What: Roasted Winter Vegetables
Where: Barefoot Contessa Family Style
Who: Ina Garten

This was fabulous. Nothing profound here, at all. Just humble root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and butternut squash) glorified by heat and fat and salt. I had a friend over when these came out of the oven, and she was just snatching them right off the hot pan mid-sentence. And the parsnips were a surprise win: if you’ve never roasted parsnips before, you will be delighted by their sweet-potato-like flavor.

Everything got peeled. Everything got diced. It all got spread out on 2 (parchment papered) sheet pans (yes, it was crowded). Generous salt was added. And here’s where I veered from Ina: I sprinkled the veg lightly with garlic powder, onion powder, and dried rosemary. Depth of flavor right there. Then, when I go to make the Roasted Vegetable Soup (p.33), the leftover vegetables will be perfectly seasoned and ready to roll.

Ina says to bake the veggies at 425° for 25-35 minutes. This was not nearly long enough to get that caramelized crisp on the outside, as was advertised in the picture in her cookbook. I let it go for a full 1 hour and it was perfect in my estimation, though 45-50 minutes may just do the trick for some.

I served this with my herb-roasted chicken (bone-in version) and sautéed asparagus with lemon zest.