Roasted turnips and apples with yogurt and cayenne

by Tom Hunt
Roasted turnips and apples with yogurt and cayenne

Ingredients

4 turnips with leaves
glug or two of extra virgin olive oil
2 cooking apples (e.g. Bramley, Pippin), cut into eighths, cores removed
6 oregano or thyme sprigs
150g yogurt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions

Pigs like them, so why shouldn’t we? Apples and turnips go very well together. The sweet, peppery turnip complements the sour green apple, which once roasted explodes and intensifies in flavour, turning into a sauce. I enjoy making salads like this, with cooked vegetables and a rich dressing. It is just as delicious served cold the next day as it is served hot straight from the oven. Plant-yogurts are an interesting alternative to dairy. They are made from many different ingredients, including soya, coconut and almonds. I’ve created a recipe for my own plant-yogurt on page 224 to avoid packaging and questionable ingredients. It’s cheap and easy to make, nutritious, probiotic and satisfying to prepare.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Wash the turnips and remove the leaves and stalks. Cut the roots into wedges a similar size to the apples. Cut the leaves and stalks into large pieces, then toss with a little olive oil and set aside. Place the turnip wedges in a roasting tin, add the herbs and drizzle with a glug of oil, then toss with a good sprinkling of salt. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the wedges are slightly charred around the edges. Add the apples and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes. Finally, mix in the leaves and stalks and return to the oven for a further 5–10 minutes until they have wilted. Serve in the pan, dolloped with spoonfuls of yogurt and dusted with cayenne pepper. Enjoy hot or cold.

Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet by Tom Hunt is published by Kyle Books, £26.00, www.octopusbooks.co.uk

Photography: Jenny Zarins

The weekly joy of the veg box delivery to my doorstep, the beauty, freshness and abundance of the produce. The smell and the array of colour of the bountiful harvest of crops. The squeak of the kale, the snap of podding broad beans.

— Helen Bowman

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