Roasted rutabaga

This recipe is part of Ugly Vegetable Winter – weird winter vegetables that are delicious, locally grown, and often ignored.

Rutabaga, sometimes called Swede, is a cabbage-turnip hybrid. It has a gentle, Brussels-sprout like taste that’s very sweet. It’s quite starchy and becomes creamy when cooked, like a yellow potato. You can use it anywhere you would use a potato and it makes an excellent mashed or roasted potato substitute.

Ingredients

A side dish for 4 or a meal for 2. Doubles and triples easily.

ROASTED RUTABAGA

• 2 rutabagas (1kg)

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 tbsp smoked paprika

• 1 tbsp dry thyme

• 1–2 cloves garlic, grated

• Salt and pepper

INGREDIENT NOTES

Rutabaga tastes like if Brussels sprouts had a baby with a yellow potato. It’s sweet, creamy, and delicious.

You can easily swap in turnip, celeriac, radish, carrots, beets in this recipe. Turnip will have the closest taste and texture to a roast potato.

If you don’t like smoked paprika, swap in spices you like – try cumin and tomato powder, toss with garlic butter and parsley after baking, or bake rosemary and thyme.

Method

ROAST THE CABBAGE

Preheat your oven to 425°F.

Peel the rutabaga and cut into 1–2” wedges. Try to keep all your pieces similar in size so they cook at an even rate.

In a large bowl (or on your baking sheet), add the chopped rutabaga, paprika, thyme, grated garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss everything until evenly coated.

Spread the rutabaga evenly on the baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes until the outside is deeply golden brown and a fork can be inserted into the rutabaga with no resistance.

SERVE

Top with a drizzle of good olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. Optionally add fresh herbs, such as chopped parsley.

To make into meal, serve on a bed of sizzled scallion labneh dip.