“These are known in my extended family as ‘Jen’s root vegetables’ and we will almost always have them at family dinners during holiday season. There is no specified temperature for cooking them: my brother-in-law likes a hot oven and I like a long, slow cook for almost 1½-hours until they are crunchy like French fries. You can also vary the vegetable mix any way you like to suit your very own picky eaters!” says Jennifer.
“There are no firm and fast quantities specified because this recipe gets expanded to meet the size of the crowd that is coming for dinner. These make a colourful addition to ham, turkey, roast beef or whatever you’re serving. Vegetables should be cut to be uniform in size so they cook evenly. You can put tin foil over the trays to steam cook them for the first half-hour if you don’t like them too crunchy.”
- 3 large onions, cut in wedges
- 1 small bag of parsnips, peeled, cut into spears
- As many medium-size potatoes as you have people, scrubbed, cut in wedges
- 1 small bag of carrots, peeled, cut into spears
- 1 small bag of beets (optional), peeled, cut into small wedges
- Several handfuls of fresh rosemary, chopped finely
- Sea salt to taste
⬗ Coat several baking trays with lots of olive oil. Place vegetables on the trays, turning them to coat with oil. I put similar vegetables together so that they cook at the same rate; you can slow down the vegetables that cook too fast by moving them to a cooler spot in the oven. Cook beets separately or everything can turn pink!
⬗ Cook at 350°F for 1½ hours or in a hotter oven for shorter time (whatever temperature your roast is at).
⬗ Put the timer on for 30 minutes at a time and turn the vegetables to cook evenly.
⬗ Add salt and rosemary as needed each time. The vegetables will be done when they look, smell and taste done. You can pull them out of the oven to cook the roast and then put them back in for a half-hour to finish at the end.
Jennifer McKenzie
An excerpt from the Albert County Museum cookbook: Fiddleheads, Fricot & Frittata: A Hodgepodge of Atlantic Canadian Recipes. The book is $8 (no tax) for 200+ recipes and stories about the people and foods of Atlantic Canada. Buy at www.albertcountymuseum.com/giftshoponline or at the Albert County Museum in Hopewell Cape.