This week’s recipe is actually part of what we enjoyed at our Christmas gathering when I was back home in Sweden with my family. So I let the sweet and swift memories of the end of 2016 take us in to 2017…
Last year this was my first blog post of the year. Let’s see if I can keep up my devotion to consistency a little bit better this year.
My mother is one, of several people, who’s been a great influence on my interest in nutrition. And with her I suppose it been one right from the beginning, since she became a health conscious vegetarian back in the 70s, long before I was even born…
It’s not all that often that I have the pleasure of hanging out with my mum, but when we do I really appreciate doing so just enjoying everyday stuff. Like grocery shopping, and cooking.
We are quite similar in the way we eat, and both enjoy shopping and make an impromptu plan depending on what we find.
When we decided on this dish, it was out of a desire to keep it simple, colourful and varied. Plus we wanted a couple of side dishes that were vegetables to balance out the usual meat heavy offerings that is typical of a Swedish Christmas dinner!
Root veg are readily available most of the year these days, but they do belong more to autumn / winter seasons since they are ready to eat in the autumn and then store really well for the winter months. I don’t know about you, but for me it feels so comforting and grounding to be eating starchy cooked root vegetables this time of the year when its dark and cold. It’s like our bodies naturally knows that we need more density this time of the year to keep us warm.
I can guarantee that you won’t see me chomping down a raw salad this time of year, unless its served as a side dish to something cooked… I do have the occasional smoothies this time of year, but only if I craves something super fresh, it’s above 10˚C, its served at room temperature AND with a cup of herbal tea on the side…!
I’ve included a good few different kinds of root vegetables here. You can choose some of them only, and then you may need a few more, or if you live somewhere where some of these are less available but have other tubers, then go with that!
Medley of Roasted Root Vegetables
Serves 4
1 sweet potato, washed & cubed (keep peel on)
2 carrots, washed, peeled & chopped
½ celeriac root, peeled & chopped
1 large or 2 small parsnips, peeled & chopped
2 medium sized beetroot, peeled & chopped
1 red onion, peeled & sliced
Garlic cloves from one head of garlic
A few sprigs of rosemary & thyme, use 1 tsp dried herbs if you don’t have fresh ones
A few tblsp olive oil
Sea salt & Black pepper to season
Pre heat the oven to 180˚C. Peel all the veg except for the sweet potato. Then chop them into cubes. The trick is to try to keep them roughly the same size to ensure even cooking time.
Peel the onion, cut in half and then slice lengthways so that you have half moon-type slices.
Add all the vegetables, red onion slices and cloves of garlic (with skin on) to a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, add the fresh herbs and season with sea salt and black pepper. Then use your hands, or a spatula to toss the veg so that they are evenly coated in oil and season.
Bake in oven for about 45 min or until slightly crisp around edges and soft in the middle.
Serve as a side to your choice of meat or pulses. I often enjoy roast veg with some baked fish or as here served with some cooked beluga lentils, some toasted hazelnuts and some Danish blue cheese.
A big thanks to my dear friend Jen who came over to enjoy this for lunch and got the job of hand modelling also!
P.S Don’t forget to remove the skin from the garlic cloves before eating…
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