Trips to the farmers’ market and the tables spilling over with vegetables are a distant memory in these frozen, snow-filled days. We’ve eaten our way through the potato crop the eldest planted and tended and harvested so proudly. To warm our days and get our daily veggie quota, we’ve been roasting up lots of turnips, parsnips, carrots, butternut squash, and all kinds of potatoes and yams. I’ve used the Roasted Root Vegetable recipe in How to Cook Everything (the go to recipe resource in the house), but our new favorite is the first step for soup in The Gluten-Free Good Health Cookbook.
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| Roasted Beets |
The tasty trick I learned from this recipe is to add a tablespoon of cider vinegar to the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the 2 tablespoons of maple syrup that I usually use for yams or butternut squash. I always add lots of garlic and sometimes a teaspoon of ground chipotle pepper. Somehow that little bit of cider vinegar with the maple syrup mellows the parsnips and turnips and makes the glazed veggies come alive. When hubby made the veggies last week and left out the vinegar and maple syrup, I just drizzled them over the half-cooked veggies and it still worked its magic. It must have because he came walking up to the shopping cart yesterday carrying yet more parsnips and turnips. I still haven’t managed to save enough of the veggies to make the soup recipe. Even when I double the batch and fill my parchment covered sheet pan, the veggies are gone that night.
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| Roasted Turnips, Parsnips, Carrots, Garlic |
To make the best roasted vegetables you need to use a large pan and line it with parchment to get good caramelization other wise the veggies just get soft and steamed, but not that yummy glazed effect you wanted.
The menu this week has lots of veggies for the Winter Vegetable theme I picked for my week of hosting:
Gluten-Free Tilapia in Parchment from Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness with quinoa and Best Brussels Sprouts from More Make It Fast Cook It Slow
Gluten-Free Buffalo Chicken Mini Burgers from Diane at The W.H.O.L.E Gang with her spicy slaw-a favorite of my youngest
Steak, roasted root veggies, kale
Shepherd’s Pie inspired by McCormick’s Roasted Spices recipe, leftover spicy slaw
White Bean Chicken Chili in the slow cooker, crisp tortilla strips
Turkey Cutlets with Chipotle Mustard Pan Sauce steamed spinach, baked yams
Chicken Stir-Fry with snow peas, broccoli, peppers, carrots over rice–mushrooms and onions stir-fried separately for those who love them
Lots more fruit and produce go into the Vitamix for smoothies and keep our produce consumption very high.
Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness is cooking up some kale pesto this week and chicken in red pepper sauce. Her Kalamata Hummus sounds delicious and using Sunbutter as a substitute for tahini is a great idea. Visit the headquarters for our menu swap at Cheryl’s. Angela will host with slow cooking next week and Heather hosts with nuts for January 31st.
Heather at Celiac Family is back from her holiday break with a new format for her weekly menu posts. I do love the pictures for each of her gluten-free kid-friendly meals. She has tilapia on the menu along with Chicken Enchilada Soup, and her take on gluten-free pigs in a blanket and hamburgers.
It’s busy over at Angela’s Kitchen with a birthday and some mommy denial going on. She has a slow cooker recipe for Tangy Tomato Beef that will be making an appearance on my menu real soon. She also has a great roasted veggie meal planned and left instructions in my comments. I love the idea of adding some tofu cubes and tamari to the mix. Check out her gluten-free/dairy-free Girl Scout Do-Si-Do recipe while you’re there.
Kristen at Adventures in Mommyhood has some great slow cooker recipes for her busy week. The Italian Sausage Soup looks like a pasta skillet dish we love with broth to make it soup. It goes on my to try list. I am envious of the Wheatless in Seattle bread she shows with it in her recipe picture. We had Kaili’s food at the International Food Blogger Conference and I can’t imagine having her bakery close by. She also features a recipe by Stephanie O’Dea for Cranberry Roast that sounds like a winner.
Scrumptious at In My Box is really trying to stay on a budget, eat a gluten-free, and vegan diet. Her tips, research, attempts, successes and failures are enlightening. I followed some of the links in her menu to some really delicious vegan Chesapeake Tempeh cakes, and bean and corn fritters. It’s easy to get distracted by her menu and all those beautiful veggies.
Michelle from Gluten-Free Smiles planned her menu while suffering through back spasms. She was on the floor with her legs propped up and browsing cookbooks. A roast and hot roast beef sandwiches, enchiladas and turkey burgers along with a link to winter vegetables are on her menu.
For more menu planning visit my friend Diane at The W.H.O.L.E. Gang, Kim at Gluten-Free is Life, and Laura at Organizing Junkie has hundreds of menu planners linking up each week.
Don’t miss out on the D-Tox January Swap with Nicola of G-Free Mom. A month of healing smoothies, juices and soups shared by the best gluten-free bloggers.
Now go out there and eat some veggies. Oh, and have a great week!
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Did you just republish this, Wendy? I don’t remember seeing this, and roasted veggies tend to catch my attention in a big way! And yet I can be so distractable, especially when blogging.
Cheryl-Sorry for the confusion. I’ve lost some comments in the move and I’m still trying to figure out how to retrieve them.