Roasted vegetables with caper vinaigrette. It won’t get any better.. Recipe on Food52 (2024)

If you’re looking for a pure, pure vegetable dish with incredible flavors, this recipe is the one. It just won’t get tastier than this.

Last night I was cooking a recipe from Ottolenghi’s ‘Plenty’ cookbook. It was simple, but almost too good to be true. Sweet potatoes and parsnip where the main ingredients: vegetables, I have to admit, I don’t often cook with. For some reason I never found them very appealing; a bit course and too sweet for my taste. But I decided to try them anyway; in the book they looked amazing, so it couldn’t be that bad. (And of course it was Ottolenghi’s, what was I thinking??)
Guess what; it was amazing. Oh my god, it was! I believe that these roasted vegetables combined with lemon and capers, could really turn a carnivore into a vegetarian! This is vegetarian food 2.0 !!

I added a few ingredients, like fennel (yes!! Fennel!!), zucchini and carrot, but I believe, according to Ottolenghi, that’s not a problem at all. And also the whole garlic’s; sliced in half; you should at least eat one of those by yourself! The roasted garlic cloves become as soft as butter.

So yes, I made it again today, and no-one had anything to complain. My whole family loved it, and they loved me for making it again, for you! With pleasure! —Mirjam Leslie-Pringle

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 190C / 375F.
2. Peel the parsnips, and according to their sizes cut them in half (lengthwise) or in three. Divide those parts in four.
3. Peel the onions, divide them in four as well.
4. Do the same with the carrots: peel them and divide them into the same size. (about 5 cm long and 1,5 cm thick)
5. Add the vegetables to a mixing bowl, add the olive oil, the tbsp of salt, the rosemary- and thyme stems, and toss the vegetables into a baking dish.
6. Slice your garlics in two, carefully add them to the vegetable mix, and pour some oil over them with a spoon.
7. Place into the oven, and bake for 20 minutes. (just peek now and than)
8. In the meantime, cut up your fennel: remove the hard top and end, cut it into even slices and divide the slices in half.
9. Wash your sweet potato well, and cut off top and end. Divide it in half, and again, divide those parts into 6 or 8 smaller parts.
10. Wash and chop the zucchini into the same sizes.
11. After 20 minutes, add the new veggies to the baking dish (if necessary, use two, I did!) Carefully toss them into the hot oil, and place back into the oven for about 40 minutes.
12. In the meantime cut the tomatoes in half. And than, finally after 40 minutes, add the tomatoes to the veggies as well, toss them in a bit, and bake for another 10 minutes.
13. You can also make the vinaigrette now, by mixing all the ingredients.
14. Last but certainly not least: after you have taken out the baking dish, pour the vinaigrette on top, and enjoy these lovely vegetables! But be careful: it’s hot!!