Something magical happens when vegetables get roasted in the oven. It’s as if the cooking fairy comes around, waves her little carrot wand, and turns common vegetables into food gold.
Food gold. That reminds me of something that I learned in nursing school–gold, or rather gold salts, are sometimes used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Gold salts reduce inflammation, which is the destructive force behind rheumatoid arthritis and some other autoimmune diseases. I suppose that gold salts could be true “food gold”. Just an interesting side note for you to share with someone during one of those uncomfortable lags in conversation. You could start out with something like, “Hey, how about those gold salts for rheumatoid arthritis!”
But, back to the magic of roasted vegetables. I never cease to be amazed at what a bit of browning or caramelization can do for the flavor of foods. With some vegetables, roasting intensifies their sweetness, which might otherwise go under noticed. With other vegetables, a more savory flavor is developed with roasting. One of my very favorite roasted one-pan wonders is Herbed Roasted Chicken and Vegetables, a sister dish featuring these same vegetables plus tender, succulent chicken and whole mushrooms.
The following recipe uses just three vegetables, which seem to work beautifully together. There are two sweets and a savory: butternut squash, red onions, and red potatoes, respectively. I find the sweetness of roasted butternut squash absolutely addicting. The delicious flavor of roasted potatoes are no secret to anyone and caramelized onions are an art form. As a case in point regarding caramelized onions, I did a Google search on them and got 3,440,000 results! (But of course that’s nothing compared to the word “bacon” for which there were 108,000,000 results. 🙂 )
While the vegetables are wonderful roasted with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, they become almost elegant with the addition of fresh herbs. I used fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme. The sage, especially, was surprisingly wonderful.
The vegetables are scattered loosely on two pans, then are baked at 450-degrees F. in order to allow the caramelization. Overcrowding the vegetables will cause them to steam rather than roast.
Roasted Vegetables with Fresh Herbs
Ingredients
- 1 (3.5-4 pound) butternut squash, peeled and seeded
- 5 medium red potatoes, rinsed and scrubbed (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 1 large purple onion
- 1 tablespoon fresh, minced rosemary (strip rosemary from stems prior to mincing)
- 1 tablespoon fresh, minced sage (strip sage from stems prior to mincing)
- 1 tablespoon fresh, minced thyme (do not include any stems that are woody)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450-degrees F. Line two shallow baking pans (1-inch sides all around) with foil; set aside.
- Dice the butternut squash, potatoes and onion in approximately 1- x 1-inch pieces. Place in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme.
- Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetable/herb mixture. Toss lightly until the vegetables are well coated. Distribute evenly between two pans in a single layer. Do not overcrowd the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Roast for about 20-25 minutes in the oven, rotating pans after ten minutes. The vegetables are ready when they just begin to turn brown in some places and the potatoes pierce easily with a fork or wooden skewer. Do not overcook.
Notes
Cut the vegetables into about 1-inch square pieces. You don’t have to be exact, of course. Don’t go any smaller than 3/4-inch. You could go larger than 1-inch, but just remember to keep it within normal range for fitting nicely into a human mouth. Remember, human bites, not alligator bites.
Strip the sage leaves and the rosemary leaves from their stems prior to mincing. The thyme leaves and the soft, pliable parts of the thyme stems can be minced together, but don’t include the woody parts of the stems. Strip the leaves from the woody parts and add them to the minced thyme (the leaves, not the woody stems!). The leaves are already small enough, so no mincing is necessary.
The smell from the herbs is so delicious!
Add the extra virgin olive oil and give everything a good toss. The vegetables need to be well coated with the olive oil, but they don’t have to be swimming in it.
Divide the vegetables between two foil lined baking sheets. Make sure that the vegetables are not crowded, otherwise they will steam instead of roast. Roasting allows for the caramelizing process. Be sure to sprinkle with salt and pepper prior to roasting.
See these beauties? They are perfect. Roasting intensifies the natural sweetness of the butternut squash. It is to Autumn what watermelon is to summer. I would be content to sit down with a plate full of it for dinner. There are no surprises with the potatoes and the onions. They appear in many meals at my house throughout the year in many forms; a testimony to their adaptability and consistently enjoyable flavor.
This post has been spotlighted on The Roasted Root, by Julia Mueller and Babble.com, by Mari Hernandez-Tuten. Thanks, Julia and Mari!
This post has been shared at the following:
- Six Sisters Stuff–Strut Your Stuff Saturday
- Table for Seven–Share Your Stuff Tuesdays
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Chicken and Butternut Squash Curry
Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Spiced Honey-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
I’m definitely pinning this for Thanksgiving! Thanks for sharing.
I’m thinking the same thing!
Simply beautiful!! I love how healthy and easy it is to do. I still have all those herbs growing on my deck outside… it will be good to use them again before the winter takes them away. Hope you are doing well my friend!! 🙂
Lucky you to still have herbs growing outside! I think that next Spring I will grow herbs in flower pots. I have a large basil plant in my kitchen that I bought in May from Trader Joes. I can’t believe it is still alive and growing happily.
Everything about this dish looks so pretty and delicious! I love rosemary with roasted veggies. <3 Although all of our fresh rosemary is gone, now. (Maybe I'll go steal some of my neighbor's rosemary.. haha!)
Pinning!
Your neighbor will never miss it. Snip, snip. Thanks for the comment and the pin! Have a great day.
I love roasted veggies and the colors on this recipe are fantastic. Plus you used some of my favorite herbs.
Thanks, Micha! It is so interesting that such a simple method of cooking vegetables can make them taste so delicious.
I made this last night. I always failed at roasted veggies/potatoes and so thank you for mentioning that they will steam if there are too many in the pan, that is what was throwing it off. My dish came out beautiful, just like the picture and the colorful blend makes it even better! Thanks again for sharing!
Yay!!!! I’m so glad that you were successful with roasting the vegetables. I used to do the same thing with overcrowding the pan. ~Terri
I plan on making this for a dinner party -how many servings are there in this recipe? Thank you!!
Hi Gwen. Sorry for the delay in answering your question. As part of a dinner party menu, this should serve 8-10 people easily. Have fun at your dinner party! ~Terri
Made this tonight – all veggies from our CSA. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Lisa, I’m so glad that you were able to use your CSA veggies in this recipe! Isn’t it amazing how great simple, roasted vegetables can taste? ~Terri
Wow! I added some red, orange and yellow carrots, upped the amount of herbs and olive oil a smidge, and it was FANTASTIC!!! This goes perfectly with my husband’s homemade quiche, too. Yum!!
*Purple carrots, not red, not sure why I typed red! 😉
Holly Joy–Woot, woot! I’m so glad that you liked this recipe and that you made it your own. Carrots are a nice addition and I’m guessing that the colors looked really fun. Probably most any root vegetable would work well in this recipe–it would be fun to tinker around with it. Thanks for dropping by and sharing your success! ~Terri
I just finished cooking this delicious dish we all loved it
Isn’t it amazing how the simplest foods taste so great? I’m glad that you enjoyed your roasted vegetables! 🙂 ~Terri
Hey I added spinach and a little of chicken broth and put foil over it it was amazing