Root Veggie Roast

I was impressed with a roasted root vegetable dish at my new favorite restaurant (Farmacia, found during the last snow day and mentioned in a previous post), and I decided to guess how to replicate it--except I added a few more veggies.  Owen assures me that I did manage it quite well.  What I did is very easy and anyone who wants to can try it.

Roasted Root Veggies

white or red potatoes

turnips

red beets

carrots

sweet potatoes

Slice any or all of the above vegetables (I used all of them) into thin (1/4") slices.  You can then cut the larger circles into halves or quarters.  Put veggies into a casserole dish or a roasting pan.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add a few drizzles of olive oil and stir veggies to evenly coat with oil.  Put on a lid or cover with foil.  Bake at 375° for about an hour.  Stir after every 20 min. or so to check.  Turnips were the last to get soft for me. Works great as a side with a roast or as a main dish with some lighter mains in addition.

Happy seasonal eating!

Back into the Local Foods

Today we drove to Plymouth Meeting to a farm called Maple Acres Farm (http://www.mapleacresfarmmarket.com/) to try once again to eat local seasonal foods.  They had apples, lots of them, and we bought about a bushel of mixed fuji and rome apples for $20 (which is at least good for Philadelphia).  Then we bought a 1/2 bushel of sweet potatoes for $10.  We also bought some turnips, redbeets, cauliflower, and broccoli.  Now I just have to figure out how to cook all that in appealing ways (turnips may be the challenge).  I would have bought some rutabagas and made myself cook those, too, but they were almost $3 a piece.  I doubt I could possibly cook them well enough to justify that price.  Anyway, now that the nausea has mostly passed, I feel some responsibility to live up to my environmental eating goals.  I'll let you know how we fare with all of these root veggies.  Hopefully I will also be able to report that I made and heat-sealed a whole bunch more applesauce.  :)