Three or four generations ago, virtually every rural homestead featured what was variously known as a root cellar, potato cellar, cannery, or potato house. Normally a smoke or meat house was present as well. These storage places, although not always separate from the family dwelling place, served critical needs. They served as primitive refrigerators and freezers when it came to keeping produce, and even after the advent of canning they figured prominently in the folkways of food. Many types of food were stored in them — cured meat, pickles and sauerkraut, fruit, winter squash, and with the advent of canning, canned goods. Yet arguably the most common of all usages was protection of root crops.

Root crops — Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, onions, rutabagas, beets, parsnips, leeks, radishes, Jerusalem artichokes, and even spicy horseradish roots — will keep in a properly constructed underground storage area for many months. There they are protected from the ravages of both excess heat and freezing cold, with the encircling protective walls of earth maintaining temperatures ranging a few degrees above or below 40 degrees and humidity at levels preventing drying or desiccation.

These foodstuffs have long been staples of regional diets, originally by necessity and today by taste preference and tradition. After all, vast numbers of the region’s population have origins tracing back to the British Isles, a place where root crops have always been a central dietary feature. Many of us like to think of ourselves as adventurous on the food front, but by the same token there’s no denying the magnetic pull of longtime staples and family favorites. Obviously delicious tastes and textures are also components figuring in the overall appeal of root crops.

The appeal of root crops can be rather exotic, but at their elemental and most meaningful level they are simply staples of daily life. My beloved Grandpa Joe was fond of saying, “Eat taters; they’ll stick to a man’s ribs.” Another comment I often heard over the years of my youth was a telling one; it likely but unknowingly harkened back to the devastating Potato Famine of the late 1840s in Ireland, an event that saw millions of immigrants flee starvation to come to this country.

It suggests, in simple yet telling fashion, “As long as you have a tater, you have a banquet.” That’s obviously a poor man’s indulgence in overstatement, but with thanks to the fine variety of root crops available today, most of which can be grown by local gardeners or found in farmers markets or on grocery store shelves, culinary abundance aplenty is offered by root crops.

Root vegetables figured prominently in my family’s diet when I was a youngster, and what follows is a mix of offbeat food “tricks” using root crops, along with a selection of recipes I suspect the average reader has not tried. Collectively they are designed to facilitate some experimental travel in new dining directions.

Offbeat Approaches for Root Crops

• Use grated or shredded potatoes to form the crust for a quiche in place of the traditional one using dough. Frozen ones intended for use as hash browns will work perfectly well. Just be sure to pack the potatoes well on the bottom and around edges of your quiche baking pan. This will help avoid any leakage of the egg mixture poured atop the potato crust similar to the dreaded “going under” one can experience with pies.

• Try frying thin slices of radish. These “radish chips” are crisp and crunchy, providing a taste that is rather different from that of raw radishes.

• Make soups using turnips as a primary ingredient. Not everyone likes the distinctive taste of turnips, but for those who do, a piping hot bowl of turnip-based soup on a cold winter’s day can be quite a feast. Try mixing turnips with leeks, onion, parsnips, or carrots along with chicken stock and a bit of cream to undertake your personal adventure into the likely unexplored world of turnip soup.

• Sweet potatoes are far more versatile than the standard approaches of being baked in their skin, used for sweet potato pie, or featured in casseroles with marshmallows and nuts. Alternatives include using small sweet potato cubes with foods like bacon or spinach as a topping for homemade pizza, baking sweet potato breads that pair this root crop with ingredients such as raisins or chocolate chips, or partnering with cheese in dishes such as mashed sweet potatoes and cheddar cheese or sweet potato macaroni and cheese.

• If you can manage to find them, try white sweet potatoes. They are somewhat more “waxy” and have a different texture from their golden orange cousins.

• Most folks, if familiar with Jerusalem artichokes, know them only in pickled form. Try them oven roasted with some garlic cloves or raw — they have a delightful nutty flavor — in green salads.

• Roast slender slices of parsnips, top with Parmesan cheese once the parsnips are done, and then cook just enough more to crust the cheese.

• Mix blended beetroot with oil and vinegar to make a colorful and tasty salad dressing.

Lancashire Hot Pot

In a previous phase of my life, before transitioning to my present guise of “recovering professor” (full recovery seems likely to prove impossible), I spent a great deal of time in Britain conducting research for various academic books. During my travels in England and Scotland, I often stayed in bed-and-breakfast establishments, and many of them, particularly those in somewhat out-of-the-way locations, also offered the option of evening meals for a price well below that of virtually any restaurant other than the most basic fish-and-chips eateries.

Money was tight, and any chance to save a pound or two was readily used. The approach not only helped economically, it gave me exposure to a pleasing array of new and delectable dishes. One such item was Lancashire Hot Pot, although I first sampled and savored the dish in Edinburgh, Scotland, rather than the county for which it is named. The hearty “meal in itself” features lamb or veal along with a variety of root vegetables.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, sliced
3 to 4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced rather thin
2 to 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1½ pounds lamb or veal, cubed
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped (use dried flakes if you don’t have the fresh herb)
Several pats of butter
Chicken stock

Heat oil in a large skillet and brown the meat. Drain the oil and fat and reserve. Preheat oven to 375 F. Using a 9-inch by 13-inch casserole dish, place alternating layers of the root vegetables and meat cubes, beginning and ending with potatoes. Dot the top with a few pats of butter, pour the reserved oil over the layered dish, and add enough chicken stock to reach the top layer. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours until done. It may be necessary to add more chicken stock if the top layer of potatoes begins to get too brown. Served with a fruit salad and crusty bread, this makes a truly hearty meal.

Tip: You can substitute or add rutabagas or turnips to the dish. If so, cut them thicker because they cook quicker than potatoes and carrots.

Baked Onions with Cheese

5 to 8 onions, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons butter, cut into small cubes (use the real thing)
3 tablespoons water
1 cup shredded cheese (extra sharp cheddar is extra scrumptious)

Add onion slices to a greased baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Dot with butter and sprinkle with water. Cover dish and bake at 400 F for 30 to 40 minutes or until the onions are tender. Top with shredded cheese, remove cover, and bake for 10 more minutes.

Carrot, Raisin, and Pineapple Salad

1 cup carrots, grated
½ cup raisins
½ cup canned pineapple slices or chunks, cut into small bits with an ulu or mandoline (or use fresh pineapple if you have it)
Mayonnaise

Stir the carrots, raisins, and pineapple together and then mix in mayonnaise to taste — be careful not to add too much. A pinch of sugar can be added if desired. Also, opportunities are available aplenty for variations. Among them are using golden raisins for an orange and yellow color scheme, chopped pecans for extra crunch, or dried cranberries instead of raisins.

“New” Potato Salad

I enjoy potato salad any time of the year, but my favorite is making it with new potatoes. Something is particularly appealing about their texture and taste, and the first potatoes of spring nicely coincide with the peak period of egg laying. In this season, at least for those who live sufficiently close to the Earth or raise much of what they eat, both basic ingredients are available in abundance. If not, you can readily procure the key ingredients from your grocer.

3 to 6 boiled eggs (depending on how much you want to make)
3 times the volume of eggs in new potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
Sweet pickles, to taste
Large Vidalia onion, chopped
Mustard
Mayonnaise
Salt and pepper, to taste
Paprika

Here’s how to make the dish, with due apology for the lack of specifics when it comes the measurements. That’s for the simple reason I don’t use them.

Boil the eggs, which I do in advance, and set aside to cool. Cut potatoes into chunks and boil until just tender. Drain and set aside while you peel the eggs. Chop or cut the eggs into pieces. Add eggs and boiled potatoes to a large bowl. Add sweet pickles and chopped onion to the bowl. Add mustard — I just squeeze mustard out of a container until it looks like enough — and several tablespoons of mayonnaise, and stir everything up. If it needs more mayonnaise or mustard, add it. Add salt and pepper and top the finished potato salad with a really hefty sprinkling of paprika. Lightly stir in the paprika and place the bowl in the fridge to chill.

Roasted Root Vegetable Medley

Most root vegetables lend themselves to roasting, and a dandy way to enjoy them is to roast several of them together. This provides a hearty vegetable dish that pairs nicely with meat main course offerings such as a beef or pork roast, baked chicken, or even grilled steak. When it comes to what vegetables to use, it’s pretty much a matter of selecting personal favorites or perhaps using whatever happens to be available.

Ready the veggies for roasting by slicing or cubing into pieces of a size that will allow them to roast readily. Place the prepared root choices in a large bowl, add enough olive oil to coat the pieces, salt and pepper to taste, and shake vigorously to be sure everything has a thin coating of oil. Spread in a single layer atop a greased cookie sheet or similar oven tray and roast at 400 F. Use a spatula to turn once and thereby obtain uniform crustiness during the roast process. Serve piping hot.

Tip One: If you enjoy a particular herb, say parsley or cilantro, with root crops, spread some of it in either dried or fresh form atop the vegetables prior to placing them in the oven.

Tip Two: Roasted root crops can be mixed with other vegetables — with cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts working especially well — in this medley.

Jim Casada is a full-time freelance writer with dozens of books to his credit. Two of his more recent efforts focus on food. They are the multi-award-winning Fishing for Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir and Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food: Recipes & Stories from Mountain Kitchens, coauthored with Tipper Pressley.