Winter Vegetable Medley

The family joke is that my husband used to ask for Brussels sprouts on his birthday… because, while my husband disliked Brussels sprouts, his older brother loathed them, and being the much-younger sibling, his chances to pick on his brother were few and far between.

With a certain sense of poetic justice, I happen to absolutely adore Brussels sprouts. I even like them boiled with butter. But trust me, this is a much better way to eat them!

Similarly, parsnips fell firmly under the heading of “not food” — I agreed with my husband on this one — until we tried roasting them.

As for the sweet potatoes… well I would not have thought they could be improved upon, but it turns out that you can improve upon them. By, you guessed it, roasting them.

Same thing for beets. Although, I have to say, that the real genius is in the presentation: They are bright jewels among the rest of the winter vegetables.

Bonus: Roasting vegetables is easy!

1. Rinse the Brussels sprouts. Peel off the outer leaves if necessary and cut them into halves or quarters, depending on the size. You can leave the little ones whole if you like.

2. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into bite-sized pieces.

3. Peel and slice the parsnips. If they are large, the middle might be bitter or pithy. Give it a taste. If it tastes good, leave it; if it’s bitter or has an unpleasant texture, cut it out.

4. Peel cut up the beets. The beets actually take a bit longer to roast than the other vegetables. To compensate for this, cut them into smaller pieces than you cut the other vegetables.

5. Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil. The best way to do this is to place them in a large bowl, pour on a bit of olive oil, and toss them gently to mix. The easiest way is to put them on a cookie sheet, drizzle oil on them, and stir them around hoping to coat them all. It really is worth the extra two minutes and dirty bowl.

6. Place the vegetables in a single layer on cookie sheets. Do not overcrowd them.

7. Sprinkle with salt. We like this kind.

8. Roast at somewhere between 350 and 400 degrees. It really doesn’t matter. If you have something else in the oven, set it for the temperature that recipe wants.

9. After about 20 minutes, stir the vegetables. Maybe switch the trays. Continue to stir the vegetables every 10 minutes or so until they are done. You will know they are ready when they taste delicious.

10. Plan on them taking about 45 minutes. Approximately.

These roasted vegetables are particularly wonderful beside a nice grass-fed steak, or a venison roast. Leftovers (assuming there are any) reheat nicely (add a nice chunk of cheddar cheese and you have an almost complete meal!) or they can be tossed into soup.