Inspired by the Hemlock post, I decided to roast five root vegetables. The vegetarians and vegans will enjoy this very much, as will the carnivores!
I selected orange carrots, purple heirloom carrots, parsnips, celeriac and beetroot. I peeled them and cut them into large pieces, then lightly covered them with olive oil, sprinkled Murray River pink salt and freshly ground pepper. I roasted them for about 45 mins at 200c alongside another tray of roast pumpkin with sweet potato and a bacon and parsley quiche.
Well, the root vegetables were fantastic. Slightly blackened, the carrot gave a sweet taste, the celeriac and beetroot were perfectly cooked, nicely soft and full of flavour. The purple heirloom carrots had less flavour than the orange carrots and the parsnip was excellent. I had not eaten parsnip for a few decades, but I enjoyed it more tonight than I did when I was seven years old!
Several of these roots have already offered their green tops for other vegetables, so in a way you get two meals from the one vegetable. As mentioned earlier today, I would like to grow some parsley so I can eat the parsley and then pull the root and roast it too. The celeriac did not taste like celery, so I expect the parsley root will not taste like parsley.
Given the range of colours in which carrots can grow, tomorrow I’ll post an interesting piece about why the orange carrot is the most prolific of all the carrot colours and why it should be called the ‘heirloom’ carrot as opposed to the purple, yellow and white varieties which have been given that title.
Eat well, stay well.
Kind regards,
Brendan Blake
