Makes 8 servings or more, depending on what else is served Makes 8 servings or more, depending on what else is served
PEEL THE ROOT VEGETABLES and cut them in chunks about 1 to 1½ inches to a side. You can do this ahead of time and store the cut vegetables in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a few days until you’re ready to cook. Then all you have to do is toss the vegetables with oil and herbs and put in a preheated oven. If you pre-cut celery root, sprinkle a little lemon juice over the cut surfaces to keep it from darkening.
Store and cook the beets separately from the others; otherwise the beets may bleed their color onto paler vegetables.
If you don’t have all of the vegetables listed, don’t worry, just add more of what you do have. You may also make substitutions—other winter root vegetables like potatoes or delicious parsnips, which seem to be utterly unknown in the Mediterranean, can take the place of some of the vegetables on this list. When I couldn’t find white turnips, I once substituted daikon radishes, again unheard of in the Mediterranean but they gave a nice oriental turnipy touch to the combination.
1 pound beets (about 3 medium beets), peeled and cut in chunks
about ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
juice of ½ lemon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
about 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs, finely minced (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, winter savory, chives or scallion tops)
1 teaspoon medium-strength ground or crushed red chili
2 medium onions
1 pound carrots, cut in inch-thick slices (3 medium carrots)
1 pound celery root, peeled and cut in chunks
1 pound small white turnips, peeled and cut in chunks
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
1½ pounds hard winter squash, peeled and cut in chunks
2 leeks, cut in chunks
8 garlic cloves, cut in half
Set the oven at 450 degrees.
Toss the beets in a bowl with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Combine the minced herbs with the chili and sprinkle a pinch of the mixture over the beets, then transfer to a baking dish. Since the beets will take 20 to 30 minutes longer to cook than the other vegetables, place them in the oven now and cook for a total of 1 hour and 15 to 20 minutes or until the beets are tender.
While the beets are cooking, prepare the rest of the vegetables. Peel the onions and slice off their tops but leave them attached at the stem end, merely trimming away any bits of root. Quarter each onion and add to a big bowl, along with the chunks of carrot, celery root, turnip, and sweet potato.
Rub about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of an oven dish large enough to hold all the vegetables in one or two layers.
Add the remaining oil to the bowl of vegetables, along with the remaining lemon juice, mixed herbs and chili, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix, using your hands, so that all the vegetable chunks are impregnated with the herby oil. Arrange the vegetables in the oven dish and transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the dish and add the squash chunks. Stir the vegetables to mix them well and return to the oven. At the same time, give the beets a stir.
After another 20 minutes, remove the oven dish again. This time add the leeks and garlic, stir, and return to the oven, first giving the beets another stir. The vegetables should be done after another 15 minutes of cooking. Test by piercing a carrot chunk with a sharp pointed knife. It should slide right in without resistance.
Remove the vegetables from the oven. Test the beets at this time—they may need a few more minutes baking. Arrange the vegetables on a platter, garnishing them, if you wish, with more freshly chopped herbs and another spritz of lemon juice. Pile the beets on top just before you send them to the table.