The peasants of the Middle Ages had a very hard life—they were called villeins, from Latin villa (meaning "farm"), and the word, though with a slight spelling difference, is the same as the English "villains." And yes, they ate roots as did the people of the towns and so we do today, at almost every meal. Roots have been part of man’s diet throughout history.

What exactly is a root? The dictionary defines it as follows:

That part of the plant or tree which is normally below the earth’s surface...serving to attach the plant to and convey nourishment from the soil to it...the underground part of a plant used for eating or in medicine.

Besides being the plant’s reserve and organ of nourishment, roots provide food for farm animals and for ourselves. Root vegetables are therefore those plants whose underground parts in particular are edible. Cooked or raw, roots such as salsify, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, beetroot, celeriac and carrots appear on our tables daily.

Root vegetables are very much neglected in the daily life of cooking everyday meals. Perhaps if we knew a little more about them, how good they are for us and how easy they are to cook, we could have more interesting ingredients to put on the family table.

What is salsify? Have you ever eaten it? Salsify came into this country in about 1700, probably via France, though it was originally developed in Italy, too. Often it was called vegetable oyster, a name one still finds in seedsmen’s catalogs, or oyster plant. One authority says that this must have been because it had a slightly oysterish flavor and could be used in meat pies instead of oysters, which were often added for piquancy in the days when they were cheap. However, if the flavor was once there, modern varieties have it no longer. Salsify tastes a bit like artichoke bottoms and makes a nice substitution for baby artichokes. Other people have compared it to the parsnip, but this won’t do either. Parsnip has a softer texture than the clean, waxy bite of salsify and is much sweeter.

Salsify is best when cooked. It will begin to turn dark as soon as it has been peeled or cut and will stain fingers and nails. Prepare a large bowl of acidulated water—1 quart water mixed with 2 Tbsp. lemon juice—before beginning to peel the salsify. Drop the peeled vegetable directly into the acidulated water and cook the salsify in the same water.

1 lb. salsify, trimmed, peeled, cut into 1/2" pieces, boiled in acidulated water (see above) until tender (20 to 30 minutes), drained and dried in a towel

3 Tbsp. butter

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 Tbsp. Italian parsley, chopped

2 tsp. zest of lemon, chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped

Melt the butter in a sauté pan, add the salsify and cook until very tender and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in salt and pepper to taste and put into a hot dish. Mix parsley, lemon zest and garlic together and sprinkle this mixture over the salsify. Serve hot.

MAKES: 8 servings

The parsnip is an old vegetable that has been cultivated out of the wild for several thousand years. Until potatoes took over as the starch of choice, parsnips were a winter staple, and they deserve to be one again.

Parsnips are related to carrots, which they resemble somewhat in shape if not in color. The considerable quantities of starch in the parsnip convert to sugar when the vegetable is touched with the cold of frost. Once this conversion has begun, parsnips are delightfully sweet, with a very agreeable nutty flavor.

French dictionaries give a phrase, "Des panaise!" (literally, "Parsnips!"), meaning "Nothing doing!" or "Damn that!" But if the French don’t care much for parsnips, except as a flavoring root in pot-au-feu, you might wonder how you could ever have cooked without them once you have added parsnips to soups or stews. The cut-up vegetable can be added to casseroles, mashed, braised, boiled, steamed or roasted. In fact, it is almost as versatile as the potato that replaced it.

Parsnips are high in fiber and contain considerable amounts of calcium, potassium and vitamin C. You may see parsnips in the market all year long, but they are at their best from October to January or February.

2 lb. young parsnips, trimmed, cut into 1" pieces

2 Tbsp. butter

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. Italian parsley, chopped

Cook the parsnips in salted water to cover until crisply tender (4 to 5 minutes), drain and cool. Peel the parsnips and cut into slices or matchsticks.

Melt the butter in a pan over low heat; stir in the parsnips. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with sugar and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until tender and coated with the glaze, 6 to 8 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with parsley.

MAKES: 8 servings

A root vegetable of the cabbage family, turnips have long been one of the more popular vegetables in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Northern Europe and the British Isles. Turnips were cultivated very early in America but have never achieved the popularity they enjoy in Europe. Turnip greens, however, are especially popular in our Southern states.

Easy to grow and quick to mature in the same hostile soils that foster poverty, this cold-weather root crop has long been relied on by the poor and therefore scorned by everyone else. The turnips that drew this lowly opinion have little to do with young spring turnips, which are sweet as you please. Waverly Root, the late food historian, pointed out that his favorite Paris restaurant served the classic duck with turnips only during six weeks in April and May, turnips being deemed unfit to eat the rest of the time.

Turnips are best when young and small, ideally no larger than 2" in diameter, without scarred or split skins. Greens, if attached, should be crisp and unwilted. Turnips and their greens are extensively used in Chinese, Japanese and other Oriental cooking.

White turnips and rutabagas should be peeled, unless they are very young. Cut into halves or quarters and place around a roast. Season and baste often and turn in the drippings. Allow about 45 minutes; they are done when easily pierced with a fork, the outside a little browned.

A close relative of the turnip, the rutabaga (also called a Swede or Swedish turnip) is a good two times the size of the average white turnip and is firm with a slightly sweet taste. Apparently a cross between a cabbage and a turnip, it does not seem to have anything particular to do with Sweden. Rutabagas have a thinnish skin that is often dipped in paraffin, so it should be peeled off before you cook it; those we generally see have yellow flesh. They can be used as you use turnips, but one satisfying way is to mix equal parts mashed rutabaga and mashed potatoes and dress it all with butter.

It is believed that the beetroot was developed by German gardeners in the Middle Ages. Enthusiasm for it seems to have spread most successfully from Germany to the North and East, where one finds good herring and beetroot salad, and the supreme dish of all as far as beetroot is concerned, borscht, that delicate pink and creamy chilled soup, speckled with chives.

Beets are vegetables that provide both edible bulbous red roots and leafy green stalks—for the price of a single vegetable, you get two. Of the two, the roots are far more universally used because they stay fresh longer, are easily stored and are used in canning. A relative of Swiss chard, very fresh beet greens are tender and sweet, almost like spinach, when cooked.

French chefs are specially fond of the beet for its flamboyant, deep scarlet color. American chefs seems to have rediscovered beets, too, especially the exotic-colored ones: candy-striped red and white, orange, pink, dark-red and even yellowish-white varieties are available at some specialty greengrocers. They are extremely attractive in salads and are deliciously decorative additions to any menu.

Beets are frequently in the market all year around, but they are at their best from late May until the weather gets very hot. The smaller they are, the more tender and sweet the beets will be.

To prepare beets for cooking, wash them gently, being careful not to tear the skins. Don’t peel the beets; remove the tail or remove 2" of the root ends or stems at this time because the beets will bleed.

8 medium beets, unpeeled

4 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. dry red wine

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh Italian parsley

salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Wrap each beet in a piece of aluminum foil and place directly on the oven rack. Bake for 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until tender when pierced with a knife.

Peel the beets and cut them into quarters. Melt the butter in a pan, add the wine, parsley and beets. Toss to coat evenly, season with salt and pepper and heat until warmed through.

MAKES: 6 servings

Celery root, celery knob or turnip-rooted celery is grown for its enlarged roots rather than for the stalks and leaves of ordinary celery—only the root is eaten. Celeriac is not the root of the common celery plant, but rather an entirely separate vegetable.

This root is usually of an irregular globular shape, two to four inches across, with a rough brownish skin and whitish flesh. With its crisp texture and pronounced celery taste, it is delicious eaten raw in salads and well regarded in France, where many home kitchens have a special grater for making the matchstick-sized pieces needed for dishes such as celeri remoulade. French home cooks also puree celery root with potatoes, or make a potato-thickened, cream-enriched celery root soup.

1 large celeriac, peeled, sliced thin, cut into matchstick slices

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

3/4C mayonnaise (or more as needed)

2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley

Toss the celeriac with the lemon juice and set aside. Combine the mayonnaise and mustard in a small bowl and add to the celeriac. Toss gently and season with salt and pepper. Chill, covered, for at least 1 hour. Serve garnished with the parsley.

MAKES: 6-8 servings

Celeriac apparently originated in the Mediterranean. In the United States it was mentioned in the early 1800s, but it has never caught on as it did in Europe—maybe because this vegetable is so ugly!

Available from September through April, it is low in calories, and high in vitamin C and potassium. Choose smaller rather than larger heads since the latter may be woody. To store, remove and throw away top leaves and root fibers as they will continue to draw moisture from the root if left attached. Wrap in a damp paper towel and refrigerate in the vegetable crisper.

To use: Celeriac must be peeled before eaten raw or cooked. Since it darkens when cut, have a bowl of acidulated water ready (3 Tbsp. lemon juice for each quart of water) into which to drop the cut pieces to prevent discoloration.

Carrots are one of the most popular of the root vegetables and many cooks keep them on hand at all times to use in salads, soups or just to nibble on raw. Carrot seeds from about 2000 or 3000 BC have been found in the remains of lake dwellings of central Switzerland, but there are no signs that the vegetable was cultivated. Most likely those ancients used it for medicinal purposes, as did the Greeks around the first century BC, who valued carrots as a stomach tonic.

The tops of the carrots are a mark of freshness, so most supermarkets sell only "clip-top" carrots—carrots with the greens removed. The bagged and bulk carrots may be weeks or months old, but you can’t know with no greens to guide you. You can surely taste the difference, though. Although carrots keep relatively well, a freshly pulled carrot will be sweeter and juicier than a stored one, and more nutritious, too.

The sweetest, most delicate carrots are the ones the farmer pulls from the row at the beginning of the summer so that others will have room to grow. Often called spring carrots, they are immature or baby carrots of a regular variety. While carrots that have been recently harvested are sweet and delicately flavored, those that have been stored for some time give up their sweetness and take on a more assertive carrot flavor.

The assortment of ways to cook carrots is endless. They may be steamed, boiled, baked, grilled in foil or stir-fried. They may be pressed for their juice, pureed and made into any number of dishes, including desserts such as cakes, pies and soufflés. And of course, they may be served raw.

Carrots are low in fat and calories, and very high in the antioxidant beta-carotene. They also provide some vitamin C and a fair amount of potassium. Whether or not they can help you see in the dark is still up for debate, however, and they do not have any effect at all on the curliness of hair!

1/2 lb. young carrots, scrubbed and left whole, or older carrots, peeled and cut lengthwise into halves or quarters

1 C water (or more as needed)

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. butter

salt

freshly ground pepper

1 Tbsp. Italian parsley, chopped

Place the carrots in an inch of water, add the salt and bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook until almost tender (8-10 minutes). Remove the lid and cook a few minutes longer to reduce the cooking liquid. Add the butter, salt and pepper to taste and stir in the parsley.

MAKES: 4-6 servings

Root vegetables become staples for most cooks in fall and early winter, when the abundance of summer’s produce has faded away. With little effort on the cook’s part, roasting seems to bring out the natural sugar of most root vegetables and they can almost all be cooked as follows:

Start by scrubbing the vegetables well or peeling them. Slice them into uniform pieces and layer them in a lightly oiled baking dish. Add a flavorful liquid (such as fruit juice or white wine) to help soften them; roast at 400-450°F until most of the liquid is absorbed and the vegetables are tender, 40 to 45 minutes. Stir the vegetables every 15 minutes or so, allowing them to brown evenly and become soft.

Even kids seem to enjoy the sweet taste of roasted roots, and so will you.