Roasted Root Vegetables for the Win

We are not vegans.  Not by a long shot.  We love beef, chicken... all sorts of meat.  In fact, as soon as our bull, Nick, breeds the cows this spring, he's off to the processor.  We're even talking about butchering some of our goats this year.  Our herd is growing, and there's only so much grass to go around.  Bottom-line is, we like meat.

But that doesn't mean that we don't immensely enjoy some vegetables.  Often, we'll eat meals that don't contain any meat.  Lately, it's the time of year where we're harvesting a lot of root vegetables.  On the left in the photo below is an example.  It's a Bull's Blood Beet.  On the right is an Italian beet variety called the Chioggia.  More on that in a minute.

We like to cut up carrots and beets and (I know it's not a root vegetable) cauliflower to the mix.  We toss it all in olive oil and minced garlic, put it on a stoneware tray and roast in the oven.  So tasty!

I'm not a big fan of turnips.  I do like turnip greens, but primarily we grow them for the cows, BUT we diced up some smaller turnips an roasted them using the same recipe as above, and I think these were really good.

At the very beginning of the post, I talked about chioggia beets, an Italian variety that we get from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  You can find them at www.rareseeds.com.  Pictured on the cutting board below is the mature chioggia beet.  They seem to get a little larger than the Bull's Blood Beet or the Detroit Dark Red beet.

With the chioggia, you've got to brace yourself for a surprise when you slice into it.  It's not red.  Instead it is a beautiful pinkish-red and white.  I always say it looks like a Brach's Starlight Mint.

What a pretty sight to see the chioggia beets all cut up and on the roasting pan!

You may be asking, "Why don't you show the finished product like you did in the second photo in this post?"  The answer might surprise you.  It's because when you pull them OUT of the oven, they're quite ugly.  They're nothing like the beautiful photo above.  No sir, when you pull them out, they are a solid dull-white color.  They don't look appetizing.  But that doesn't bother us.  They certainly do taste good!