Feast on Fall Vegetables

When warm-weather produce starts to vanish from your favorite farmer’s market, it’s time to switch over to fall veggies, and that means a bunch of new flavors to enjoy.

To expand your options, start with the basics of what to do with all that fall bounty. Are you hip to turnips? Do you speak squash? Can you tell a sweet potato from a yam? The better you know these vegetable stars and what to do with them, the more variety you can add to your seasonal menus.

Give yourself enough time to roast your vegetable feast, and you can make a wonderful dish with carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, beans, and mushrooms. Most of these veggies need some extra cooking time to break down starchy or woody textures, so plan for that. In fact, you can make incredible roasted veggies with just 10 minutes of prep and 50 minutes of cooking time, all on one baking sheet.

Squash come in a whole rainbow of colors, sizes, and flavors, but they’re all part of the savory picture when fall rolls around. Combine squash with turnips and cauliflower, and you’ve got a multi-chapter book of soups, side dishes, casseroles, and other goodies that look as good as they taste. Best of all, squash is inexpensive and keeps long enough for you to cook your way through a stocked-up pantry.

Strictly speaking, some fall vegetables aren’t really vegetables, including pumpkin. But this seasonal favorite is adept at switching sides from savory to sweet. This orange multi-tasker can star in anything from muffins and cookies (including gluten-free options) to soups and sauces—and you can roast it like a squash as well. When you shop, look for a small pie pumpkin, not one of the giants that are meant for Halloween carving. Those don’t really taste good because they’re more for looks than flavor.

There are so many recipes for Brussels sprouts available that there’s bound to be one to suit almost every taste. Roast them with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper or get fancier, adding maple syrup and bacon, roasting them with cauliflower, or shredding them for a salad. Use your imagination to a gourmet treat.

Even if you’re neither vegetarian nor vegan, you can find umpteen ways to prepare fall’s vegetable standouts, including options that’ll fill you up without a bite of meat in sight. This is a great time of year to experiment with increasing the role of veggies in your diet, so try out new ideas and tempt your palate. For more healthy-eating ideas, check out the rest of the Recipes section here at Health Possible.