Burdock Root

Burdock is the most "exotic" root I have tried so far, meaning I don't know of anyone who has ever eaten it. It's the root of a thistle. You know, the normal kind that has green bulb and purple flower at the top. It's sometimes called a "Sticky Bob" in Europe...ha ha...and it was the inspiration behind George de Mestrels invention of Velcro. It's supposedly pretty good at removing toxins from your blood, and helps you go pee.

Burdock
It's a long spindly root that is about the width of a small carrot, and about 6-8" long. The skin is dark brown to almost black and rough (and mine was covered in dirt still!). Appearance wise it was pretty gross looking. The cashier, after asking what the hell they were, picked them up carefully between his thumb and fore finger and tossed them in my bag like they were a dirty diaper. Anyway. Once I got them home I scrubbed them down (which does very little for their appearance), and got to peeling them. They are white on the inside. Well, they are white for about 4.7 seconds until they react with the air and turn a dull dirty yellow color (like a potato or apple but much faster). Once again, not very appealing to look at. They are kind of fibrous, and don't smell like anything. By the time you peel them and cut off the ends there isn't a whole lot of root left. I julienned them and added some carrots and made a veggie stir fry out of them.
I don't know if it's considered cheating that my recipe involved cooking them in soy sauce. But that's what I did. After cutting everything up I mixed about a tablespoon of sugar into a little less than half a cup of soy sauce until it dissolved. Then I poured it over the burdock and carrots, added a few sesame seeds and cooked in a pan for about 20 minutes on medium heat.

Conclusion
It turned out pretty good. Mostly the it tasted like soy sauce, but when I compared it to the carrots that were mixed in, I actually liked the burdock more. It held it's "crunchiness" better than the carrots did too, although it was much uglier in appearance.
While the amount of washing, peeling, and slicing was a bit more than I usually prefer I think the biggest downfall for me was it's appearance, before and after. It just didn't look appetizing at any stage. My one word description of it would be "dirty".
The flavor was good in an underwhelming sort of way. Much milder than the carrot actually. It was like the flavor of celery in a tougher more fibrous vegetable. I did enjoy the crunchy texture it provided in my stir fry. In fact that may be one of my favorite things about it.
Over all, I'd say on the hand full of occasions a year that I make stir fry, I will probably take the time to add this to it. Texturally I think it would be a great addition. But as for making it just for a normal dinner as a side dish I think I will pass. Over all I give Burdock 2.5 out of 4 stars.