When you think about healthy eating, salads and green vegetables usually come to mind. But how about adding a little more variety to your plan?

Roots like carrots, sweet potatoes, and turnips, are a rich source of nutritious complex carbohydrates. Instead of upsetting blood sugar levels like refined sweet foods do, they help regulate them. Therefore, adding more of these sweet root vegetables into your diet helps you curb your cravings for sweets. It can’t get any sweeter than that!

Why Eat More Root Veggies?

Long roots – carrots, parsnips, burdock, and daikon radish – are excellent blood purifiers and can help improve circulation in the body.

Round roots – turnips, radishes, beets, and rutabagas – nourish the stomach, spleen, pancreas, and reproductive organs.

Also, in Ayurvedic medicine, which I’m a big fan of, it’s believed that eating root vegetables helps with making you feel grounded. So, when you feel unsettled and too dreamy (not that there’s anything wrong with dreaming), try adding some more root vegetables into your diet. It’s amazing how your interior balance, that harmony between yin and yang, could actually be achieved through food and self care.

Which root vegetables do you eat most?

If you’re like most of the world, it’s carrots and potatoes. Here are a few others to explore:

• Beets contain an abundance of antioxidants and are highly detoxifying.

• Burdock is considered a powerful blood purifier. This long, thin veggie is a staple in Asian and health food stores.

• Celeriac, also known as celery root, is rich in fiber and with a respectable amount of antioxidants.

• Jicama is crunchy and refreshing and contains a generous amount of vitamin C. It’s a favorite in its native Mexico and South America.

• Onions are rich in antioxidants and other phytonutrients, making them prized for their ability to strengthen the immune system.

• Parsnips, which look like giant white carrots, boast a sweet, earthy taste. They’ve also got plenty of fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, niacin, thiamine, magnesium, and potassium.

• Radish is an excellent source of vitamin C. It’s also rich in calcium, molybdenum, and folic acid.

• Sweet Potatoes contain unsurpassed levels of beta-carotene and are also rich in vitamin C, phytonutrients, and fiber.

Excited to add more roots to your diet? Here’s a fun, easy recipe:

Roasted Root Vegetables Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25-35 minutes
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
2 parsnips
2 carrots
2 turnips or 1 large rutabaga
1 daikon radish (or substitute/add in other favorites, like squash or beets)
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
herbs: rosemary, thyme or sage (fresh if possible)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (or even to 400 degrees if you like your veggies more on the crispy side).

Wash and dice all vegetables into bite-sized cubes.

Place in a large baking dish with sides.

Drizzle with olive oil; mix well to coat each vegetable lightly with oil.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper and herbs.

Bake uncovered for 25-35 minutes until vegetables are tender and golden brown, checking every 10 minutes to stir and make sure veggies are not sticking.

Tip: Any combination of vegetables will work. Roasting only one kind of vegetable also makes a nice side dish. I personally like to experiment with many different vegetables, as I love the rich taste the colorful vegetables develop when roasted. And as always, don’t forget to cook it with Love! It all tastes better when made with love!

Have any tips on how to add more of these delicious veggies into your diet? Have you experimented with any of the less common root veggies, such as jicama, kohlrabi or lotus root?  Please share your tips or questions in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you.

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ABOUT ME

A cancer survivor and holistic health enthusiast, I am a firm believer that what we feed our body and soul has a huge impact on our overall well-being. Therefore, I advocate for an integrative approach that focuses not only on nutrition, but on self-care and lifestyle choices in a bio-individual way.

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