The best baked veggies – beets and carrots

Hey there!

 

Today I will proudly present you one of my favourite side dishes in the whole wide world. It tastes absolutely divine and yet it is so simple to prepare, what a perfect combination!

 

The dish I am talking about today is delicious baked carrots and beets. Whenever I mention baked beets here in Switzerland people look at me rather confused and mostly question whether I’m having a little mix up with the seasonal veggies and whether I actually want to talk about something completely different. Well you have got to know in Switzerland people only ever eat beetroot boiled and mostly processed to salad. I am not saying I don’t like this rather ordinary version of serving beetroot. I actually truly adore it, yet I know there is a better way to prepare this lovely winter root veggie. So I have to prove all those Swiss wrong who accuse me to not know my veggies, sorry guys I do know what I am talking about. Well for some reason my blog name is fannythefoodie.

 

Anyways since we now cleared up the fact that indeed beetroot can be eaten in a variety of different ways and not only in form of a salad I will now continue with my baked veggie recipe. Since I personally think baked beetroot and baked carrots go really well together I decided to jumble them up into one super tasty recipe. Whenever I bake veggies I always marinate them prior to baking, it just makes the final flavour a hundred times better. For this specific recipe I used some pretty ordinary herbs, which were rosemary, thyme and oregano. Yet for the liquids I mixed it up a little. One of the key ingredients for amazing baked veggies is obviously some good extra virgin olive oil. I always use the one we buy from our friends who own a little olive plantation in northern Tuscany though you can obviously use some you bought at the supermarket if you don’t happen to have friends who produce their own olive oil. Then to bring out the sweetness of the carrots and the beets I also added some agave syrup as well as some orange juice and to give the whole thing a hint of tanginess I even poured in a splash of vinegar.

 

The end result was as expected absolutely amazing. Those baked veggies just make the perfect side to any winter and fall food. I personally think they would actually look great on a Christmas dinner table. Especially when you add the optional toppings I suggest. This time I prepared those heavenly vegetables I actually topped them with some crumbled feta and chopped up pistachios. Yet it already tasted divine without any toppings added.

 

So, whether you are on of those Swiss beetroot salad eaters, who has never ever heard of roasting beets or you are just looking for a new way of preparing your baked veggies I’d say it is now on you. Well there you have the recipe, so come on start cooking!

 

 

 

 

• 1kg beetroot
• 700g carrots
• 1tbs rosemary
• 1tsp thyme
• 1tsp oregano
• 2tbs olive oil
• 1tbs agave syrup
• 1tbs vinegar
• 1 orange
• 1tsp salt

optional toppings:

• 30g crumbled feta
• 30g chopped up pistachios

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Peel your carrots and beets
3. Slice your carrots into 1cm thick strips and your beets into chunks, then throw your cut up veggies into a big bowl
4. Juice your orange
5. Now add salt, rosemary, thyme and oregano as well as olive oil, agave, vinegar and the juice of your orange tot he veggies and mix it al through, so all your veggies are covered in the gorgeous marinade
6. Now bake for about 50 minutes
7. After 40 minutes you might want to cover your veggies with some aluminium foil, so they don’t get to much colour if you know what I mean

Voila, your delicious baked root vegetables are ready to be eaten. They are absolutely delicious as is since you covered them in such a delightful marinade prior to the baking. Yet if you want to fancy it up a little I recommend chopping some pistachios and crumbling up some feta and evenly distribute those two delicious components over your baked veggies. Not only do they enhance the colour combination of this dish to the absolute max those two ingredients also add a nice crunch and even a little salty tanginess. I personally consider this to be the perfect side dish for any meal during Christmas season. Beets and Carrots just happen to be some of the most common winter veggies and trust me when they’re baked they’re also the absolute best ones out there. If you haven’t tried baked beetroot and even if you haven’t tried baked carrots you have definitely been missing out on a divine food experience. So since you’ve now got the recipe to such delight there’s only one thing to do for you, put your apron on, start peeling, slicing and baking and then enjoy!

Enjoy your week, only 16 more days till Christmas!

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie