Roasted Vegetables

Making roasted vegetables is easy and flexible -- there are many winter vegetables that work very well. This week's recipe is tailored for this week's box, but you can also use carrots, potatoes, winter squash, rutabagas, celery root and many other ingredients. The quantity is flexible -- you decide the mix and quantity of vegetables based on how many people you are feeding and if you want to have leftovers or not. Onions and garlic are a delicious addition, but they aren't in this week's box, so we are recommending the leeks.

Sweet Potatoes
Watermelon Daikon
Loose Beets or Rutabagas
One leek
Fresh Rosemary (if you have it)
Lemon
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Trim off any rough or tough edges from the beets or rutabagas, daikon and sweet potatoes. Chop these vegetables into bite-size pieces.  Bigger pieces will take longer to roast than smaller pieces -- the size is really up to your preference.  In addition, if there are some vegetables that you learn from experience require longer to cook, chop those vegetables into smaller pieces.  

Carefully clean the leek and chop off any of the green leaves that are tough.  Any of the stem that is tender (even if light-green) will work in this recipe.  Cut the leeks in half LENGTHWISE, and then into  thin strips.  

Dice the rosemary -- we like the flavor and use several sprigs.

Put all the vegetables (except for the leeks) into a large baking dish.  Season generously with the salt, pepper and rosemary and toss. Next sprinkle olive oil and lemon juice generously over the vegetables and toss it to make sure that all of the vegetables are coated. Lemon juice is not a common ingredient in roasted vegetables, but we have found that it is a great addition. 

Finally, sprinkle the leeks over the top.  We do this because they get a little bit singed and crisp that way.  Put the baking dish in the preheated oven uncovered.  In 1/2 hour, take it out and toss it.  Taste one of the smaller pieces to make an estimate of how much longer you need to cook.  Add additional olive oil, salt and pepper if you think it would be good.  Put it back in the oven until ALL the vegetables are completely soft all the way through.