It’s been a while since I tried a new veggie!  I saw these on sale at the store, so I decided to pick them up.  Rutabaga – which is a member of the cabbage family.  I like root vegetables in general and also the cabbage family (hello broccoli!), so this was a good choice.

Already cut into pieces – for the lazy girl 😀  Makes it less scary, too.

However, I could probably have done a better job of cutting them evenly.

I tend to do best with roasting veggies when trying something new, so that is what I did here.  I set the oven to 400, then did some oil, salt and pepper on these.

Roasted for about 40 minutes, turning once.

They got that yummy golden crust on them (my favorite part of roasting).

The verdict?  These were pretty good.  They have that mild cabbage flavor kind of like cauliflower, but the texture almost of a soft potato.

Roasting was a good choice for this veggie.  While I wouldn’t say I loved it, I now would not turn my nose up if this was in a dish at a restaurant.  I think making a mix of mashed potatoes and rutabaga would be a good side dish, too.

Nutritionally, rutabaga has about half the calories of a potato with approximately 50 calories per 5 ounces.  It also has lots of vitamin C, calcium and iron!

Celery Root – aka celeriac.  Kind of an ugly root vegetable, no?  Now it looks like a root veggie, but really has very little starch, which is interesting.

The tag on the celery root said “Mild aroma and flavor of celery and walnuts with a crisp texture.”  Okay, we’ll see.

First, I peeled it, which was a bit of a pain because it isn’t smooth.

The smell was fresh and almost sweet.  I decided to try a nibble raw.  Please don’t laugh at my face, I was scared.  I really don’t like celery, to be truthful.

(goodness, my freckles have popped out big time with the biking!)

It was fairly bland, kind of like celery and a little sweet.  No walnut flavor to me.  Okay, not bad.

For this, I loosely followed a recipe online to cook it.  Cubed the celery root, then tossed with some macadamia nut oil, salt, pepper and crushed dried rosemary.  I roasted this at 400 for about 20 minutes, then threw some baby carrots in there and cooked for another 20 minutes.

It actually looks good.  It looks like  a potato.

The verdict?  Ewwww!! I hated it.  The celery flavor became very concentrated and strong.  I don’t like celery – what was I thinking?  It had sort of the texture of a potato, but a little more chewy.

I wish it tasted like nuts, but I didn’t get that at all.  Definite miss for me on this one.  Maybe prepared a different way I might like it, but not purchasing this again.  I will be picking out the carrots and saving those and tossing the celery root.

Mid summer means lots of different kinds of squash!  At the farmer’s market, I decided to get some patty pan squash.  It looks like a sunflower, doesn’t it?

Also called scalloped squash or cibleme.  This squash is a good source of vitamins A and C, plus magnesium and niacin.

1 cup of squash has about 20 calories.

I actually am not a huge fan of squashes as I think the texture is too soft for me, but these looked so cute!  I decided to give them a crust and pan saute the slices.

I made thin 1/3 inch slices of the squash:

Then I made the dredging station.  I used 2/3 cup of Uncle Sam cereal ground up mixed with salt and pepper.  The other bowl contained egg whites:

I dipped each slice in the egg, then the cereal:

Then I put them in a preheated skillet with a couple tsp of coconut oil.  I really should have used a bigger pan.

Cooked for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown and delicious!

Then removed to a cooling rack.

The verdict?  Pretty good!  The outside was crispy from the cereal and the inside was soft.  The squash flavor was pretty delicate, so I was glad not to season the coating with anything.

Not sure I would necessarily buy one again, but it was fun to try!

So I finally got around to trying the beets.  I bought them at the farmer’s market, and that particular vendor had 3 different kinds of beets:  The regular red beets, target beets, and white beets.  Since I wasn’t really a fan of the possibility of stains, I chose the white beets.  She also said they were the sweetest and people ate them like apples (??)

Here is my little beet:

I went ahead and peeled it, just for cleanliness sake.   I decided to lick the beet to taste test:

It was fairly nondescript and slightly sweet.  Then I sliced it in half.  Look how pretty the concentric rings are:

I diced the beet up and ate a cube raw.  It was crunchy and kind of sweet, so I had high hopes that I would like it roasted.

I also roasted some chopped parsnips with this.  Tossed in a little coconut oil with salt and pepper and roasted until caramely looking:

The verdict?  Nope.  There was a taste after cooking that was not there raw.  I can’t describe it, but it was somewhat pungently sweet.  I really had hoped I would like these, but it was not to be.  I ended up picking out the parsnips and eating them LOL!

I might try some raw if they presented on a plate to me, but otherwise I’ll pass.