Lockdown Easy Cooking : Roasted Veg (and Chicken?)#glutenfree

Here is another recipe aimed at the new cooks who are currently  finding their way around the kitchen for the first time.

Roasted veg is a classic that takes all the sweat out of cooking in general. I have scaled this down for 2 people  so adjust amounts according to the number of people in your household.

Ingredients

• 1 pounds root vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and beets
• 1 small red onion
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I like  course sea salt because of the crunchy salt explosions but they are probably not heart-healthy – so any salt will suffice)
• freshly ground black pepper (fresh ground pepper is best but if your stock cupboard has ground white pepper that is fine – just go easy with it)
• 1 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary leaves (optional)
  OR a teaspoon of something more spicy if you prefer such as paprika, ground cumin or coriander.

As a One-Pot solution – you can place chicken pieces in with the veg and have a whole meal in a pan!
You can also use sausages with this instead of chicken but if you are using veggie sausages make sure they don’t over cook.
I often add mushrooms but make sure they do not overcook.

Method

• Heat the oven to 425°F.
• Peel the root vegetables if desired, (leaving skins on is quite acceptable)
• Cut them into roughly 1-inch chunks
• Cut red onion (vertically) into 6 pieces.
• Put oil and any dried spice, pepper, in a bowl and add veg chunks, mix until veg is coated  in the oil.
• Place the root vegetables and red onion in roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet.
• Spread out in an even layer.
• Sprinkle with salt
• Place lightly oiled Chicken (if used) into the middle of the veg. I like to rub some garlic onto the chicken but that is optional
• Roast in centre of the over for a minimum of 30 minutes.
• Coarsely chop rosemary leaves (if used).
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven, sprinkle even over the vegetables with the rosemary
• Continue to roast until the vegetables are tender and caramelized (approx 10 to 15 minutes.)