Roasted root vegetables are incredibly easy to prepare, perfect as a fall or winter side dish, and even more perfect to serve as a side dish with your Thanksgiving dinner. These root vegetables came from my last CSA pick-up which was a few days ago…
What’s a girl to do with this? You guessed it. Roasted roots! I love to roast root vegetables, especially when they are organic because I just scrub the skin without the bother of peeling the veggies. Although I’ll provide you with the no-fail recipe from the Candle Cafe Cookbook (by Joy Pierson and Bart Potenza) at the end of this post, please note that you don’t really need a recipe because you can’t screw up making roasted roots. You can use whichever root vegetables you choose, mixed with olive oil and any combination of fresh or dried herbs such as thyme, basil or oregano and some sea salt.
I prepared my root vegetables (shown in the photo above) by pre-heating the oven to 325 degrees F., scrubbing the veggies with a vegetable brush, and cutting them into chunks as follows…
In the bottom of a large bowl, I mixed together 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce, a pinch each of dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme, and fresh pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt.
Then, I added the vegetable chunks to the bowl and mixed everything together, making sure I coated all the veggies with the mixture.
After the root vegetables were mixed and coated, I placed them in a single layer on a shallow baking sheet…
I baked them in the pre-heated oven (at 325 degrees F.) for 45 minutes. Then, I adjusted the seasonings and served them warm in a serving bowl. The root vegetables I used from my CSA pick-up served 4 people as a side dish. For a holiday crowd, you could just double or triple the recipe. Leftover roasted roots can be added to soups, salads or grains.
ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES
Serves 4 as a side dish
Ingredients:
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into small chunks
2 beets, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 yam, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 garlic clove, sliced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons shoyu or tamari soy sauce
pinch of dried basil
pinch of dried oregano
pinch of dried thyme
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
hot sauce (optional)
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Place the carrots, parsnips, beets, yam, and garlic in a large mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, shoyu or tamari soy sauce, basil, oregano, thyme, pepper, salt, and hot sauce, if desired, to the bowl and toss well to combine.
3. Transfer to a shallow baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, or until tender. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Was excitedly waiting to see how you roasted vegetables without oil! Oh well. Has anyone successfully done it?
I have just put them in the oven at 400 degrees (preheated). I tossed with tamari before hand and just watched them closely. Turned them perhaps more than I would have to if I used oil. But it worked.