What To Do with Winter Veggies
by Bethany Thies, Master Gardener Trainee
Okay, crazy weather aside, it is now officially winter. And if you are, like me, trying to eat as locally (from your own garden or an area farmer’s) and as seasonally as possible, this time of year starts looking a little bleak on the fresh produce front.
Fear not, Mother Nature knows just what we need. As the weather turns its coldest and we need concentrated energy to keep our internal fires burning, she gives us the starchy goodness of her winter bounty to keep us going. I’m talking about those basic work horses of our garden, root vegetables. Carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips, rutabagas, and their root-like cousins, potatoes and sweet potatoes all handle frosty weather well and can store for months at a time. A perfect match for winter. And best of all, preparing these earthy beauties couldn’t be easier. Your best bet? Oven roasting.
Oven roasting root vegetables actually caramelizes their natural sugars, bringing out a sweetness in them that even your most die-hard veggie haters are sure to enjoy. And the process is really quite simple. All you need to know are the three Cs: cut, coat and cook at high heat until tender. After 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the type and size of the vegetables being roasted, your veggies should be done. That’s it. That’s the whole recipe.
But of course, as with most things, the devil is in the details. How you cut, coat and cook can make a difference, turning good roast veggies into great ones. Here are a few tips gleaned from food and lifestyle websites such as bonappetit.com, prevention.com and foodnetwork.com that will help make even your lowliest root vegetables shine:
- Cut it right – After cleaning and pealing (if necessary), vegetables should be uniformly chopped, usually one to two inches in size, so that they cook evenly. If you are doing smaller similar vegetables, like baby carrots and parsnips, they can be roasted together whole. They may just take longer to roast
- Coat it right – Once chopped, toss vegetables in olive oil until lightly coated. One to two teaspoons of olive oil per cup of chopped veggies should be all you need. They should have a sheen not be dripping in oil. You can also season with salt at this time.
- Put it in its proper place – Baking sheets or trays are the best option for roasting vegetables because they expose the pieces to more of the oven’s heat. Casseroles or cake pans, with their higher sides, aren’t as good a choice because they tend to trap moisture around the vegetables, leading to more steaming than roasting to take place.
- Don’t overcrowd – The idea is to get the heat from the oven to hit every side of your veggie pieces in order to get that crispy on the outside finish. And you need space for that. Pieces that are jammed together or on top of one another in the pan don’t allow the heat to do its job. So make sure you leave a little space between each piece and don’t overfill the pans.
- Keep it hot – You need a hot oven to get that soft on the inside and crispy on the outside result that makes roasted vegetables so good. Most sites and cookbooks recommend 400 to 450 degrees F. oven.
- Move things around – For truly great roasted vegetables, you want all sides of the veggies to be exposed to the oven’s heat. That means you’ll need to stir the trays at least a couple of times during the process.
Use your oven wisely – If you are heating up the oven anyway, why not make two or three trays of roasted vegetables? There are several sites online that speak directly to cooking up an oven full of veggies and using them for several meals throughout the week.
That brings us to the next question: Now that you have a delicious pan of roast vegetable, the next question is what do I do with them. Of course, these veggies can be a wonderful side dish to any meat or poultry. But with a few additions, roasted vegetables can also be the star of the meal. You can:
- Chop up precooked or leftover chicken, beef or sausage and add it to the roasted vegetables to make a one-pot meal.
- Add a can or two of drained white beans, like cannellini, to the mix to make a meatless main dish.
- Serve on top of a whole grain like brown rice or quinoa.
- Chop up the roasted veggies into smaller pieces to make a hash. Serve with a fried or poached egg on top.
- Toss with leafy greens and your favorite vinaigrette to make a hardy winter salad.
- Add to stock for a flavorful veggie soup. For something different, use a blender to puree and make a cream soup of the veggies.
- Combine with cumin and chili pepper to use in quesadillas or tacos.
- Toss with pasta, a little pasta water, chopped basil and Parmesan cheese to make a roasted veggie primavera.
Now that you know what to do, go fire up your oven and get roasting.