The garden got away from me! Well, the growth of some of its inhabitants did. One day I had baby turnips & zucchini. The next day, it seemed, they were enormous! I really didn’t need to plant turnips as early as I did, but I was so excited to get things growing that I overdid the planting a bit. I tend to think of turnips as a fall crop, but planted some early this year because…um. Why? I don’t know, just because! They matured just as everything else did, and I wound up with way more produce than we could eat at once. So it was that I came to have these two monsters. I only used half of the giant turnip and zucchini you see in the photos since there were just the two of us for dinner. In spite of their size, they were both quite delicious! There’s a trick to getting the best flavor out of a large, mature turnip — see Step 2 below. If you’ve ever had bitter, nasty turnips, there’s a good chance they weren’t peeled properly. While you might not necessarily think of these two veggies in the same dish, they really complement each other well. Roasting the vegetables brings out their deepest flavor; fresh herbs and a sprinkle of parmesan bring everything together. A little bit of late summer heaven!

Ingredients:

1 medium turnip (or ½ a huge one), about 1 cup/130 g

1 medium zucchini (or ½ a huge one), about 8 oz/227 g

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon minced fresh dill

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

15 g (½ oz.) freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preparation:

1.) Preheat oven to 425º F (218º C).

2.) Young turnips don’t always need to be peeled, or they only need a thin layer removed. Older turnips, though, have a bitter outer layer. It goes beneath the thin skin to the dark line (the tip of the knife is pointing to it.)

With a very mature turnip, you can pull the peel off by hand once you get it started.

Once peeled, chop the turnip into ½” (1 cm) pieces.

Cut the zucchini into ½” (1 cm) slices.

3.) Combine the oil, herbs, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.

4.) Toss the vegetables in the mixture, then transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.

 

5.) Bake for 15 minutes, turning halfway through. Shower with parmesan to serve.