randompersonrandom said:
We all know potatoes, onions, corn, and tomatoes are solid choices. Yet countless other vegetables never make it into most people's carts. Tell us about the ones you discovered at some point are worth keeping around the house!
For me, it's a three-way tie:
Turnips and radishes, when roasted. Cube them to roughly half an inch, coat them with oil (a spray bottle of avocado oil gives even coverage without overdoing it), add salt and seasonings (herbes de provence and garlic are my go-to, though any root vegetable works with any seasoning), and both completely transform in flavor. Into the convection oven at about 450, and after 30 minutes give them a stir on the sheet pan, letting them go until the corners are brown and crispy. Radishes taste like "potatoes but less potatoey" (the small red ones and daikon both work great, but daikon is my pick since cubing it is less of a hassle), while turnips bring their own flavor that's somewhat sharp, like every root vegetable that isn't a potato (carrots and parsnips come to mind, but less sweet).
Amaranth leaves. In Texas, wild amaranth might be growing as a weed nearby; around here it's called "pigweed" and it's invasive. Don't forage it by the levee in dfw, it's not safe because there's too much lead in the soil. Growing it yourself is easy, though: scatter it once it's reasonably warm, water until it's established, then mostly ignore it. It gets huge and the leaves are delicious when cooked like collard greens. I love them in soup; they add better body than spinach and are milder in flavor than mustard greens. Stewing them in a crockpot with stock, a ham bone and some turkey sausage, any chopped summer squash, and seasoning, then adding some tortellini or gniocchi or chickpeas, quinoa, rice whatever, it's wonderful. Red, green and bronze is all very good, and the bugs don't usually get them too badly. I get the seeds for the wild stuff and grow from that, too, because I sure do love that variety even if I can't forage it.
