I was checking out at the grocery store the other day when the clerk asked whether I wanted the green tops removed from my carrots. I started reflexively to answer “yes,” as I always have except for that brief period I was in charge of feeding my daughter’s guinea pig Dovey.

But this time I hesitated. Dovey has long since left the building, but I had a sudden flash of what those carrot tops smelled like when I was chopping them up – intensely green, like turbocharged parsley.

I already had a big old gnarly celery root, and I thought for a moment about how those two might go together. At first it was just a bit of whimsy: What if I combined one common vegetable’s little-used top with another common vegetable’s little-used bottom?

Then I pinched a bit of carrot green and tasted it. It was pretty much as I remembered, but with a touch of spice and even a hint of lemon that I’d never noticed before. I told the clerk to leave the tops on.

When I got home, I prepared the celery root as I usually do — cutting away the tough, hairy peel, and then carefully slicing the crisp ivory flesh into sticks about the size of toothpicks. But rather than dressing these with a mustardy mayonnaise as I normally would, I whisked together a vinaigrette made with olive oil, a hint of garlic, lemon juice and a handful of chopped carrot tops.

The result was lovely: The sauce was a vivid green that barely clung to the cream-colored celery root, with a few flecks of darker leaf for emphasis. And it tasted even better. The slight spiciness of the carrot tops perfectly complemented the bracing celery root. My brother-in-law from Oklahoma – who had never tasted celery root – was visiting that night and had thirds.

Ravioli filled with chopped beet greens and cheese await cooking.

That started me thinking about how many other foods like that there might be – plants where one part is treasured but the rest is usually trashed? How much good stuff is going straight to our rabbits?

Vegetables, by definition, are the parts of plants that don’t contain seeds (those with seeds are fruits). That means, for the most part, the leaves, stems and roots – and in most plants, we eat only one of those three, discarding the rest.

We eat all kinds of roots without giving them a second thought: carrots, turnips and beets are just a few. But some are less familiar. In addition to celery root, there’s also parsley root, which has a lovely root-vegetable sweetness spiked with a hard green core – it tastes to me like a cross between parsley and parsnip. Cook it as you would a carrot or a turnip; it is particularly good in soups.

Crisp-skinned salmon with pea shoots and mushrooms

4 (1/4- to 1/3-pound) salmon fillets, skin on but pin bones removed

Salt

1 to 2 tablespoons oil

6 very small portabello mushrooms (about 1/4 pound)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons butter

3/4 pound pea sprouts (if very large, cut in 2-inch lengths)

2 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

Squeeze of lemon juice

Pepper

Prepare the salmon fillet for sauteing by drying out the skin. Using the back of a knife, rub the skin side of the salmon gently but firmly back and forth as you would squeegee a window. You will see moisture come up out of the skin; some will collect on the knife. Wipe the skin and the blade dry and repeat until no more moisture appears. Season the flesh side with salt and set aside skin side up.

Heat a large, heavy nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil; when it’s hot enough to sizzle, add the salmon, skin side down. Reduce heat to medium.

As the salmon cooks, you will see the color of the meat change from orange to pink, progressing from bottom to top. Cook until the color change has climbed one-third of the way up the fillet, about 4 minutes. Turn the salmon over and remove the pan from the heat to allow the salmon to finish cooking. Season the skin side lightly with salt.

While the salmon is cooking, cut the mushrooms in quarters. After you’ve removed the salmon from the pan, pour off most of the oil, add the mushrooms and cook until lightly golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the butter, the pea shoots and ginger and cook, stirring constantly, until the shoots just begin to wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in a generous squeeze of lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Divide the pea shoots and mushrooms evenly among 4 warmed pasta plates and arrange in a low mound. Place a salmon fillet in the center of each, skin side up, and serve immediately.

Celery root salad with carrot top vinaigrette

1 (1 1/4- to 1 1/2-pound) celery root

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons chopped carrot tops

1/4 teaspoon salt

Peel the celery root with a large chef’s knife. Cut it in half, then cut each half in thin slices. Stack the slices and cut them into thin rectangular sticks. It’s easiest to do this in 3 or 4 batches. Place in a mixing bowl.

Combine the olive oil, lemon juice and garlic in a blender and puree at high speed until emulsified, about 30 seconds. Add the carrot tops and salt, and puree just until they are finely chopped and still visible in specks in the pale green dressing, 30 seconds.

Pour the dressing over the celery root and stir gently to combine. The salad should be very lightly dressed, with flecks of green clinging to the celery root sticks.

Transfer to a serving bowl. This salad can be made up to an hour in advance and held at room temperature. The celery root will soften slightly and become silkier.