Paleo Winter Roasted Vegetables – How To Dress Earthy, Root Vegetables For Dinner!

Paleo Winter Roasted Vegetables – How To Dress Earthy, Root Vegetables For Dinner!

Brent, my husband, and I are skiers. One week a season we like to rent a 70’s style condo, complete with brown paneling, and ski-boot dents in the furniture. In addition to killing it on the slopes, we also enjoy cooking great meals together, or rather, I cook, and he cleans my tornado.

What could be better than cooking in your ski thermals, with snow falling outside, a fire glowing in the fireplace, and a cold, après-ski, adult-beverage in your hand?

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Roasted vegetables are a great item to include on a “ski week” menu. If correctly cooked, they almost remind you of a desert. These yummy veggies were so scrumptious with all of our ski lodge accompaniments but, this winter roasted vegetable recipe is a great staple for any week of the year! I first created this recipe, when skiing Alta Mountain in Utah. There was a  Whole Foods nearby with an excellent assortment of hearty, earthy, vegetables from which to choose. 

You can this recipe with a steak or a nice piece of salmon. Or you can sauté the veggies up the next morning to prop up a couple of over-easy eggs. You can even throw the “sturdier” vegetables into a Ziploc bag for a snack on the ski hill or hiking trail!

yam-sweet-potato
Yammy on the left. Sweet potato on the right!!

A WORD ON SWEET POTATOES VERSUS YAMS:

Did you know that a Yam and a sweet potato are not the same thing? In fact, they are not even related, but the US government labels the darker, sweet potato “yams” to dispel confusion between the two varieties.

It’s worth it to dig a little deeper into the root of the confusion (tuber pun intended).

Sweet potatoes come in two main varieties: one with tan outside and white inside (crumbly and more potato-like), and one with darker brown/red outside with orange colored inside (sweeter and softer). It is the “orange-fleshed” sweet potato variety that is often mislabeled as a “yam”. A true yam is from Africa or Asia. These yams come in a variety of sizes. The skin of these yams is usually very dark, almost black, and they can have white, purple, red or orange flesh on the inside. It is nearly impossible to find a true yam at the grocery store, so if you think you are eating a true yam, unfortunately, you are probably not! In most cases, you have to visit an international market to purchase a true yam.

From a nutritional standpoint, sweet potatoes have about 25% more calories, and a little more protein then true yams. The percentage of carbohydrate between a true yam and a sweet potato is relatively equal. Sweet potatoes are a little higher in fiber.

So where does the major difference between the two vegetables lie? The difference lies is in vitamin and mineral contents. A sweet potato gives you 270% of your vitamin A requirements for the day, while a true yam only 1%! With regard to other minerals and vitamins, sweet potatoes are ahead, but only by a small amount. I had ALWAYS thought true yams were far superior nutritionally! I stand corrected!

Don’t believe me? Check it out. 

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INGREDIENTS:

1-2 beets

1 large rutabaga

1 large “yam” (true or otherwise)

1 white sweet potato

2 large carrots

3 green onions

2 tbsp. rosemary (preferably fresh)

2 tsp. Italian Seasoning

Pepper – to taste

Sea Salt – more then you think (start with ¼- ½ tsp. and add to taste while cooking)

3 tbsp. olive oil

Keep in mind you can use any root vegetables. So, just mix and match at the grocery store until you get a variety of pretty colors!

PREPARATION

  • Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  • Clean, and remove the bad parts of the vegetables. (TIP: I only use a light scrubber so that the goodness of the vegetable skins can still be enjoyed.)
  • Cut the veggies into small cubes. Remember that the harder the vegetable is to cut, the longer it is going to take to cook. I typically cut my harder veggies, like beets, into smaller cubes then my softer vegetables, like sweet potatoes. Everything tends to cook more evenly this way. (TIP: Cut the carrots on the bias at least 1-inch thick. They need to be a little thicker so they don’t cook too fast.)
  • Finely chop the green onion.
  • Put green onion, rosemary, Italian Seasoning, salt, pepper, and olive in a bowl.
  • Place chopped vegetables in the same bowl, and mix well with a wooden spoon, until vegetables are covered with the oil mixture.
  • Place vegetables evenly into a large baking dish. Do not pile the vegetables in too thickly or they will not brown well.
  • Place the baking dish in the preheated oven. Set the timer for 40 minutes, but stir every ten minutes, so the vegetables do not stick to the bottom. This will also allow them to cook more evenly. (TIP: I tend to add a little additional sea salt each time I stir to bring out more of the flavor.)
  • After thirty minutes, check the vegetables with a fork to see if the fork slides in easily. (TIP: It is best to check the toughest vegetables, like the beets, because they will take the longest to cook all the way through.) Vegetables typically take between 30-40 minutes to cook, depending on your oven, and the size of your chopped veggies.
  • Your veggies are done when slightly browned and poke through easily with a fork.
  • Let cool on the stovetop for 15 minutes before serving.

 

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Enjoy your winter roasted vegetables! Let me know how yours turn out!

4 Responses

  1. Thank you for sharing that recipe, I am drooling! I can’t wait to try that out when we go skiing, but I think I want practice a few times at home first 🙂

  2. Thanks for this posting. I’ve recently made a couple of batches of bone broth for soup base and kept thinking the soup was lacking something. The light went on after reading this article that I hadn’t been adding cubed sweet potatoes. Sheesh! That will get remedied during this week’s grocery trip ‘fer sure’.

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Dr. Denniston is a wellness strategist for elite leaders and their teams, bridging the connection between personal well-being and professional success. She provides custom solutions for burnout and stress and facilitates cohesive habit-training strategies that maximize vitality, productivity, and resilience.

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