A Little Secret About Me and a Roasted Root Vegetables Recipe

Ok, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’m a farm girl, right? No, that’s not the secret, hang on, I’m getting to it. I’m a farm girl. Born on a farm, raised on a farm, worked on a farm, ran away from a farm… Born and bred farm girl. But you know what? I’ve never really eaten vegetables (that’s the secret). “What!??!” you exclaim, “You were raised on a farm and never ate vegetables?!”

Yes. That is my secret. My parents own and run a vegetable farm and I have never really eaten vegetables. My Mom said that its because she didn’t know how to cook them. So we ate a lot (A LOT) of corn and some potatoes, but that’s pretty much it. From time to time there were other things like cauliflower covered in cheese or cabbage soaked in butter (yum!), but for the most part it was corn. Corn, corn and more corn. You wouldn’t believe all the things that corn can go in! And ask me why I don’t like corn.

So anyway, as I’ve gotten older and wiser, and since I’ve done a lot of reading on being healthier and knowing where our food comes from and whatnot, I’ve also branched out into eating other vegetables.

Yesterday, we were at Farmer’s Market and one of the booths had a recipe for Roasted Root Vegetables, so I thought, what the heck, I’m adventurous, let’s give it a try. I brought home a bunch of baby carrots, beets, turnips and some potatoes and gave this recipe a try and I was in HEAVEN!! Sometimes I like beets and sometimes I don’t, but they were amazing in here- in fact, the potatoes were the bland part!! The turnips were the absolutely best.

What? You don’t like turnips and beets? Give this recipe a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. The Hubs doesn’t like cooked carrots, and yet he was eating off my plate! So when I was done, I made him and Lil’ Miss a bunch for lunch. They gobbled them right up. Delish!! Seriously, just give it a try.

Here’s what you need: olive oil, carrots, beets, turnips, potatoes and salt. The recipe at Farmer’s Market also suggested sweet onions, but we didn’t use those.

Preheat your oven to 400˚ and spread a little olive oil on a baking sheet.

Slice your veggies thin- about 1/4inch- and put them on the tray in a single layer. Brush a layer of olive oil on the top of the veggies and then sprinkle liberally with salt.

Roast (what is the difference between roasting and just plain baking? I digress) your root veggies for 20 minutes or until they are tender. Just poke a couple with a fork to see if they are soft and cooked all the way through.

Put on a plate and enjoy!! Enjoy each veggie by itself, then make a stack of all the different types and take a bite of that. Aren’t the turnips to die for?!!? Amazing!!

Chrissy Leiberan-Titus writes for Muse of the Morning.com