This recipe came about thanks to some leftover cooked bacon and a whole pile of winter veggies. We were a bit intimated by the rutabaga (which took a heckuva effort to cut in half!) and “white carrots” (parsnips), but turns out these winter veggies are actually quite delicious when roasted. And of course, most things get even more delicious when you toss in a bit of bacon. Give it a whirl and see for yourself!
Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 25-35 min | Serves: 4-6, depending on your affinity to veggies
Ingredients
- 3 parsnips, peeled
- 1 medium rutabaga, peeled
- 3 turnips, peeled
- 4 carrots, peeled
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled with seeds removed
- 4-6 slices of cooked bacon, cooled and chopped to bits
- Salt & Pepper
- Olive Oil
- Fresh flat leaf parsley, about 1/4 bunch chopped
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Stretch our your arms and fingers (kidding, kind of) and chop all your veggies into 1″-ish cubes. You don’t have to have laser precision here, but the idea is to keep everything roughly the same size so it all cooks in the same amount of time.
Spread the chopped veggies across two medium-sized baking sheets (remember, if they’re too close together, they’ll just steam instead of crisp). Toss the contents of each pan in about 1 tbpsn of olive oil each. Add a hearty amount of salt and pepper per your taste preferences.
Bake both pans for 25-35 minutes, until veggies are tender and a bit crisp.
When the veggies are mostly done, remove from the oven and toss in the chopped bacon bits – half of whatever you have on hand for each tray. Return to oven and bake a few minutes more.
Remove again, let sit for a minute or two then toss in the chopped flat leaf parsley and serve hot.
Variations
- Ina Garten uses sweet potatoes in a similar recipe (no rutabaga, turnips or bacon) that inspired this one.
- If you’re not concerned about heart health, I bet roasting the veggies in some of the bacon grease would be quite tasty.
- If it pairs well with the meal and you like to spice things up, a bit of red pepper flakes might fit in nicely.