How to Incorporate Root Vegetables into Your Family Dinners
As the cold weather continues, let me introduce you to the staple of your winter cooking: root vegetables! While it’s always important to have vegetables in your kitchen, winter is a great time to stock up and be intentional about incorporating them into your family’s diet. And the best part? There are endless easy ways to make this happen!
What are Root Vegetables?
Root vegetables are any vegetables you eat that are grown underground. The most common examples would be carrots, potatoes, and onions, but that’s just the beginning. They are rich in nutrients and can be prepared in countless ways.
Examples of Root Vegetables
- Potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Carrots
- Onions
- Beets
- Turnips
- Radishes
- Garlic
- Horseradish
- Ginger
Nutritional Benefits of Root Vegetables
While vegetables are inherently healthy, root vegetables boast numerous additional nutritional benefits. They’re low in fat, calories, and cholesterol, and they provide nutrients, vitamins, minerals and more. Experts say a colorful plate is a healthy plate, and root vegetables truly take you across the rainbow. This is because they’re an excellent source of carotenoids, or naturally occurring pigments that can decrease the risk of certain cancers and disease.
Other Nutritional Benefits:
- Are packed with antioxidants and fiber
- Help boost immunity
- Fight inflammation
- Promote healthy bones
- Improve eye health
- Prevent chronic conditions
Root Vegetables are Generally Good Sources of:
- Vitamins A, B and C
- Complex carbohydrates
- Fiber
- Potassium
- Folate
- Manganese
Easy Ways to Incorporate Root Vegetables into Your Dinner
With so many types of root vegetables, there are endless ways to prepare them and add them to your nightly dinner.
- Serve them as a side
Some root vegetables can stand by themselves as a side, like carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
- Make a vegetable melody
You can combine multiple of your favorite root vegetables into one dish. You can cook them in a skillet, on a sheet pan, in an air fryer, or even in the grill. Add carrots, potatoes, onions, radishes and more. The more colorful, the better!
- Put them in a salad
Root vegetables also make a great addition to any salad. Depending on the type of salad, you can slice up some radishes, carrots, onions or beets. You can top it with horseradish sauce, just to get one more root vegetable in there. To add some protein, we recommend our frozen individually pouched chicken breast tenderloins or our thin-sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts. If you want some already-seasoned chicken, try our applewood marinated boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- Make a stew
In the name of all things winter, we can’t forget about stew! Root vegetables are the perfect addition to any stew. Start with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and, of course, chicken!
Favorite Potato and Chicken Recipes
As I’m sure you know, there are endless ways to prepare potatoes. If you’re looking for a more sophisticated potato, here are two of our favorite recipes that combine potatoes with our namesake: chicken.
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BBQ Chicken Baked Potatoes
Step up your baked potato game by adding a southern favorite — BBQ chicken. This hearty recipe will quickly become a family favorite.
Prep + Cook Time: 4.25 hours
Servings: 4
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Loaded Potato Stuffed Chicken
Instead of putting the chicken in the potato like the last recipe, you can also put the potato in the chicken instead. It works both ways!
Prep + Cook Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 4
As you prepare your root vegetable-filled meals this winter, I hope you choose chicken as the main dish. Find a store near you today!
Stay warm, friends!
