Miso Roasted Root Vegetables

This recipe was in the share newsletter a couple of weeks ago and since I'm swimming in beets at the moment I thought I'd give it a try. I did NOT regret it one bit.


Miso Roasted Root Vegetables

Mark Bittman's book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, has a lot of good information about miso, as well as suggested recipes. Although he extols the health benefits of uncooked miso, his book also includes a few recipes where the miso gets some heat. The recipe for the Miso glaze below is adapted from one of them. You can also use the glaze when grilling vegetables or tofu. The roasted vegetables would make a great side dish for the tofu recipe below. Leftovers can be brought to room temperature and tossed with mesclun and Asian dressing and garnished with chopped dulse for a light salad supper.


1/2 cup miso
1/4 cup honey
1 clove minced garlic
1 hot pepper minced, or 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
2 TB sunflower oil

4 lbs mixed root vegetables, such as turnips, rutabagas and beets
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375F. Whisk together glaze ingredients, miso through sunflower oil. Heat slightly if your honey has crystallized and the mixture is too thick. Peel, slice and chop vegetables into 1/2" pieces. Toss veggies with glaze on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Roast in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes, tossing every 15 minutes, until vegetables are caramelized on the outside and soft on the inside. Serve hot or at room temperature.

I used a mix of beets, rutabagas, and parsnips and followed the recipe as written. I used a jalapeno pepper and it really didn't add any significant heat so feel free to add a couple of them.

Ben and I loved this recipe as did our neighbor who was here as I pulled it out of the oven. Sam? Not so much.

Using up the roots

I had a bunch of misc turnips, a couple of beets, and some potatoes that weren't enough to do anything on their own so I decided to try a roasted veggie soup.


Roasted Root Vegetable Soup


Peel (those that must be peeled) & dice misc root veggies
Peel a whole head of garlic


Mix veggies above with a little olive oil, add salt & pepper then put everything on a cookie sheet (with sides). Cover and bake at 400 F until soft, about an hour.


Toss everything in the food processor, add broth or water to get to the texture you prefer.


If you added even two little beets, your soup may look like this (I like it very thick). Oh, and the only strong flavors are the garlic and rosemary. What's not to like? Excellent

Cooking on New Years Day

Roasted Root Veggies

Roasted at 400 on jelly roll pan covered with foil for about 45 min:

Carrots
Cabbage (about half a cabbage)
Onions
Rutabaga (I think)
Parsnip (there was just one of them)

Sprinked with olive oil and salt.

Grade: So so. Had a funky smell to it but tasted ok, not terrific.

Possible changes/Add'l thoughts: Skip the cabbage in future roasts


Chicken & Barley

Bake 400 about an hour

Toss a couple of cups of pearl barley in the bottom of a pan. Add some onions, carrots, salt, thyme, pepper & whatever
Dot with butter
Place chicken pieces, with bone and skin, over the barley, salt pepper whatever pieces.
Pour boiling water over the barley to give it a head start cooking

Bake about an hour

Grade: Excellent


Sweet potato and Barley soup

Bake sweet potatoes (3 large in this case) until soft.
Allow to cool.
Sautee onions in butter
Use blender to puree sweet potatoes and sauteed onions- add water as necessary
Return mixture to pan, salt and pepper to taste
Mix in all the leftover barley from the chicken and barley recipe above and heat

Grade: Excellent!