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The Wandering Fig

Orange-Fennel Root Vegetable Bake

November 3, 2014 by user Leave a Comment

Yummy roasted vegetables with orange and fennel.  Perfect side dish for Thanksgiving or a weeknight dinner!

These days we’re always looking on towards the next thing aren’t we?  Halloween has barely passed us by and already here I am with a Thanksgiving recipe.

To be fair, Thanksgiving these days is a lot more complicated than it used to be.  (To be extra-fair, this recipe is simple and delicious, and good for SO much more than just Thanksgiving.)  I dare you to find me a celebration without at least one person who is gluten-free/sugar-free/dairy-free/egg-free/vegetarian/paleo/allergic to nuts/watching their weight/avoiding foods that start with “p.”  It’s never been so hard to feed a crowd!

Feeling a bit stressed already?  Take a deep breath…and say hello to roasted vegetables.  For starters, could there be a more delicious (or easy) way to cook vegetables?  Forget the marshmallows people, with just a little olive oil and a pinch of salt all of those scraggly looking root veggies in bottom of your fridge can be transformed into a beautiful side dish that can be enjoyed by at least half of your crowd.  Salt and olive oil alone will turn most veggies into a delightfully sweet treat, but the orange and fennel in this root vegetable bake lend a slightly more sophisticated flavor to the dish.  

Yummy roasted vegetables with orange and fennel.  Perfect side dish for Thanksgiving or a weeknight dinner!

This recipe is seriously simple.  The only advice I have, is to go easy on the oil and make sure your vegetables cover the bottom of the pan, but aren’t stacked too high.  If you’re pan is too small, the vegetables will take a long time to roast and won’t get those crispy, caramely black edges I love so much.  If you let the vegetables spread out too much, the flavors won’t meld together and they might start to dry out.  Also, you don’t have to go crazy with it, but under no circumstances should you skip the salt in this dish.  Salt is absolutely essential for yummy roasted veggies because it draws out the water and concentrates the flavor of the vegetables.

Orange-Fennel Root Vegetable Bake
Author: Jess
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 55 mins
Serves: 4 servings
This recipe makes enough to serve as a side dish for four people. I used sweet potato, carrot, and parsnip, but you could also add turnip, any kind of potato, or even cubed squash. This time, I left out the orange juice and sprinkled a bit of parmesan on top before I took the vegetables out of the oven.
Ingredients
  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 1 small bulb of fennel (thinly sliced)
  • 1 medium apple
  • 1 small turnip or parsnip
  • 2 medium carrots (peeled)
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 Tablespoons orange juice
  • Salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
  2. Cut sweet potatoes, apple, carrot, and parsnip into 1 inch cubes.
  3. In a large bowl toss sweet potatoes, apple, parsnip, and thinly sliced fennel with one tablespoon olive oil and two tablespoons of orange juice.
  4. Sprinkle with about a teaspoon of kosher salt.
  5. Transfer to an 8 x 8 baking dish and sprinkle with chopped pecans.
  6. Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit for about 40 minutes, until the edges of the vegetables begin to blacken and the the tines of a fork slide easily through the sweet potatoes and parsnip.
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Filed Under: cook, extras, vegetables Tagged With: easy, fall, gluten free, thanksgiving, vegetables, vegetarian

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