Garlic Roasted Roots

Ingredients

One medium Butternut or 2 Delicata squash 

5 medium potatoes (any color!) 

3 carrots 

1 sweet potato and/or a couple of parsnips 

1 medium turnip or rutabaga 

1 large onion or leek 

1 bulb (or more) of garlic 

Olive oil to toss 

Freshly ground salt and pepper

Instructions

Prepare and cut all veggies however you like them. A mix of cubed, sliced and diced is fine. Peel the squash if using butternut. Keeping the skin on everything else is fine so long as you grew it or if someone else did without chemicals.  

Separate the garlic cloves but do not remove the papery covers. Toss everything (including the garlic cloves) lightly with olive oil to coat, sprinkle on some coarse salt and freshly ground pepper and some dried herbs like oregano, parsley or basil, too, if you wish. Bake in a roasting pan at about 375 degrees for a good hour or so, until everything is tender. If you do this in a single layer, stuff will have a bit of a crisp—if a few inches deep, less so. Some things cook faster than others, which is okay. If you don’t like this, cook everything separately then mix them together at the end. Any leftovers are delicious mixed with eggs for breakfast, or pureed into a creamy soup for the next day’s lunch or dinner.