Eat Your Veggies

Thanksgiving will be here in a few weeks for those of us in the United States. What will you be having at your celebratory dinner? Have you thought about it, yet? If you are like me, you haven’t given much thought to it. I tend to wait until a day or two before to decide. My mother, on the other hand, starts thinking about it months ahead of time. This year, I am trying to compromise by falling somewhere in the middle of those two time frames.

With that in mind, I thought I would brainstorm a few ideas:

• Smashed potatoes — a heartier version of mashed potatoes. Leave the skins on the potatoes when they are boiled to tenderness. Then, mash them with butter and milk, leaving lots of lumps. The skins and the lumps create multiple textures to the dish. My husband and I like to add roasted garlic in at the mashing stage as well.
• Baked root vegetables — cut up your favorite root vegetables into slices. We like beet, turnip, parsnip, carrot, and various varieties of potato (although if you also make the smashed potatoes, you can skip the potatoes in this dish). Spread oil on a baking sheet, then lay the sliced roots out onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt, freshly ground black pepper and, for a fall flair, a bit of cinnamon. Bake at 425 degrees for at least 20 minutes (depending on your oven, you may need to just keep checking them by sticking in a toothpick to see when they are tender).
• Green beans — instead of cooking green beans the old fashioned Southern way (which, yes, is actually my favorite) try them a different way. Buy them fresh, if they are available. Take off just a bit of each end and leave them long. Saute in a frying pan with olive oil and fresh garlic.

Please comment and let us know if you have some good recipes for Thanksgiving vegetable dishes.

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