Love ‘em or hate ‘em spring veggies

By Linda Hepler Beaty
Sun contributor

If you’re like most people, you may pass by some of the offerings at the early farmers markets because you don’t care for them. At least you think you don’t care for them — because of how they look, your unfamiliarity with preparing them — or an unfortunate experience when first tasting them.

Before moving to a farm in Leelanau County, where my husband and I spent six years growing and selling produce at farmers markets, I had little attraction to certain spring produce. Radishes, in my opinion, were simply the garnish on potato salad, or the red things that sunk to the bottom of the salad bowl, to be drenched in dressing in order to get them down. Rhubarb, with its celery-like appearance and tangy smell, didn’t appeal unless in a heavily sugared pie, and I try to avoid sugar. And sorrel? Don’t sheep eat that in the field?

But early on, I learned that it was my job as a farmer to know about what I was selling. Everything about it, including eating it. Customers invariably asked questions, like what is this veggie (or what variety is it)? What does it taste like? How do you use it? I realized that the more I knew about what I brought to sell, the more I sold. I also found that I loved teaching — and learning from — my customers. One of my first customers, Susie, became a regular. When I first met her, she confessed to me that she really didn’t know much about veggies, outside of standard fare like potatoes, corn, green beans and tomatoes. She told me that she wanted to get outside of her box, and so she asked me to pick an unfamiliar vegetable for her and give her a recipe for using it. The following week, she came back to report how much she enjoyed the new experience. Over the course of several summers of trying something new each week, Susie expanded her repertoire of produce selections, and even incorporated many of the recipes I gave her into her regular menus.

Ready to expand your own box? Here are three spring farmers market picks that you may find less than appealing, until you try them, or try new ways of cooking them:

Radishes. Not just a garnish, radishes can be used in a myriad of ways. If you don’t mind the spiciness, they’re great eaten raw, especially if you choose the milder varieties like Easter egg, French breakfast, or watermelon (this one, when sliced and then sliced again in half, looks exactly like miniature watermelon slices, with red meat and a green rind). If, on the other hand, you’re a “the hotter the better” person, look for black Spanish radishes. An heirloom root great for storing, it is as hot as it gets, although it mellows with age. Daikon radishes, in white, red or lavender, also offer wonderful heat. Raw radishes are great in a salad, on a sandwich, atop of French bread with real butter, or just eaten out of hand with a dash of salt.

Radishes can be cooked too, said Lake Leelanau summer resident Jim Kletzien, who along with wife Laurie, was first introduced to the idea of cooking radishes at a farmers market. “Cooking mellows the spiciness of the radish,” he said. “Our favorite way to eat radishes now is to grill them.”

One of the Kletzien’s favorite recipes for grilled radishes is to put sliced large radishes (daikons work well) along with halved heads of escarole or romaine lettuce on the grill until tender. Then top the greens with the radishes, and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and feta or parmesan cheese.

Cooked radishes can also be pureed into a creamy soup (great with potatoes and carrots), roasted along with root veggies like potatoes, onions, beets and garlic, sliced and pan fried or tossed with oil and baked into “chips,” mashed with potatoes, or stir fried with other veggies. And radishes can be pickled or slawed (think kimchi).

As an aside, radish greens are edible and versatile. They can be used in any dish that calls for cooked greens like kale or spinach.

The best thing about radishes? They’re really good for you! A cruciferous veggie like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, they contain cancer-protecting phytonutrients, along with low calories, and high water content for hydration.

Sorrel. Yes, sheep DO eat sorrel. Sheep’s sorrel grows wild throughout the United States. But this healthy culinary herb, which is in the same family as rhubarb, is also cultivated for human use, with several varieties showing up at farmers markets in the spring. Bright and tart, it tastes lemony, and is used like a leafy herb, said Kathy Snedeker, a farmers market shopper who lives in Northport. “It’s used for spring tonics, like a delicious sorrel soup,” she explained. “I love it in salads where its tart flavor mixes well with other greens and adds a special zing.”

In addition to soup (leek and sorrel soup is a favorite) and salad applications, sorrel is also used in a classic French sauce ideally suited for poached fish or poultry, or with pasta.

While sorrel grows best in cooler weather and you may only see it at market in the spring and the fall, said Snedeker, if you grow your own perennial sorrel plant, you can cut down the main stalks when they bolt in the heat, and use the new leaf growth throughout the summer. “It’s a bit thin until cooler weather,” she explained, but “then a new sorrel season begins afresh. Lasting like parsley and thyme, it’s good late into fall.”

Rhubarb. Kletzien loves rhubarb; In fact, he remembers eating it raw as a boy growing up in Pennsylvania. “We’d just pick a stalk, then sprinkle sugar on the end and take a bite,” he chuckled.

Rhubarb, sometimes called a “pieplant,” is often thought of as a fruit because you most often see it in a pie or a rhubarb crisp. But the plant with the celery-like stalks in red, green, or green fading to red (depending upon variety) is really a vegetable. When cooked, it becomes soft and delectable, with a tart and tangy flavor, perfect for desserts. Kleitzen makes a sauce of it by cooking it down with a bit of sugar (he likes to keep it relatively tart) to put on ice cream.

But although you typically do need some sugar or honey to sweeten up the mouth-puckering flavor just a bit, rhubarb works well in savory dishes, too. It can be tossed with honey and roasted to adorn chicken, or cooked down with a small amount of sugar, vinegar, a bit of port, and orange zest to make the perfect sauce for steak or pork. It can also be chopped finely or shredded to use raw in a radish/rhubarb salad with honey vinaigrette, or in a rhubarb/cucumber salsa.

Rhubarb is a powerhouse of vitamins, has antioxidant properties, and more calcium than milk.