This week’s hefty Medium share is full of classic Thanksgiving ingredients:

• Baby Hakurei Turnips
• Butternut Squash
• Garnet Sweet Potatoes
• Gold Potatoes
• Italian Parsley
• Rainbow Carrots
• Red Butterhead Lettuce
• Red Radishes
• Rutabaga                                                         

Storage

Snip off the greens from the baby hakurei turnips and the red radishes. The greens and the roots are both edible and hang out in the fridge, with the rutabaga. I had to search that one. The sweet potatoes and gold potatoes are in their potato pantries and the butternut squash joins the ever-growing squash pile. I’ve put the Italian parsley in a vase of water which would last even longer in the fridge but I like having a bouquet on the table.

Meal Prep

Because of the holiday, I’m not going to do a lot of meal prep this week. In a more typical week, I’d definitely do some pre-chopping of root vegetables and sheet pan roasts.

Some recipe ideas

I was wondering if last year’s Thanksgiving week box was as Thanksgiving-y as this year’s. Some good recipes there. I’d forgotten about maple pecan glazed hasselback butternut squash.

Gold potatoes would work well for fluffy and crispy crash hot potatoes.

Baby Hakurei turnips are less watery than white turnips and roast or braise well.

The lovely flavorful flat-leaf/Italian parsley would be delicious with any of the root vegetables, such as:

• Vichy-style carrots (glazed with butter and parsley)
• Company potatoes (potatoes with parsley)

Rutabaga is a root vegetable that I think is closer to potato than turnip as some people suggest. Here’s a recipe for apple rutabaga soup, inspired by The Inn at Little Washington. The ingredient list includes equal amounts of rutabaga, butternut squash, sweet potato, and carrots, so I could potentially make a massive amount of this soup and serve it endlessly. According to the recipe, “This dish can be made several days in advance and refrigerated, or you can freeze it for several months. The advance prep and storage really comes in handy if you plan on serving this as a first course for Thanksgiving! “

Here are 2 raw root vegetable salads that I have not tried and do not vouch for. I might try the rutabaga salad but the sweet potato salad sounds less appetizing to me.

• Raw rutabaga salad with apples
• Raw sweet potato with curry almond sauce

My neighbor mentioned making a sweet potato salad for Thanksgiving. I can’t find one online like what he described (his includes walnuts), but this sweet potato salad with parsley sounds similar. I’m excited to try it – I like making winter salads.