Pacific Northwest: Root Vegetable Stew

The reality of this venture is that it will take me some investments in order to be successful. First it is an investment of time and then there will be some money: mostly for the canning stuff. I just started going through recipes and checking them for locality of products......hmm not as straight forward as i thought.

Here is my first recipe of choosing for the new year with changes from the original for pure local eating. I took out a couple other "roots" such as celery root and tossed in some more local items such as actual celery.

While I was at it hacking away at so many veggies I started two other pots on the stove to make veg stock. I looked at the page I just gave you as a link and decided that veggies of any sort boiled for about an hour or so would give me good enough stock in the future. The finished stock is currently frozen in ice cube form and also baggies, ready for use.

As for the root vegetable stew below, here is what I think: 1) it's so easy 2) it makes a lot, from my pot it seems far more than 6 - 8 servings and 3)it's pretty darn bland, in that yummy rooty sort of way which actually makes it very functional. With my giant pot o' root soup I'm gonna split it up, freeze it and be able to add what I like to it with time: different sorts of beans and other vegetables as they become available.

Root Vegetable Stew

2 onions diced
2 parsnips, peeled and diced
2 medium rutabagas, peeled and diced
2 turnips, peeled and diced
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
4 celery stalks, diced
4 carrots, diced
1 fennel bulb, halved, cored and diced

spices: ginger and cinnamon

vegetable stock

In large pot over medium heat, saute onion in oil for five minutes or until soft. Add parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, sweet potatoes, fennel, celery and carrots. Add enough stock to barely cover vegetable, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes.

Remove from heat and gently puree soup 3 seconds to slightly thicken liquid and blend flavors. Season to taste with cinnamon and ginger.

serves 6 -8.