Winter Candy

After making a delicious root vegetable soup the other day, I found myself with lots of leftover vegetables. This time of year, root veggies offer a wealth of nutrients and fiber and will stop a sweet tooth in its tracks.

When roasted, roasted root vegetables are colorful, crisp on the outside, warm and creamy on the inside and loaded with flavor. They’re perfect as a side (I had them with a fritatta) or even piled on top of a bed of salad greens. And no worries about what you have on hand. This time around, I didn’t have sweet potatoes, which are my favorite, so I used parsnips, rutabegas, beets, and fennel. The result was still sweet like candy and I didn’t even miss the sweet potatoes!

Roasted Root Vegetables

Any combination of the following:

Onions, Shallots, Leeks

Parsnips

Carrots

Celery

Rutabegas

Turnips

Sweet Potatoes, yams, or white potatoes

Beets

Fennel

Garlic, minced

1 – 2 T olive or grapeseed oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Wash, peel, and chop the vegetables into uniform, bite-sized pieces. Place them in a large bowl and add the garlic, oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Combine well then spread the mixture onto a pan or in a baking dish. Roast at ~400°F for 30 minutes, turn the veggies over and roast an additional 15 minutes, or until tender.

Creamy Root Vegetable Soup

I’m a soup fanatic over the Winter months and came across a recipe called Sweet and Savory Vegetable Stew in Clean Food, a cookbook by Terry Walters who graduated from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition and who resides in Connecticut with her family.

Her collection of recipes sounds fabulous and I would love to try them all. Since I don’t have the book on hand at the moment and had written down the ingredients (and had made some substitutions), this may have turned out different than she had proposed. However, it turned out delicious!

Her original recipe called for fennel bulb, celeriac, and Ume plum vinegar, all of which I didn’t have. Instead, I used fennel seeds, celery, and an Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar from Trader Joe’s. I love the vinegar and even added it to make the Apricot Pear Chutney that I used to garnish the soup! It’s like having dinner and desert all in one meal! I hope you enjoy it!

Root Vegetable Soup

1 T grapeseed oil

6 shallots, chopped

2 T fennel seeds

1 – 2 celery stalks

2 T grated ginger

2 parsnips,

2 rutabagas,

2 turnips,

2 sweet potatoes

1 cinnamon stick

Vegetable stock, warmed

Flavored vinegar, such as Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar from Trader Joe’s

Peel and chop into small pieces the parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, and sweet potatoes. On medium heat in a large pot, add the fennel seeds and roast until fragrant. Add the oil and shallots and sauté until soft, about 2 – 3 minutes. Add the celery and sauté everything well for another minute or two. Add the root vegetables, enough stock to cover the vegetables, and the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender. Remove the cinnamon stick, then using an immersion or stand blender, blend the soup until smooth. Return it to the pot, then add 2 tablespoons (or to taste) of the flavored vinegar. Serve with Apricot Pear Chutney.