Roastavegetapaloosa!

Ok, in contrast to the last very serious post, here's something light and fun.

Earlier this week I realized I needed to do something with all the root vegetables and squash heaped in a corner of my kitchen and in my fridge crisper. Sometimes I get overambitious in the organic vegetable aisle, probably because this time of year a lot of the winter vegetables look really good. And I am sick of salads, too cold for salad, I want good, sturdy cooked vegetables. But then you get them home and get busy with something else and you suddenly realize that many of these lovely vegetables are starting to look a little funky and if you don't move soon, all that will benefit from your good intentions will be the compost pile.

So three nights ago, I rummaged around and gathered up these errant veg: a butternut squash that was developing a soft spot, a rutabega, half a celeriac (celery root, tastes like celery minus the strings), a purple kohlrabi (taste a lot like broccoli stems), some really big old carrots, and an onion. I took the whole lot and peeled (and peeled and peeled) and chopped them into half inch cubes or sticks. I heated the oven to 400 degrees F, oiled two large cookie sheets with about a Tb of olive oil each and a tsp of kosher salt sprinkled over each and rolled the vegetables around in the oil and salt and then stuck them in the oven. Now, these vegetables don't all cook the same. The sweet squash became pretty mashingly soft very quickly, but it took a good part of 40 minutes for the rutabega and kohlrabi to be tender crisp. I stirred and flipped the veg around with a big spatula a couple of times and kept my eye on it to make sure the browning didn't go overboard. I purposely wanted a few browned bits that added some interesting carmelization to the taste. Some of it's very sweet, some not so sweet. When cool, I dumped the leftovers into a big plastic container to store in the fridge. We've been living off them for the last few days --- I had a couple of poached eggs on toast for lunch today with a side dish of those roasted vegetables on the side, and they tasted so good just cold straight from the fridge I had to force myself to heat a bowlful up in the microwave. Last night was a salmon and broccoli stir fry served over noodles and some of those roasted vegetables added in near the end for interest.

If we don't eat them all up in the next day or two, I think they will make a great pureed soup after some more cooking in chicken stock, maybe with some curry paste added or grated cheese on top.

I love it when I can do stuff with food that's good for you. Having tasty, ready to eat veg in the fridge is like having giftcard burning a hole in my wallet!