Roasted Fall Vegetables

While I seem to have a lot of irons in the fire lately- photography class, learning to Charleston, all those holiday activities- I've been feeling more and more like cooking new things. My cooking mojo, while laying dormant for some time, seems to have returned. Last week I decided I wanted to try cooking with another new-to-me food and I chose butternut squash. But since I am so busy lately I needed it to be a fairly easy recipe. We've got a freezer full of fish we received from Josh's dad, so I decided a side dish to go with some quickly grilled trout would be perfect. I went way back to an October 2006 issue of Everyday Food for this recipe. It was so, so good. Really, I don't know how you could expect some veggies you just stick in the oven and practically ignore to come out so good, but I guess that's the miracle of fresh produce. Along with the grilled trout I made some whole wheat couscous. This meal was so filling, but so good and I was more than glad to eat a lunch of leftovers the next day.

Roasted Fall Vegetables
Recipes from Everyday Food; Serves 8


2 pounds (about 1 medium) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 pounds red new potatoes (12 to 14), well scrubbed and quartered
1 pound medium red onions (about 2 to 3), peeled and quartered
1 pound carrots (6 to 8 medium), halved lengthwise, if thick, and cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths
4 to 6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
3 tablespoons olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Divide vegetables and garlic between two rimmed baking sheets (or line with parchment paper, if desired, for easy cleanup); dividing evenly, toss with oil, 2 teaspoons coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
• Roast until vegetables are tender and beginning to brown, 40 to 50 minutes, tossing them and rotating sheets from top to bottom halfway through. Serve hot or at room temperature.

My notes: I halved this recipe, so I didn't have to bother with rotating sheets. And I had some mushrooms leftover from a recipe earlier in the week so halfway through, when I tossed the vegetables, I added them in too. The butternut squash was a pain to peel with my crappy peeler, but all was (almost) forgotten when I tasted the roasty golden chunks. This recipe used only half of the small butternut squash I bought, and I used the rest in a recipe last night that I'll be sharing soon.