Alright, let´s do this. Let´s start our culinary adventure through winter’s garden. Coincidently, winter has been showing off lately. It´s freezing outside, the trees are covered in ice, the air is crisp and clean, snow is laying on the ground and above all, a bright sun is shining and providing us with the oh so necessary vitamin D. So, what to eat, when coming home from an extensive walk through the woods/ sleigh ride/ skate on the ice?
How about something quick and easy but nevertheless hearty and delicious? Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: oven roasted vegetables. Now I know, this is the type of dinner you usually make after a long day, with your mind already on more relaxing things, like chilling on the couch. But I love oven roasted vegetables, especially because it´s so easy to make and because it can adapted to whatever season. Add asparagus in spring, tomatoes and garlic during summer, pumpkin in fall and winter…well winter is for root vegetables.
Instead of always dipping the vegetables in sour cream, I opted for something more colorful this time. Enter: beetroot hummus. Nothing new and already on a gazillion other blogs but its good reputation is justified. It´s delicious! And adds just the right amount of pink to every meal.
For the vegetables (serves two):
3 parsnips
3 parsley roots
3 yellow beets
½ celery root
5 – 6 carrots
2 – 3 tbsp. oil (olive or sunflower oil)
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley
For the beetroot hummus:
(Recipe adapted from Tuulia)
1 mediums sized beetroot
1 garlic clove
1 can of cooked chickpeas (350 g)
1 lemon (juice and zest)
2 tbsp. tahin
50 – 60 ml Olive oil or water
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley and sesame seeds for garnish
1) Peel vegetables and cut into evenly size pieces. For the beetroot hummus, peel beetroot and cut into small pieces. Drizzle the vegetables with oil, season with salt and pepper and bake in the preheated oven at 200°C for about 20 minutes.
2) For the hummus, rinse and drain chickpeas. Add all ingredients (including the cooked beetroot) to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth and bright pink. Season to taste and decorate with parsley and fresh sesame seeds.
3) Sprinkle parsley on top of the baked vegetables and serve with hummus.
