Here are some quick and delicious ways to serve root vegetables.

Daikon slaw: Peel daikon and grate. Toss with cole slaw-style dressing or combine with shredded carrots and red radishes.

Root vegetable crudites: Trim, wash and serve the following root vegetables whole, cut or sliced: red radishes, daikon, carrots, rutabagas, white Chioggia beets, turnips. Make vegetable chips from carrot, radish and turnip coins. Serve with hummus, yogurt-herb dip or garlicky soy mayonnaise.

Curried carrot salad: Peel and grate carrots. Mix with raisins and a vinaigrette flavored with curry powder.

Smashed roots: With potato masher, coarsely mash peeled, roasted or boiled root vegetables. Season and mix with salt and pepper, a drizzle of virgin olive oil, and a pinch of any of the following: cayenne, nutmeg, cumin or cinnamon.

Celery root remoulade: Mix peeled, coarsely grated celery root with lemon juice, light mayonnaise, a little Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper. Mound on lettuce.

Radish sandwiches: Spread whole-grain or rye bread thinly with low-fat or fat-free cream cheese. Cover with thinly sliced radishes. Serve open face, cut into triangles.

Garnish: Top pureed soups, such as squash, potato and pumpkin, with thinly sliced red radish coins. Garish dishes with carrot curls; peel long strips with vegetable peeler, place in ice water to crisp and curl.

Salad crunch: For extra flavor, color and crunch in green salads, try grating and adding any of the following uncooked roots: carrots, rutabagas, daikon, red radishes, turnips, even beets.

olive oil. Spoon on top of small squares of toasted Italian country bread. Authentic flavor: fermented soybeans, rice vinegar, chili and sesame oil.