Roasted Winter Vegetables

Roasting vegetables brings out their sweetness by caramelizing the sugars and concentrating the flavors.

Choose firm blemish free vegetables that require about the same cooking time.  Choices include parsnips, which look and taste like white carrots, carrots, turnips, and rutabagas.  Rutabagas take a little longer to cook so cut them in smaller chunks that the other vegetables.  Add white potatoes,  sweet potatoes, which take a shorter time to cook so leave them in bigger chunks.  Whole small onions, beets, mushrooms, and green cabbages quarters can be added as well.

Try a few veggies you may be unfamiliar with.  If you keep the chunks big you can fish them out later if you don’t like them.

Peel all veggies and cut in 2 inch chunks.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss.  Add salt and pepper if you like.  Sprinkle with fresh chopped herbs or you can use dried.If you like garlic, use whole cloves, you don’t have to chop them.  Roast in a 13 by 9 inch pan.  You can crowd the veggies a bit because they’ll shrink as they cook but don’t layer the veggies.  If you do they’ll steam rather than roast.

Roast at 400 degrees until veggies are soft but not mushy, about 45 minutes.

If you’re short on time use a glass roasting pan and jump start the veggies in the microwave on high for about 5 minutes and then continue  roasting in the oven.

Add a fresh green salad for crunch and some good bread.

The leftover veggies, if there are any, are great pureed with chicken broth and served as a  second dinner on their own.

Dee