Rosemary-Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

As grilling vegetables is to summer, so roasting vegetables is to fall and winter. Not only does the cooler weather make it a wonderful time to turn on the oven for an hour, but the veggies available in fall are practically designed to be roasted. Many roasted vegetable recipes call for favorite fall vegetables like carrots, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, turnips, winter squash, eggplant, and more.

For diet-conscious folks, roasted vegetables add wonderful flavors to dishes without a lot of fat and calories. Roasted veggies like garlic, potatoes, and carrots can also work wonders as fat substitutes in recipes for mashed potatoes, sauces, cream soups, and casseroles.

Why Roast Vegetables?

The process of roasting brings out the natural sweetness in vegetables and intensifies their natural flavors. Think about how wonderful roasted onions; carrots; red, orange, or yellow peppers; eggplant; and asparagus taste. Roasted garlic is another perfect example. While raw garlic is pungent, roasted garlic has a sweeter, milder flavor. You might be hard pressed to choke down a clove of raw garlic, but you can spread six cloves of roasted garlic over a slice of bread as you would butter.

To me, there’s no comparison between steamed vegetables and roasted vegetables. Roasted veggies have browning, carmelization, and crisping happening, while steamed ones are just cooked. Roasted vegetables are just more tantalizing to most all of the senses — sight, taste, smell, and even touch.

From the book Totally Vegetarian: Easy, Fast, Comforting Cooking for Every Kind of Vegetarian by Toni Fiore.

SERVINGS
4

INGREDIENTS
1 head cauliflower, pulled apart of cut into small florets
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
6 to 10 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 shallot, coarsley chopped
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 to 4 whole sprigs rosemary
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

PREPARATION
1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. Combine the cauliflower, squash, garlic, and shallot in a roomy work bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables, season with 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper, and toss to coat. Pile the vegetables into a roasting pan or terra cotta baking dish. The vegetables shouldn’t be in a single layer–they’ll stay moist and steam each other when piled into the dish. Arrange the rosemary sprigs all around. Sprinkle with the pine nuts.

2. Roast the vegetables for 20 minutes. If they become a bit dry, drizzle with additional oil and add a few tablespoons of water–not a lot, just enough to bump up the moisture. After 20 minutes or so, the vegetables will be browning on top, so turn them with a spoon and continue roasting another 15 minutes, or until the squash is fork tender and caramelized on the bottom of the dish. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Adjust the seasonings and sprinkle with parmesan, if using. Cover the baking dish lightly with foil to allow vegetables to sweat and rest. After 5 minutes, the rosemary should be soft and fragrant. Any leaves remaining on the twigs can easily be pulled off and mixed with the juices.

Recipe reprinted by arrangement with the Perseus Books Group, Copyright 2008.

Vegetarian, Raw and Vegan with Bill & Sheila
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