The Sweetness of Winter Vegetables

Yes, it's "sweet" HAVING the winter vegetables to eat. But also, as these vegetables stay in storage through the winter months, they become more sweet as the sugars develop. This is not good or bad, but can affect the recipes you fix.

For example, I fixed the Chinese Napa and noodle dish in an earlier post ("More Winter Recipes") and took it to a potluck with a friend who is Chinese. She said, "it is so sweet?" I said I didn't add anything that was sweet to it: Napa, rice noodles, dried mushrooms and shrimp, and tamari. I later thought about it: It was the Napa itself that was sweet. A different dish than it would be when made with a fresh summer head of Napa.

And recently, I fixed roasted winter vegetables (recipe in earlier post). Turnip, parsnip, carrot and leek, roasted in the oven with a little olive oil and fresh herbs. They tasted great to me, but my husband complained that they were "sweet". He couldn't put a finger on why he didn't like it, but tried each vegetable, and then said "what's this?" "parsnip" "That's what I don't like."

Okay. I can save the parsnip for soups, where it is delicious. Turnip has sweetened enough in storage that it is truly yummy roasted. The next set of roasted vegetables will be just turnips. I'm looking forward to it. (And it gives me a way to use those 6 turnips waiting for me.)

Cabbage also sweetens some. The bitey nature of some of the Cruciferae mellows through the winter.

The apples I have stored in our cool garage are also getting sweeter and softer. I used to stew apples for dessert, with a little heavy cream (yum). Now it's enough to just cut them up and spoon on a bit of cream.

Note: if you keep your storage potatoes really cold, they will develop a sweetness that is definitely not potato-like. In this case, however, holding them at room temperature for a day or two before cooking undoes this change.