roasted vegetables, a sunday tradition

HERE’S ANOTHER RECIPE that doesn’t require a recipe—you know, like my “baked pears,” when the dish’s name itself tells you the whole story. Instead of baking pears, I’m making roasted vegetables this weekend, as I do most every week in giant batches.  But I suppose there are always questions, such as: peel first, or not, or how hot should the oven be, and what do I dress the vegetables with first?

My favorite vegetable candidates in the cold weather months include parsnips, carrots, turnips, rutabaga, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, winter squash, onions, heads of garlic, beets (segregate if red-colored to prevent staining of neighbors), Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, broccoli raab. I hate fennel, but it roasts well. So do leeks. (In summer, when I have them, I do peppers, eggplant and summer squash.)

For efficiency: Since the oven’s on, I usually fill both racks and bake a whole sweet or white potato or some halved squash, too, as in the top photo, or a tray of marinated tofu, or, yes, even some more baked pears. Cooking up lots of vegetables at once means I have no excuse not to eat a portion at every meal, and even cold they make great snacks…or can become ingredients in other dishes, like these: