>Speaking of potato alternatives - Philip, try celeriac.  It looks like a
>mutant veggie from another planet, but once you trim off the ugly outer
>peel, and cube the round root, its really great.

If you like celery, you will like celeriac!  Modern celery is bred for the
super-juicy (and thus less-concentrated, less-bitter flavored) stalks, while
celeriac is a much older version of the same vegetable, bred for the roots,
which keep well in a cellar over the winter (very important in the days when
there was no refrigeration, and it was hard to store enough food to last a
family the entire winter).

To me, celeriac has a nut-like taste, but is much less watery than modern
celery stalks, and much less starchy than modern tubers. Hence, to me it is
a near-perfect veggie, and an excellent substitute for the white potatoes
that I miss badly, but which exacerbate my arthritis.

Has anyone here eaten enough celeriac and Jerusalem artichokes to do a
comparison/ contrast of the two flavors raw and cooked, and the textures?

Celery is considered a tonic vegetable that cleanses the blood, and having
the same ancestry and same flavor, surely celeriac would also have at least
some of the same qualities.  Can anyone confirm if it is diuretic like
asparagus?  I believe it is, and if so, that is one way it cleanses the
system....

Although celeriac is probably different than the ancestral plants of the
Neanderthals, it is likely be more like the original plants than modern
stalk celery is.

laurie (Mother Mastiff), former horticulturist and lifelong lover of odd
vegetables