Shaved Root Vegetable Salad. Who could tire of root veggies when they look this pretty? Photo by Christine Burns Rudalevige

Are you as sick of roasted root vegetables as I am? Well, that means it must be late March in Maine again!

While I am as grateful as the next locavore for the Maine farmers using high-tunnel greenhouses  and aquaponics systems to offer us salad greens, tender spinach, crunchy baby cucumbers and cherry tomatoes throughout the winter, I also feel a responsibility to eat up the root vegetables still sitting in their storage cellars during mud season. I think of it as paying my dues before diving into the early spring crops they will bring to the table in a few weeks. I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve, though, to make these wintertime staples decidedly more springy.

Marinated roasted root vegetables on yogurt can be filling enough to make a meal. Photo by Christine Burns Rudalevige

My first technique entails soaking still-warm, thinly-sliced and roasted vegetables in a punchy dressing. The warm vegetables, sweetened by the roasting process, readily absorb the flavor of the dressing for sweet-tart taste and a meaty texture. For example, roasted carrots dressed with a cilantro-lime dressing served at room temperature with cold Greek yogurt, olive oil and chopped nuts can both be a purposeful vegetarian main dish and a great side for salmon or pork.

If you roast a bunch of roots at once, you can mix them right out of the oven with a vinaigrette, bring them to room temperature and store them, like pickles, in the fridge. Roasted purple top turnips, rutabagas and yellow beets dressed with horseradish vinaigrette are at home atop a pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese as they are on a frisée salad with a poached egg.

My second technique involves pulling out my mandoline to thinly slice roots of all shapes and sizes into manageable pieces to eat raw. My inspiration for raw root vegetable salads comes from two places. The first is France, where celery root remoulade can be found on most bistro menus. In this classic dish, the gnarled skin of the root is lopped off and the white flesh is julienned and served with a herb-flecked, mustardy, mayonnaise and sour cream-based dressing.

The second source of inspiration for March raw vegetable salads is the variety of pretty vegetables — watermelon radishes, ruby and Chioggia beets, purple carrots and snowy white parsnips — Maine farmers still have on offer. The radishes and beets get shaved into discs and thrown into ice water for about an hour, which crisps up vegetables after their time in the root cellar and curls the discs attractively, adding volume to the finished salad.

While the ice water is doing its work, I take a potato peeler to several carrots and parsnips. Once they are peeled, I use the same tool to whittle off long strips of two carrots and two parsnips and toss the ribbons with 1 teaspoon each of sesame oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon each of grated ginger and honey. Let the mixture sit until the beets and radishes have plumped. Drain the beets and radishes on a dry towel for a few minutes before arranging them on a plate and scattering the carrot and parsnip ribbons over them. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and chopped scallions. To make a meal, serve the salad with crispy tofu or steamed or pan-fried dumplings.

Roasted root vegetable stock simmers on the stovetop. Photo by Christine Burns Rudalevige

If you’re too busy getting the spring yardwork done to deal with your pile of root vegetables, simply make roasted root vegetable stock. Toss a pound each of chopped rutabaga, turnips, carrots and yellow onions in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them in a hot oven for 35 minutes. Toss them in a stock pot with thyme and parsley sprigs, a bay leave and a handful of black peppercorns. Fill the pot with cold water and place it over low heat. In two hours time, you’ll have a gallon of bronzed veggie stock. It keeps in the refrigerator for 5 days or the freezer for 6 months.

Roasted root vegetables are delicious, granted, but you can do so much more. Photo by Christine Burns Rudalevige

Horseradish-Marinated Roasted Root Vegetables

This dressing is adapted from one published in “Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 recipes” by Diane Morgan. These sort-of pickles will keep in the fridge for a week. Use them on bagels, in roast beef sandwiches, in bitter green salads and on charcuterie boards.

1 pound yellow beets
1 pound rutabagas
1 pound purple-topped turnip
Olive oil
Salt
Black pepper
Zest of 1 lemon and 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Trim the root vegetables and cut them into wedges that are 1/4-inch thick. Toss with 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Spread the vegetables out in a single layer on 2 baking sheets. Roast them until they are just tender and starting to brown, 15-20 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine 1/3 cup olive oil, the lemon zest and juice, horseradish and parsley. When the vegetables are tender, immediately toss them in the dressing. Toss several more times as they cool to room temperature. Transfer them to an air-tight container and refrigerate. Use within a week.

Local foods advocate Christine Burns Rudalevige is the former editor of Edible Maine magazine and the author of “Green Plate Special,” both a column about eating sustainably in the Portland Press Herald and the name of her 2017 cookbook. She can be contacted at: cburns1227@gmail.com.