before	after

The veritable veggies, clockwise from top-left: Brussels sprouts with hazelnut butter, maple-cardamom roast turnips, sauteed kale, Swiss chard and feta pie.

I have been trying to write this post for about 2 weeks. In fact, I think I have been trying to write it for so long that I think most of the veggies I intended to write about are no longer in season…well, ok maybe it hasn’t been *quite* that long.

So, at the time of year when it’s starting to get wet and cold and dismal, what on earth could have caused a vegetable extravaganza? Let me explain: the start of the veritable vegetable extravaganza was coincided with the arrival of the Thanksgiving special of Fine Cooking magazine. Now, your average Thanksgiving special contains about 2 turkey recipes, and 6+ vegetable sides, and Fine Cooking was no exception. If one were to *actually* make every side dish for Thanksgiving dinner, there’d be no need for a turkey! Now to be sure, the vegetables have always been my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner, and I personally think the idea of a vegetable medley for Thanksgiving sounds kind of cool, but I know others tend to be partial to the bird.

And so, rather than making all 6+ veggie dishes for one meal, I figured I’d start early and work my way through them gradually. And thus began the veritable vegetable extravaganza (hereafter referred to as VVE).

One vegetable that shows up around this time of year is the infamous Brussels sprout. I say infamous, because like spinach and broccoli and other unfortunate victims of poor preparation, Brussels sprouts can indeed be fairly vile if they aren’t done right. This is really too bad, because if you do them right, Brussels sprouts can be quite tasty.

This year, Fine Cooking has cornered the market on creative ways to dress up Brussels sprouts:
Brussels sprouts with Dijon walnut crumbs
Brussels sprouts with toasted hazelnut butter
Brussels sprouts with brown butter and lemon
Brussels sprouts with herbs and shallots
Brussels sprouts with pancetta and lemon

So far, I’ve only made the first two–but as long as the sprouts are in season, I plan to keep working my way down the list.

The next two vegetables on the roster for the VVE are repeat offenders: kale and Swiss chard. I know, I know, everyone’s tired of hearing about my adventures with kale, but this really a delicious (and straightforward) recipe.

For quite a while, now, I’ve been trying to find a way to make the kale taste the way it does in the roasted chicken and kale dish, without having to make enough chicken to feed a small army. Not that there’s anything wrong with the chicken…but sometimes I just crave the kale. Anyways, this seems to be just the ticket. I’ve made it a couple times now and really enjoyed it. This particular time, I decided to skip the pasta altogether and just make a big pot of sauteed kale (it makes a delicious lunch).

There’s a stand at the farmer’s market in my neighborhood every Saturday that has absolutely delicious (and enormous) kale. The same stand also has delicious Swiss chard, and so, whenever I stop by there to buy kale, I almost always come out with a giant bunch of Swiss chard as well. The Swiss chard became part of a delicious phyllo pastry pie, along with some onions and feta cheese. If you’ve never had Swiss chard and feta, I highly recommend it. It’s like spinach and feta (think spanikopita) but even better. My only objection to this recipe is that I think the phyllo pastry is more fuss than its worth. Maybe next time (and rest assured there will be a next time) I’ll try using pizza dough.

This brings us to the last veggie of the VVE: Turnips. The recipe was another FC special: Roasted turnips with maple and cardamom–how could I pass that up? I couldn’t. Next time, though, I’ll be sure to buy the right kind of turnips. The tangy red ones–the type you often get in falafel sandwiches or shish taouk–do not lend themselves very well to the subtle flavors of maple and cardamom…oops.

And so we conclude the first installment of the VVE. However, I’m barely halfway through the veggie dishes from Fine Cooking, and the X-mas issue of Food and Drink just arrived in the mail, so I expect the extravaganza is far from over.