Roasted Winter Vegetables and Confessions of the Heart

My name is Karina and I'm addicted to roasted vegetables. I love how good they taste, how easy they are to make, how pretty they look. I make them at least once a week and I usually have to talk myself down from the eating/them/all/at/once ledge. Is an addiction ok if it supplies you with necessary vitamins and nutrients? Would Vitamin A-enriched crack be legalized?

I blame the Reading Terminal Market. I blame Iovine Produce with their abundance of inexpensive and fresh veggies. They're the reason why I chose brussels sprouts over Thin Mints last week, an act that would have been unthinkable a year ago (see the January post below). I mean, who in her right mind does something like that?

My sickness reveals itself in the comfort I feel knowing that I have brought other people under this spell, such as one of my co-workers (who shall remain nameless). And here I am, putting in print a how-to-guide for a road to ruin.

But...

that said...

last night was great. I had a date with brussels sprouts, onions, carrots, and green squash. Add a 400 degree oven to the mix, and you have a pretty hot time.

Roasted Winter Vegetables

Use a combination of any of the following:
brussels sprouts
cauliflower
carrots
parsnips
turnips
onions
potatoes (blue potatoes add a new color element)
squash
zucchini

I typically use 4-5 varieties at once, enough to fill up a large roasting pan by about an inch.

Pre-heat oven at 400 degrees. Chop up the veggies. I like to chop the onions and squash in rounds, the sprouts in halves, the parsnips and carrots in sticks, the turnips and potatoes in wedges, and the cauliflower into florets.

Place veggies in roasting pan. Generously pour olive oil, season with salt and pepper; mix.

Roast in oven for 45-60 minutes. Stirring once, about halfway through. Test done-ness by piercing a few veggies with a fork. I like them very soft and a dark golden brown.

Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

Devour.