted with cornmeal.
7. Turn oven to 400-degrees F. When oven is heated (at least 15 minutes after dough is rolled out) bake dough for 7 minutes. (Crusts can be cooled at this point and frozen or refrigerated for another day).
8. Add toppings and return to oven for another 7 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden-brown.