Maple-Glazed Roasted Root Vegetables

Its time again for another CSA Challenge! Every other week we get a box of produce that was grown by a local farmer and sometimes our box includes vegetables that we’ve never cooked before.  Last week our box was packed to the brim with vegetables, including four little white turnips!

For me, turnips are not a vegetable that I’m drawn to in the grocery store or at the farmers market.  I’ve eaten them before, but they’ve never really stood out to me as something I must eat again, let alone try and figure out how to cook.

The blessing (or the curse—depending on how you look at it) of our CSA box is that I am often presented with the challenge of having to figure out how to cook these new vegetables and make them taste good.   The added challenge last week was that I had one night to work this magic on the turnips, and try to cook all of the rest of the vegetables from the box as well.  Yes, I only had one night available between my fun and work trips to save these vegetables from going to the compost bin!

For the turnips, I decided roasting was the way to go.  Roasting veggies usually gives them a slightly sweeter flavor that can help mask any bitterness.  Lucky for us, this trick worked!  The turnips were delicious roasted with some fingerling and sweet potatoes and glazed with a little bit of maple syrup.   For the collards and turnip greens I turned to one of my old stand-by greens recipes, and for the green beans and cilantro, I tried a twist on one of the previous recipes I posted.

We both definitely enjoyed our smorgasbord of veggies for dinner and for me the meal was an especially nice relief from all of the heavy restaurant food I’ve been eating on the road.   Hope you will give one or all of these recipes a try!

Maple Glazed Roasted Root Vegetables

Adapted from Healthy Delicious

• 4 small turnips
• 1 large sweet potato
• 10-15 small fingerling potatoes
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• Salt and pepper

Peel the turnips and sweet potato and cut into cubes.   Scrub the fingerlings and cut into cubes.   Spread vegetables in to a single layer on a baking pan (I ended up using two pans, because if the vegetables are too close together they will steam instead of roast).   Drizzle with maple syrup and dot with pieces of butter.  Roast the veggies at 450° for 20-30 minutes or until the veggies are tender and turn golden brown in places.

Sautéed Collards and Turnip Greens with Orange Juice and Cranberries

• 1 bunch collard greens
• 1 bunch turnip greens
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• ¼ cup dried cranberries

Strip the collard leaves from stems discard stems.  Chop the collard leaves and the turnip greens into bite-sized pieces.  Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large pot over low heat.  Stir in the greens.  Cover the pot and cook the greens over low heat. Stirring occasionally.    When the greens are wilted, stir in the orange juice and toss in the dried cranberries.  Continue to cook for a few minutes until the cranberries have plumped up and the orange juice has reduced a little.

Green Beans with Cilantro Pesto

This recipe is a twist on the cilantro pesto pasta that I posted a little while ago—just replace the pasta with cooked green beans.   See this post for the pesto recipe.

• 1 bag of fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
• ½ cup (or so) cilantro pesto

Bring a large pot of water to boil.   Add the green beans and cook for 3 minutes or until tender crisp.   Drain the beans and stir in the pesto.   Heat again over low heat, if needed.

Tasty Easy Healthy Green Recipe Ratings: