A Soul Satisfying Side Dish
Learning how to roast properly is crucial for success in the kitchen. For me, it’s the most soul satisfying form of cookery. You can’t beat roasted chicken with roasted root vegetables and a simple pan gravy, it’s the meal I crave more than any other. I like a variety of texture, flavor and color in my roasted vegetables, so I use a mix of root vegetables along with shallots and pearl onions.
Perfectly Roasted Root Vegetables
Ingredients
- 2 cups parsnips, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 2 cups rutabagas, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 2 cups potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 2 cups carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
- 16 shallots, peeled and halved
- 24 pearl onions, peeled
- 12 garlic cloves, peeled
- Sea salt
- Pepper
- 2 to 3 sprigs rosemary sprigs
- 1 sprig fresh tarragon
- 4 fresh sage leaves
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, toss all the root vegetables, shallots, onions and garlic with salt and pepper. Add the all of the fresh herbs.
Heat the butter and olive oil together in a small pan. Once the butter is melted, pour it into the mixing bowl with vegetables. Toss to combine and coat the vegetables.
Spread on a cookie sheet and roast on a rack in the upper third of the oven. After 35-45 minutes, turn the contents of the pan using a metal spatula and continue cooking until all ingredients are roasted well to a light nut brown color.
Season and serve.
Photograph by Madeleine Hill.
• Roast Chicken with Ratatouille
• Root Vegetable Salad with Orange Vinaigrette
• Root Vegetable Puree
