Total time: 35 min • Prep: 10 min • Cook: 25 min • Serves: 6 • Difficulty: Easy

This underused vegetable makes a fabulous side dish to poultry and meat, yet is hearty enough to stand on its own as a vegetarian main dish. Cooking turnips brings out their sweet, peppery flavors. We've seasoned them here with Chinese five-spice, a blend of cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, star anise and ground peppercorns to amp up their flavor, and also add a little bit of honey to the roasting pan to tame the turnips' sometimes bitter kick. If you've previously shunned this humble winter root, now is the time to give it a new, inventive try. You won't be disappointed! To make the sesame seed garnish shine, toast the seeds rapidly in a hot, dry skillet, until they just begin to color.