Get Back to your Roots

Think about root vegetables – the ones you actually dig up from the ground.  Earthy and chock full of vitamins and minerals, these are your potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, onions, turnips and rutabagas.  We’ve been adding them to soups and stews forever precisely because they contain a vast array of flavors.  Roasting them develops the sugars they contain so that they become sweet and caramelized. 

I love roasted root vegetables because they are so easy to prepare, inexpensive and versatile, but especially because they are so good.  Who would turn down garlic roasted potatoes?    They make a great side dish to any meat and served cold with oil and vinegar atop salad greens make a great next day use of your leftovers. 

Roasted Root Vegetables

2 - 4                       large carrots, peeled and sliced into thick rounds

1                            large parsnip, peeled and sliced into thick rounds

2                            medium onions, quartered

1                            large red bell pepper, cored and diced into 2’’ squares

2                            sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2” cubes

1/4 cup                 fresh parsley, chopped

1 tblsp                  balsamic or other flavorful vinegar (I like pear infused white balsamic)

4                            garlic cloves, coarsely minced

1 tblsp                  kosher or other coarse salt

1 teasp                 freshly ground pepper

1 tblsp                  dried rosemary

1/3 cup                olive oil

Preheat oven to 425°.  Mix together salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic and olive oil in a small bowl or dish.  Place a sheet of foil, shiny side down on the bottom of a large, heavy roasting pan (for ease of cleanup).  Arrange the carrots, parsnips and onions* in the pan and pour entire oil mixture over it, gently stirring to coat all sides of the vegetables.  Roast in oven for 10 – 12 minutes, until vegetables start to brown.  Remove pan from oven and add the sweet potatoes, peppers and chopped parsley, gently stirring in and coating the entire mixture with oil.  Place back in oven and roast again for another 10 – 12 minutes.  Vegetables should be browned but not burnt.  Take out of oven and sprinkle vinegar over vegetables, turning gently.  Serve immediately.

*The carrots, parsnips and onions take longer to roast, so they go in first.  If you were to add any other potato, aside from sweet potato, they should be added at the beginning as well.  The softer vegetables, such as sweet potato and bell peppers would end up too mushy if they were to cook for the entire time. 

Roasted Root Vegetables