In our continuing quest for good tasting, inexpensive and reasonably healthful fare, here is a vegetable offering I picked up from a friend a couple of weeks ago when I was moaning aloud about not being able to think of enough ways to cook turnips.

“Oh,” said my friend Kathleen, “here’s one.”

By golly, it matches nicely with the household supply: all those turnips and carrots we are harvesting, and the stalks of broccoli I hate to throw out. To which we add a fairly flexible little dressing made out of a lot of stuff I bet most of us have on hand, but isn’t terribly harmed by the omission of a couple of ingredients.

It is fun to have root vegetables as a salad for a change. In fact, this could be assembled from leftover vegetables, and the dressing part of the recipe makes enough so that you can put some of it aside to use tossed on other cold, cooked vegetables, such as potatoes, cauliflower or green beans.

The only thing about this recipe that might slow you down a little is the assembly time. I decided that vegetables cut in matchsticks would be a good idea, and I decided that I would cook them separately so they were just so. But you don’t have to do that. You can dice them or cut them in chunks, and they could be cooked so that the carrots and turnips are very tender but the broccoli just blanched. You could even steam the celery if you wanted. And not only that, if you had more carrots than turnips or vice versa, there isn’t any reason I can think of that you can’t just use what you have or prefer. I threw in some broccoli florets at the last minute.

It’ll taste good no matter what you do. It is a pretty salad, too, with the orange of the carrots, pale yellow of the turnip, and green of the broccoli. Come to think of it, if you don’t have a garden, or don’t want to hunt for turnips, carrots and broccoli, you could even use one of those bags of frozen mixed stir-fry vegetables.

Vegetable Salad

Serves four to five (13/4 cups)

Dressing:

4 tablespoons of chopped parsley (several stalks, leaves picked off)

4 tablespoons of chopped scallions or mild onions

1 hardboiled egg, mashed

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1 cup of mayonnaise

1/4 cup of sour cream

2 tablespoons of prepared mustard (Dijon-style)

Mix all together by hand or whirl in the processor. Taste and add salt and pepper if you wish. Set aside.

Vegetables:

2 cups peeled, sliced carrots

2 cups peeled, sliced turnips

2 cups of peeled, sliced broccoli stalk

1 cup chopped celery

Cook the carrots, turnips and broccoli to your taste. Let cool. Toss together with the celery and add about a quarter of a cup of dressing; toss till the vegetables are coated, adding more dressing if you wish. Refrigerate the rest of the dressing until you want it the next time.