I chose the name “Root Veggie Roulette” for today’s featured dish because it sounds kind of fancy, and a bit like “roulade”, except not. “Roulette” also seemed appropriate because the dish itself was a gamble. As the self-proclaimed “seat of my pants” blogger/cooker on this site, “roulette” is a fitting term for my method of cooking. (Most of the time, I’m pretty lucky, too!)
With all the delicious root veggies and that giant bottle of Ben’s Maple Syrup that we were recently graced with, the obvious choice was to combine the two in some delicious maple glazed concoction.
I believe there are two tricky parts to a good maple flavor when roasting veggies. The first is to get the veggies hot enough to roast and bring out the flavors without burning the butter and the maple syrup. I usually start with a little oil when roasting the veggies (at between 400-425 on a lipped cookie sheet or roasting pan). In the meantime, I whisk butter and maple syrup together on the stove. The longer/warmer you heat the maple syrup, the “glazier” (if that is a word) it becomes. Once I get things where I want them, I wait until the veggies are just about done, turn off the heat, and drizzle the maple butter onto the veggies. After about 5 minutes (or whenever the rest of my food is done) it’s ready for the serving dish.
The second tricky part of all this is that the carrots cook slower than the parsnips. You can choose to add the carrots to the oven before the parsnips, or you can just cut them thinner than the parsnips.
These are plain oven roasted, and are delicious as-is. Adding a maple glaze with the butter just sends them over the top.
I took this dish a step further and went for some extra presentation. Playing off of the idea of a traditional Pommes Anna, I arranged my variety of sliced root veggies in a fun little pattern and when all was cooked, inverted my pan (but not before sneaking a little maple goodness in there). This was one gamble that actually paid off! It was pretty good, the kids were even fooled briefly into thinking it was some sort of cake. They were gravely mistaken, but hey, they ate some veggies!
I prepped a variety of fresh Springdell root veggies with my mandoline slicer. (Please note the special glove I am wearing to use this sharp tool, highly recommended if you don’t want a “knuckle sandwich” for dinner.)
The veggies are sliced to varying thicknesses that correspond with their cooking times, so that they’ll all be evenly tender by the end.
The beautiful veggie “nubs” will not be composted, yet! Instead they go into my freezer for the next round of veggie broth.
Similar to a Pommes Anna, I started with potatoes, in a springform pan, and then some of those beautiful carrots. This will be the top layer when all is inverted.
Let’s go turnips!
…and so on. I drizzled some melted butter in between the layers and after several more layers of veggies, I finished with some potatoes.
This is what it looks like after being cooked for about 35 minutes, adding some melted maple butter within the last 5 minutes. The pan has been inverted and it’s the moment of truth!
Not too shabby!
Side view. If I had it to do over again, I would have cooked this one about 10 minutes more, so a full 40 minutes total.
Yup, this was a click above the standard roasted veggie dish. I’ll totally do it again.
- 4 cups of Springdell root veggies (such as turnip, potato, carrot or parsnip)
- 5 tbsp Amish roll butter, divided
- 2 tbsp Ben's maple syrup
- Slice the veggies with a mandoline slicer or food processor, being sure that the veggies that will cook slower (such as carrots) are sliced the thinnest.
- In a well-buttered springform pan (or round cake pan), layer the veggies in a circle as shown, drizzling a little of the butter in between each layer. Veggies with the smallest diameter (such as carrots) can be placed in the center of the pan, while the larger diameter veggies can be layered around the outer edge of the inside of the pan.
- Continue to layer veggies/butter until your pan is full or until you are out of veggies, ensuring that your final layer creates a flat surface (as this will be your bottom layer once the pan is inverted.)
- Place the pan on a cookie sheet in an oven preheated to 400, cooking for 40 minutes or until vegetables are just about tender.
- While the veggies are cooking, combine remaining butter and maple syrup in a small saucepan, whisking together over low heat until melted and well combined. Pour this mixture over the veggies at the point they are just about tender, shut off the oven and let things sit in the oven for about 5 minutes.
- Remove the dish from the oven and let stand for about 10-15 minutes.
- Using oven gloves, run a knife around the inside edge of the pan to ensure no parts are sticking to the pan. Place your serving plate on top of your pan and quickly and carefully invert the pan and plate in one motion. (If using a cake pan, you may need to drain some of the liquid off the plate before continuing).
- Gently lift the pan off of the dish, ensuring no veggies are stuck to the pan.
- Enjoy!
Very pretty. I want to know more about your slicing glove. I think I need one!
Denise, here is the link to the pair I own, there are many others out there that average about 10-15 dollars. Worth every penny!