TL/DR: Root Vegetable Mash with Roasted Sausage and Balsamic. (AKA Ugly Veggies and Links.) A combo of rutabaga, turnips and parsnips mashed with buttermilk, butter, garlic, salt and pepper. Topped with roasted Italian sausage, onions, and a balsamic reduction.
In a quest to try new things, I did some reading about rutabagas, turnips and parsnips. Fun fact: all three are cruciferous vegetables, which floored me because I didn’t realize that root veggies could also be cruciferous. Food nerd alert! All three, in addition to being frightfully ugly, are also fairly nutrient dense.
For flavor reasons, I decided to create a mash out of all three. Mashed with buttermilk, butter, fresh and powdered garlic, the combination is delicious. It’s less starchy than mashed potatoes, just the right amount of bitter and a tiny bit carroty. Roasted Italian sausage and balsamic reduction meld beautifully with the flavors of the root vegetable mash. Start to finish, this recipe takes about 45 minutes and is definitely an easy weeknight meal.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, fill a stock pot halfway with salted water and place it on the stove to boil. Peel and chunk one large rutabaga, two medium turnips, two parsnips and 2 or more cloves of garlic. Keep the rutabaga separate. Once the water boils, cook the rutabaga for about 20 minutes, then add the other veggies and the garlic and boil for about 15 more minutes.
As soon as the rutabaga goes in, place Italian sausage links and onion chunks on a sheet pan and put them into the oven to roast for about 20 minutes. Also put about a half cup of balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan and heat over medium high heat until it boils, then lower and simmer until it reduces by half, about ten minutes.
Drain the root vegetables well, then place them back over low heat in the pot to allow some of the moisture to evaporate. Add buttermilk, butter, powdered garlic, salt and pepper and mash away until they are relatively smooth. Serve a generous portion of mashed root vegetables with a couple of sausage links and drizzle the reduced balsamic all over each serving.
The mashed root vegetables from this recipe can replace the polenta in my similar recipe for Roasted Sage Butternut Squash and Sausage on Parmesan Polenta with Balsamic Reduction.
Root Vegetable Mash with Roasted Sausage and Balsamic
Try mashed root vegetables in lieu of potatoes. Parsnips, turnips and rutabaga mashed with buttermilk, butter, and garlic are delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 large rutabaga, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 - 6 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 T kosher salt, divided
- 1 c buttermilk
- 3 T butter
- 1/4 t ground black pepper
- 1/4 t garlic powder
- 6 - 8 Italian sausage links
- 1 small yellow onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
- 1 T olive oil
- 1/2 c balsamic vinegar
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, fill a stockpot halfway with water and 1 1/2 T kosher salt and set over high heat to come to a boil.
- Step 2 Peel and chunk the rutabaga, parsnips, turnips and garlic cloves. Keep the rutabaga chunks separate.
- Step 3 Once the water boils, place the rutabaga chunks in and boil them for 20 minutes.
- Step 4 Place the sausage links and onion chunks on a sheet pan and toss them in the olive oil. Roast them in the oven for about 18 – 20 minutes or until cooked through.
- Step 5 Place the balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan and watchfully bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to a high simmer and reduce it by half, about ten minutes.
- Step 6 Once the rutabaga has cooked for 20 minutes, add the remaining root vegetables and the garlic to the pot and boil for about 15 minutes longer until the chunks are all fork tender.
- Step 7 Drain the root vegetables and return them to the stockpot over low heat. Stirring constantly, allow some moisture to evaporate. Turn the heat off. Add the buttermilk, butter, 3/4 t kosher salt, pepper and the garlic powder to the pot and mash well until the mixture is mostly smooth. Taste and season with more salt if necessary.
- Step 8 Make 3 to 4 plated servings with a base of root vegetable mash topped with two or three sausage links, a few onion pieces and drizzled with the balsamic vinegar reduction.
