Roast Vegetables

Tonight Dad and I tried something for the first time: Rutabaga. I guess it's also called a yellow beet. Anyway, I remember last Fall when I was visiting Talena, we roasted some red beets that were wrapped in aluminum foil, then peeled and cut them up and put them in a green salad. I didn't expect to like them, but I did. In fact, they were really good. I've tried canned beets before, which I didn't like because they were pickled. I've tried boiled beets from the garden before, and they just tasted like dirt. But that roasted beet, now, it was good.

So here's how I did it tonight: I peeled the beet and cut it up, and I peeled the rutabaga and cut it up, and I peeled an onion and cut it up. Then I put them all in a plastic bag with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper and shook them around. Then I dumped them into a glass cooking pan and baked them in a hot oven for about an hour. I actually baked them at too hot of a temperature, and they got a little overdone. But they were still really good. Something about the little bit of oil at the hot temperature causes them to caramelize and turn sweet on the outside. The little bits of onion that stuck to the bottom of the pan were especially sweet and yummy.

Serve that with some baked salmon, a generous serving of dark salad greens, and a bite of dark chocolate for dessert. Mm-mm! I ate like a queen tonight!

Here's the recipe where I got the idea.