The Veggie Ottolenghi Uses As A Steak Swap — And It's Not Cauliflower

You've heard of, and maybe even had, a cauliflower steak—but the whole veggie swaps for meats don't stop there. This recipe, from iconic chef Yotam Ottoleghi's new plant-based cooking tome Ottolenghi Flavor, utilizes a lesser-known fall vegetable as the core of this vegan main dish.

Written together with Ixta Belfrage, a recipe developer at Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, the book is chock-full of dinner-party-worthy vegan recipes like these rutabaga steaks. Rutabaga, if you're not familiar, is a vegetable similar to a turnip that's generally in season from October to March. Like other root vegetables, they are most often eaten roasted or even in a mash, but this preparation opts for the former.

Because its flavor is actually a bit more mild than a turnip, especially when roasted, rutabagas are an ideal candidate for a spice-heavy recipe—something Ottolenghi and Belfrage take full advantage of with the curry crust they've created here. It's made up largely of garlic, cayenne, turmeric, and fenugreek seeds, which have a powerful flavor reminiscent of maple but slightly more bitter and are known to provide health benefits.