I have three words for you. Maple. Roasted. Vegetables. Sometimes I say everything is better with bacon. Sometimes it’s bourbon. Paula Deen would say it’s butter. But now I think we need to add maple syrup to the list.
We had company for dinner tonight, and it was my friend’s birthday. For the appetizer, main course and dessert, I stuck with tried-and-trues, but for the side dish, I went with something new. I know she likes vegetables, so this was the perfect opportunity to try a new recipe, and Maple Roasted Vegetables sounded too good to pass up. The recipe came from an issue of Cuisine at Home that was published around the holidays. It was one of those $10 magazines, and the recipe just may have made the magazine purchase worthwhile all by itself.
Chop up a bunch of earthy root vegetables and toss with a mixture of olive oil and maple syrup. Sprinkle everything with salt and pepper and roast. It doesn’t get much easier than that. I strayed from the recipe a bit in terms of which vegetables to include, mostly because when I ran to the store, they had a pathetic assortment of nothing. No parsnips or rutabaga to speak of, but I did manage to find a turnip. Let me tell you, this is my first and last time eating a turnip. Can you say b-i-t-t-e-r? I added some broccoli florets and yams to the mix and loved that addition.
Simple deep flavors with just a touch of sweetness. You can’t go wrong with roasted vegetables, and maple ones? Just this side of swoonworthy.
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