Most of the recent recipes that I’ve made from Thug Kitchen 101 have been full meals – Tomato Carbonara, Mujaddara, Red Curry Noodles, Barley Fried Rice. But today, I am switching things up. This week’s recipe is a simple side dish: roasted rutabagas.

Now, you may be looking at the picture and thinking that those don’t look like rutabagas – and you’d be right. I actually could not find any rutabagas at the store so I had to improvise. I found turnips which I thought would be similar enough. The recipe also says that you can use any root vegetables so I added parsnip and carrot to the mix.

The recipe was super simple with just a few ingredients as seasonings: olive oil, salt, garlic powder, lemon juice and thyme. Everything (except lemon and thyme) gets coated on the vegetables and then baked for about 30 minutes. I also tossed them halfway through to ensure even browning, the recipe did not mention this step. They all got nicely roasted with some caramelized parts.

Once they come out of the oven, that’s when you sprinkle the lemon juice and thyme. Those add a really nice freshness to the cooked vegetables.

I was looking forward to trying turnip for the first time. An internet search while I was preparing these told me that turnips are stronger-flavoured than rutabagas. I definitely found them to be a little bitter which I didn’t really enjoy. It almost overpowered the flavour of the seasonings too. I wish I had been able to find rutabagas because I have a feeling that I would have enjoyed those so much more. I will say though that I really enjoyed the parsnips and carrots, they had a really nice roasted flavour.

If you are a turnip lover, or want to adjust this recipe and use any root vegetables, this is just a good side dish. You can serve this with any protein and you’ve got dinner ready in no time.