Roasted Veggies

A really reeeally simple recipe coming up for you today, and potentially a deluge of further recipes about to be put up in the coming days/weeks/months…

For a super easy, delicious and healthy meal, roasting some seasonal vegetables makes for a superbly tasty dinner. What’s more, they taste pretty great cold for lunch the next day, can be mixed into a curry sauce, or even frozen for eating a few months down the line when you’re in the midst of winter, lacking some crucial vitamins and sunshine.

Squash is a really versatile ingredient, and comes in multiple varieties. Aldi had so many cool guords to choose from – my fav are the ‘uglies’, although sadly these seemed to have less flesh and were a little less sweet. However, when mixed with a classic butternut, this didn’t matter, and made for a colourful roasting tin.

Squash are of course not the only veggies eligible for roasting; red onion, tomatoes, carrots, even olives for some salty bursts of goodness, make for a fabulously nutritious combination. To keep down the costs, I discovered that tinned carrots worked really well. Usually quite soggy, this made no difference once having been roasted and coated in spices and honey.

So onwards… the recipe!

This recipe makes around 3-4 portions of roasted veggies, maybe more if used as just a side dish. The bulk produced depends purely on the size of squashes selected and the variety of other veggies alongside.

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash
• 1-2 smaller, more interesting squashes
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 tin carrots
• baby sweetcorn
• red onion
• handful cherry tomatoes
• sweet potato
• turnip (can be bitter, watch out!)
• sufficient olives
• olive oil
• spices of choosing – chilli powder/flakes, garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano, coriander, cumin, the works..you name it, you can use it
• honey

(please remember, these are just a few veggie options – you don’t have to use them all at once. Try out different combinations! Have fun!)

Method:

1. Chop alllll the veggies – this is the most effort-using part of the entire process. Skip the steps as necessary, depending on which vegetables you decide to use. Once veggie prep is done, skip to Step 7.
2. Squash need peeling with a sharp peeler or knife, then chopping, and ensure you remove all the seeds. This can be a messy process, and also puts your fingers at serious risk, please be careful.
3. Prepare your peppers by chopping off the top (keep this – it accounts for around 20% of the pepper; throwing it away unnecessarily contributes to the insane amount of food waste in the world. You’re throwing away money in the process too), removing the stalk and cutting out the seedy heart from inside. Chop the pepper into 2-3cm square pieces.
4. Peel the red onion, chop off the top and bottom, and then slice into thick wedges – you might get 6-8, depending on the size of the onion.
5. If using sweet potato, peel and then chop into medium sized cubes.
6. Turnips need peeling too, and chopping into medium sized cubes. These can be quite bitter, so need cooking really well to soften up, otherwise they might not be the most enjoyable vegetable on offer.
7. Once you have prepared your vegetables, put them into a large enough roasting dish, alongside any olives, baby sweetcorn or tomatoes you might wish to use.
8. Drizzle with plenty of olive oil, then honey.
9. Sprinkle on about 1 teaspoon of each spice you decide to use, and grind salt and pepper to taste. Toss your veggies around either by hand or with a spatula.
10. Place in the oven for about 30-35mins, or until your vegetables are soft in the middle and are nicely browned. About halfway through, take them out to stir them around to ensure they are evenly roasted.
11. Et voila! By this point your veggies should be roasted to sticky, sweet and slightly spiced perfection. Serve either as a main alongside some couscous and salad leaves, or as a side with a Sunday roast.

There you have it! This is probably one of the simplest recipes out there, and requires minimal effort. The combinations of veggies available are endless, and can easily be adjusted for each season – maybe some Brussels sprouts in the winter would make an excellent addition, or some daintier asparagus tips in the summer months?

Bye for now,

Harriet xxx

Costs: from Tesco, for just a few veggies, £4.35 – this seems like quite a lot more compared Aldi. In most cases, I use what I have lying around – peppers and onions come in multi-packs.