Roasted Root Vegetables

Roasted Root Vegetables

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Our Thanksgiving favorite.

4 TBL extra virgin olive oil or Butter  (I used butter—you could use half of each)

6 beets

6 parsnips

1 celery root ball

6 carrots

1 onion

1 TBL fresh rosemary leaves

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 head garlic broken into cloves & peeled (or not, you can peel after their cooked)

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF.  Cut all vegetables into bite-sized pieces.  Keep beets separate from other vegetables (they stain everything red). I make a tin foil "wall" in the pan to separate them.
2. Place butter in a large roasting pan on top of the stove and turn the heat to low.  When butter melts add all vegetables (except garlic), along with rosemary, keeping beets to one side so that they don’t stain other vegetables.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook them briefly, shaking and stirring so that everything is coated with butter.
3. Place pan in the oven.  Cook for 30-45 min.  Shake pan or stir veggies twice during that time.  Add garlic and stir vegetables up.
4. Continue to cook, stirring and shaking every 10 min. or so, until vegetables are tender and nicely browned, at least another half hour.

(The vegetables sometimes end up being in the oven for 1 hour to 1-½ hours.  If they brown before they soften, add a few tablespoons of water to the pan and turn down to 350º)

***For a crowd:  I have used a counter-top roasting oven to cook the vegetables (double or triple the recipe).  Disadvantage—the veggies don’t get as crisp and golden.  The oven is the big white rectangular kind with black enamel inside and a lid on top, like they used to use at the old church banquets.  I purchased mine at Wal-Mart for about 40 bucks.