Sunday, October 28, 2007

Welcome to Winter

It's frickin' cold outside!

It's officially scarf and gloves season. At times like these, half of me wants to move to California and half is just glad I knit. The other half is excited about winter vegetables, so it's no surprise that this weekend was all about the squash, i.e. Vegetarian Times' Herbed Winter Vegetable Roast.



I doubled the recipe, and as you can see, it made a hell of a lot of winter vegetables! That's absolutely thrilling because it tastes amazing. It was really difficult for me to pack it away in containers instead of my belly (I ended up eating some, of course) and I've spent all day today looking forward to having it for dinner (I had the last of the Byzantine Vegetable Stew for lunch. Yummy even three weeks old!)

This is another amazingly easy dish to make. Cutting up all the squash is the most time-consuming part, since you can just throw your herbs in the blender and hit the Chop button (or a food processor, or whatever). The recipe is very clear on the size of the pieces that should be cut, but I think I'll go smaller than instructed next time. I'd much rather have bite-sized pieces than need to cut up slices the diameter of the actual squash while eating. The roast probably took closer to an hour and a half to cook than 45 minutes, but that makes sense since there was twice as much food cooking.

When I was done cooking all the squash, I roasted the seeds. I don't know what kind of seeds would be done in 3-5 minutes; mine took close to an hour to be dry and golden-brown.

I've been rethinking a bit of how I do this blog. The Internet is very fluid. What's here today may be gone tomorrow, so going forward, I will not only link to recipes but include them in my posts as well. The only recipes I won't include are ones I get from current, easy to find cookbooks, since I'd rather not steal the authors' thunder. Pictures will follow recipes.

Herbed Winter Vegetable Roast
Serves 6 - Vegan

Thin-skinned delicata and butternut squash can be roasted without peeling. Serve this satisfying vegetable roast with brown rice, steamed bulgur, or polenta. Sprinkle leftovers with grated cheese, and broil until bubbly for a delicious next-day dinner.

2 Tbs. olive oil, plus more for greasing pan
1 Tbs. chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tbs. chopped fresh basil
1 Tbs. chopped fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
2 delicata or 1 large butternut squash, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds (2 1/2 lb.)
1 acorn squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (1 lb.)
2 medium carrots, cut on the diagonal into 1/2-inch thick slices (1 cup)
2 medium parsnips, cut on the diagonal into 1/2-inch thick slices (1 cup)
1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch-thick wedges

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly oil rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan.
2. Whisk together olive oil, rosemary, basil, thyme, and garlic in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add delicata or butternut squash, acorn squash, carrots, parsnips, and onion; toss to coat. Spread in single layer on prepared baking sheet. Roast 45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, stirring every 15 minutes.

Per Serving: 190 Calories; 4g protein; 6g total fat (1g saturated fat); 34g carbohydrates; 0mg cholesterol; 408mg sodium; 7g fiber; 10g sugars



Butternut squash with guts:



Butternut squash cleaned out:



Acorn squash. How floral:



Butternut squash seed:



Acorn squash seed. Can you tell the difference?

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