Eat: Roasted Root Vegetables
tasty and versatile side dish that’s perfect for fall! I fell in love with this Martha Stewart recipe last year, and after making it
according to the directions once, I made it several more times in different
variations. You can use whatever root veggies are in season, and the leftovers
heat up well the next day. My recipe book even suggests putting them on pizza!
 |
| Ready to roast – don’t crowd the veggies! |
1 butternut squash (2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 pounds new potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
1 pound red onions, peeled and quartered lengthwise
1 pound carrots, halved lengthwise if thick, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
5 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Divide
vegetables and garlic evenly between two rimmed baking sheets; drizzle with
oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine, and then spread in
single layers.
Roast until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, 40 to 50 minutes,
tossing vegetables and rotating sheets from top to bottom halfway through.
Serve hot or at room temperature. Serves
8
So as you can
see, this is a fairly straight forward recipe. Here are a few extra notes on
what I did:
– I reduced the carrots and added a parsnip.
-The butternut squash that my grocery store was selling were about 5 lbs. each,
so I opted for a container of already cubed squash, which was better for my
carpal tunnel prone wrists anyway. Hard-to-cut-up food is not my friend.
-I’ve learned that this is not a recipe to use your best cookie pans for as
some of the vegetables do stick, and when I tried it with tinfoil it was even
worse (dinner is less enjoyable when you keep having to stop and pick aluminum
out of your teeth).
-Make sure not to crowd your veggies or they will steam instead of roasting.
It’s hard to resist the temptation, but if you don’t you will end up with mush,
and you will be very sad.
-Leave the onions in clumps or they will shrivel up.
And I’m pleased to report that after serving these vegetables to my family
tonight my husband commented, “These are really good.” My oldest son ate three helpings and said, “I
loooooooove vegetables” (although I think the comment was made mostly to annoy
his younger brother). And even my picky eater
versatility challenged child eventually ate his veggies after I threatened to after I gently suggested it would be wise to do so,
withhold seconds on pasta
and declared, “I like parsnips!”
roasting and have a great fall!
Until next time, MaryAnn
We love roasted winter and fall veggies. I love adding in beets to the mix too.