Pomegranate-glazed root vegetables
I made the mistake of going to Whole Foods while hungry a few days ago, and wandered around in a low-blood-sugar daze pulling things off the shelves. I'm not a big improviser, but this one turned out really well, and was exactly what I'd envisioned.
There were earthy, roasted root vegetables in a very tart (but still sweet) and spicy glaze. They were soft inside, crispy outside, and the sauce managed to be sweet without cloying -- I usually hate sweet root vegetable dishes because they end up being like bland dessert.
I served them with orange-cranberry Israeli couscous (homemade, but it only turned out OK, not great, so I'm not posting that one), some blanched broccoli rabe, and really good goat feta. My non-vegetarian boyfriend also had some meat thing he had in the freezer because he likes more protein than I do. Oh, and a nice full-bodied inexpensive red wine -- I meant to get some Zinfandel, but the wine store suggested a spanish wine I wasn't familiar with, which was tasty.
Root vegetables:
1 yam (garnet)
3 carrots
4 parsnips
2 small celeriac
4 small golden beets (didn't add much, prob. replace with more parsnips next time)
2 med yellow onions (should increase this next time)
Peel the onions, leaving a tiny bit of the base so that the quarters hold together, and then quarter them. Peel and cut the rest of the vegetables into sticks about the size of a carrot at the smallish end. About the diameter of the little finger of my hands (which are small), and about 1 1/2 inches long. Try to get them uniform so that everything takes the same cooking time. Set aside.
Glaze, part 1
4-5 tbsp butter (salted - if using unsalted, increase salt)
5-6 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds (increase this)
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds (increase, possibly)
Glaze, part 2
(I had some fresh sage that actually dried out without getting gross in my fridge, leaving me with lovely fresh dried sage.)
5-6 leaves of dried sage, crushed. (Could use a 1/2 tsp of regular dried sage, or dried rosemary, or omit.)
1/2 tsp sea salt (in big grains, so this is more like 1/4 tsp regular) NO MORE, perhaps a little less
1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
3 tbsp tamarind paste
6 tbsp dark brown sugar
fresh ground black pepper
sprinkle of cayenne pepper
Melt butter for glaze, add rest of part 1 ingredients and sautee until garlic/ginger has browned a bit. Pour in the rest as you take it off the heat, stir, put back into pouring device.
Turn the oven to 375 Farenheit, with a rack right in the middle. Grease (I used butter) a roasting pan and put vegetables in. Toss in about half the liquid and stir to coat. Cover with foil, bake 20 minutes, remove foil, bake 20 more, add the other half of the liquid, increase heat to 425, toss them a little, and then bake until done, about 20 more minutes. (total of an hour baking)
There were earthy, roasted root vegetables in a very tart (but still sweet) and spicy glaze. They were soft inside, crispy outside, and the sauce managed to be sweet without cloying -- I usually hate sweet root vegetable dishes because they end up being like bland dessert.
I served them with orange-cranberry Israeli couscous (homemade, but it only turned out OK, not great, so I'm not posting that one), some blanched broccoli rabe, and really good goat feta. My non-vegetarian boyfriend also had some meat thing he had in the freezer because he likes more protein than I do. Oh, and a nice full-bodied inexpensive red wine -- I meant to get some Zinfandel, but the wine store suggested a spanish wine I wasn't familiar with, which was tasty.
Root vegetables:
1 yam (garnet)
3 carrots
4 parsnips
2 small celeriac
4 small golden beets (didn't add much, prob. replace with more parsnips next time)
2 med yellow onions (should increase this next time)
Peel the onions, leaving a tiny bit of the base so that the quarters hold together, and then quarter them. Peel and cut the rest of the vegetables into sticks about the size of a carrot at the smallish end. About the diameter of the little finger of my hands (which are small), and about 1 1/2 inches long. Try to get them uniform so that everything takes the same cooking time. Set aside.
Glaze, part 1
4-5 tbsp butter (salted - if using unsalted, increase salt)
5-6 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds (increase this)
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds (increase, possibly)
Glaze, part 2
(I had some fresh sage that actually dried out without getting gross in my fridge, leaving me with lovely fresh dried sage.)
5-6 leaves of dried sage, crushed. (Could use a 1/2 tsp of regular dried sage, or dried rosemary, or omit.)
1/2 tsp sea salt (in big grains, so this is more like 1/4 tsp regular) NO MORE, perhaps a little less
1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
3 tbsp tamarind paste
6 tbsp dark brown sugar
fresh ground black pepper
sprinkle of cayenne pepper
Melt butter for glaze, add rest of part 1 ingredients and sautee until garlic/ginger has browned a bit. Pour in the rest as you take it off the heat, stir, put back into pouring device.
Turn the oven to 375 Farenheit, with a rack right in the middle. Grease (I used butter) a roasting pan and put vegetables in. Toss in about half the liquid and stir to coat. Cover with foil, bake 20 minutes, remove foil, bake 20 more, add the other half of the liquid, increase heat to 425, toss them a little, and then bake until done, about 20 more minutes. (total of an hour baking)