One of the best nutrition tips out there is to eat a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, and proteins. The more variety you have in your diet, the better your intake of all the micronutrients your body needs for optimal function. This can sound daunting, especially if you don't cook much, or if you aren't used to eating a lot of different foods. It can be easier to start with just one or two new foods a week, to keep it simple and doable for you. Then you will have more options to rotate into your menu each week!
This is a dish that incorporates some common and familiar root vegetables alongside a couple not so familiar. Combining them like this makes it easier to try the "new" ones, while still making it an enjoyable meal. Bonus points for those vegetables making this dish high in sulfur, which is an essential nutrient more commonly consumed in the form of broccoli, onions, garlic and cabbage. If you have been avoiding those foods due to SIBO or IBS, you'll be pleased to hear this is a low FODMAP dish! To learn more about low FODMAP sulfurous vegetables, read my blog post all about it, right here.
I've combined turnips and rutabagas, with carrots, parsnips, and sweet potatoes for a nice and easy fall side dish that goes well with many other yummy fall and winter foods. You can make this ahead of time as part of a batch cooking session, or just alongside your protein of choice. This would be delicious with a roast chicken, or a pork or beef roast.
I don't know about you, but I love summer foods. Basil everything, grilled everything, all the nectarines and berries I can eat! But right about now, when the days are noticeably shorter, and the kids are about to start school again, I'm getting a little tired of salad. I'm craving those fall foods, the roasts, the stews, soups and anything pumpkin, cinnamon and ginger. I've added some turmeric and ground ginger to this to give it a little kick of fall flavor. Feel free to also add dried onion and garlic if you tolerate it. I certainly do now, so I tend to add them when I make this recipe.
Also, a note on peeling root vegetables. It's my personal choice to not peel as many of my vegetables as possible, in order to limit our food waste. There is really no reason to peel carrots, so I don't. I do peel my sweet potatoes for this recipe, as well as the parsnips. I trimmed the rooty bits off the rutabagas and the stem ends of all the vegetables. Please feel free to peel whatever you like, it will not affect the recipe!
I know rutabagas are a turn off for a lot of people, but combined with the other veggies they are pretty good! The flavor is slightly bitter, so having them with sweeter vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes makes a big difference.
As soon as I saw these bright purple little turnips they had to come home with me. I am one of those people who can't resist cute things, even if I'm just going to cut them up and eat them!
Eat the rainbow! All of these root vegetables look so pretty lined up like this, but now they need to get tossed with our coconut oil, salt, and the spices.
I had my little helper toss my vegetables here, my youngest REALLY likes to help cook! As she's gotten older the easier it has gotten to have her helping make our meals.
This recipe makes a pretty large amount, and I eat a portion of it with two or three meals a day, just because it is easier for my meal prep. You can definitely freeze some of it to thaw and reheat at a later time if it is too much for you, or even halve the recipe. It keeps for three months in the freezer, well wrapped, and keeps for a week in the refrigerator.
Roasted Spiced Root Vegetables (AIP compliant, low FODMAP)
Ingredients:
1 large turnip or about 6 small ones
1 large rutabaga or two to three medium ones
3 medium parsnips
3 medium carrots
1 large sweet potato or yam, any color. I like the orange ones for this recipe.
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 cup coconut oil or other solid cooking fat like duck fat or lard
Preheat your oven to 350F.
I typically don't bother peeling some of my vegetables besides my sweet potatoes and parsnips, and just trim the root ends to prevent so much waste, and save myself time. Feel free to trim and peel what you like before chopping.
Chop all vegetables into pieces that are about the same size, I like 3/4 inch chunks. Toss onto a large sheet pan/roasting pan. You may need two sheet pans depending on the size of your vegetables.
Melt the coconut oil on the stove, and immediately pour over your cut up vegetables. Sprinkle the salt and spices over the top, and toss it all well with your hands. If your baking pan seems over full, divide it into two pans. It's important that the vegetables are in a single layer so they actually brown a bit and don't just steam. Roasted veggies taste better than steamed!
Place your vegetables in the preheated oven and let cook undisturbed for about 30 minutes. Give them a stir or a flip, and continue cooking another 15 minutes. At this point, check every ten minutes or so for browning. They are done when they are easily pierced with a fork, and have begun to lightly brown on the bottoms. It can take 15 to 25 more minutes.
Serve hot, or cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge. Keeps for about a week. Reheats very well, and can also be frozen and thawed very well.
Enjoy!
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