Procrastiposting: Maple Roasted Vegetable Medley

[highlyeccentric]

This is what I am eatin' for lunch today. It is tasty. Adapted from a recipe at The Roasted Root


Deitary: Pretty sure this is vegan, assuming you choose vegetable oils and so on. Could easily be gluten-free if you made a pilaf instead of couscous.
Accessibility: It takes a while to cook and requires a bunch of chopping and using a hot oven. But it's fairly low attention, and hard to fuck up. Could be made simpler if you bought pre-chopped beets and butternut.


About 1/4 of a decent-sized butternut. Maybe more, if you're keen.
1-2 beets.
Can of chickpeas, or equivalent soaked prepared yourself.
1 capsicum (bell pepper)
Coupla tablespoons vegetable oil
Coupla tablespoons maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon

Needs *something* else - next time I think I'll add pepper, and maybe pepitas (I'm not keen on pistachios). The Roasted Root recommends oregano, pistachios and orange rind.

2/3 cup quick couscous
Generous dash of lemon juice
Water, sufficient amount that when added to lemon juice makes up however much liquid your couscous needs (2/3-1 cup, probably)
Cinnomon and nutmeg, maybe cloves as well

Peel and dice your root vegetables. Mix in a bowl with the maple syrup, oil and cinnamon. Next time I'll add some pepper at this stage.
Spread in a large baking tray (so there's a single layer) at roast at 180 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
When the butternut can be speared with a fork but is not yet soft for eating, add dicec capsicum and drained chickpeas. Continue to roast, stirring occasionally, until butternut is soft (abour 20 min?)

Meanwhile, prepare couscous according to packet instructions, except use a mix of water and lemon juice, and stir the spices in as well.

Serve together! Possibly top with seeds! Nom! (I also thought this would go well with crumbled goats' cheese, but I think everything needs more cheese.)

Comments

[monksandbones]

OMNOMNOM! I make things similar to this, and I would say that if you happened to have, say, some pureed chipotles in adobo kicking around your kitchen (I puree cans of chipotles in adobo and freeze them in icecube trays to make useful-sized blocks), a teaspoon or two of that might make for a nice addition to the maple-cinnamon glaze.

Also, in the absence of goats' cheese, feta would probably also work.

[highlyeccentric]

I can't find chipotle in adobo! It was super hard to get in sydney - speciality delis only. I asked my costa rican housemate if she knew where to get it here, and she'd never even heard of the stuff. It's not in the south american or the african sections of any of the international food stores, I know that much. I think I've even tried the American Market...