Root Down

Roasted Root Vegetables (minus the roasting)

Catchy name, eh?

This dish is one of my favorite holiday potluck offerings. The recipe is pretty loose and fairly hard to ruin. I start by buying whatever root vegetables I can find at the market.

Here's the usual lineup:

Sweet potatoes or yams, potatoes, onions, butternut squash, turnips, carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, celeriac and fennel. Plus throw in some fresh garlic.

How much you cut up depends on how much family you have, I suppose. I always make extra because people want to take some with their leftovers, and I like to have some at home, as well. Sometimes I make a Root Vegetable Shepherd's Pie with the leftovers. I will post that recipe next. 

  

Cutting all the vegetables is the hardest part, but it's a great time to pour a glass of wine and crank up the tunes. Fittingly, I chose, you guessed it, The Roots. 

The Roots first caught my attention when they released Things Fall Apart in 1999, named for Nigerian author Chinua Achebe's novel of the same name. This is also a good match for this recipe because of the prevalence of yams in the story. Mmmmm, yams.

The book is one of my favorites, a must-read companion book for anyone taking on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. They can also then say "The Horror" whenever it lends itself to a snappy punchline. Both are a great precursor to watching Apocalypse Now, as well. 

The stand out song from The Roots' Things Fall Apart was "You Got Me," featuring Erykah Badu and Eve (above). But the song that renewed my love for the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon house band is "The Seed 2.0" featuring Cody Chesnutt. 

I truly never get sick of "The Seed 2.0," because of lyrics like "If Mary dropped my baby girl tonight / I would name her rock 'n roll." I am surprised a couple hasn't named their little girl Rock n Roll yet. I named my son Keith, after Keith Richards. That is pretty much the same thing.

Chop the veggies fairly small, but not diced. A small to medium chop is best so they cook fast. 

The key to this dish is cooking it all on the stove top in a saute pan (or saute pans, depending on your quantity) instead of roasting it in the stove. Or you can do a combination of both. The saute pan just speeds things up, and it cooks more evenly. So feel free to dump it all in a casserole dish or roasting pan and stick it in the oven at the end at 375 degrees.

Start out with olive oil (or nonstick cooking spray) and cook the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and saute for a few minutes, but make sure not to let it burn. Then dump in the veg. Cook and stir, cook and stir, cook and stir until they start to soften. Then add a tablespoon or two of olive oil and let it cook some more.

Add fresh herbs, including thyme, rosemary, oregano and parsley. If you want to use dried herbs, that will work, too. When the tubers, squash and the rest are starting to look a little browned, add basalmic vinegar to taste, plus salt and pepper.








This is what they look like when they are getting close to being done. 

And, here they are when they're ready to transport. I have one of those cool casserole dishes that comes with a heat pack and carrier bag. They are swell for potlucks. I like to eat mine with a side of mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, along with whatever else is at the buffet. And then I name it Rock 'n Roll, like I will now do for everything that is awesome.