Fancy Shmancy Herb Roasted Root Vegetables

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables - Eat Spin Run Repeat

Need a healthy side dish that looks beautiful and tastes delicious? These Fancy Shmancy Herb Roasted Root Vegetables are perfect for cooler months and pack a punch of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Vegan, paleo, Whole-30 friendly and sugar-free!


Have you ever wanted to make a recipe purely because you saw it on Pinterest and thought it looked absolutely fabulous?

Occasionally my team at work host themed potlucks and invite other teams to join us. This usually means we pick something like ‘meat and cheese’ or ‘will it dip?’, and everyone brings something that fits into that theme. Our most recent was a ‘onesie and bring anything’ potluck. Before we even talk about food, I have to say that I was completely blown away by how many of my co-workers own onesies. Kangaroos, monkeys, loud flannels… it was quite a sight to see.

beets

This potluck happened on a particularly busy week, and therefore despite grand intentions to source a onesie of my own, it didn’t happen. I did however, contribute a veggie platter with a mean I-didn’t-mean-to-make-it-this-good chipotle hummus (recipe to come soon) that got some pretty rave reviews.

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

One of my co-workers who was feeling much more ambitious than I decided to attempt making a piecaken. If it sounds like a foreign term and you don’t have time to read this article from the New York Times about the trend, it’s a pie, baked into a cake. If my grandpa were still alive this is the type of thing he’d be ALL. OVER. When asked at celebrations which of the 6 squillion desserts available he’d like, his response was almost always “Oh just a sliver of each!” I have no idea how many cavities the man had, but something tells me I don’t have enough fingers to count them.

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

Anyways.  Piecaken. My co-worker successfully made a beautiful piecaken. Unfortunately that’s not what I’ve got for you today, but I do have something pretty great (and significantly more waistline-friendly).

A lot of people browse Pinterest for things like the most sinful brownies ever created, but when you write a (mostly) healthy food blog, I usually drool over things made with – get ready to file me right under the crazy category – fruit or vegetables or both. I’ve had this pinned for a really long time because I think it’s absolutely beautiful:

oven roasted beets and potatoes - pure wow
Source: Pure Wow

… and last weekend in a stroke of strong-willed enthusiasm and I-MUST-make-this-dish-of-magnificent-beauty determination, I brought a variation of it to life in my very own kitchen.

I learned 3 lessons while making this recipe, which I’ll call Herb Roasted Root Vegetables:

Lesson 1: The next time I so much as even think about shooting food on a tablecloth, I will go out and buy an iron. The majority of photos taken of the finished dish are not included here because….. #wrinklesfordays.

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

Lesson 2: This isn’t really the kind of recipe that you make when the company is on their way over to your house for a holiday feast. I’m not going to lie here – the mandolin slicing (or knife work, depending on how comfortable you are with chopping slivers of root vegetables without doing the same with your own fingers) takes a few extra minutes, as does the arranging in the casserole dish. But it’s alllllllll going to be worth it in the end.

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

Lesson 3: For some very bizarre reason, cooking golden beets alongside turnips, butternut squash and pink beets makes the golden ones turn green. Odd? Extremely. But they still taste really good.

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

Feel free to use whatever root vegetables you like for this recipe. If you’re not into beets, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, other types of squash and even eggplant would all be great substitutes. The more colour the better!

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

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Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

Fancy Shmancy Herb Roasted Root Vegetables


  • Author: Angela Simpson
  • Total Time: 1 hour 5 mins
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x

Description

Need a healthy side dish that looks beautiful and tastes delicious? These Fancy Shmancy Herb Roasted Root Vegetables are perfect for cooler months and pack a punch of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Vegan, paleo, Whole-30 friendly and sugar-free!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 parsnips or turnips, about 2” diameter*
  • 34 purple beets, about 2” diameter*
  • 34 golden beets, about 2” diameter*
  • 1 medium butternut squash, about 2” diameter*
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh herbs such as rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme and parsley
  • sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
  2. Wash and peel the parsnips, beets and squash. Trim as needed and slice into very thin circles using a mandolin slicer or knife. Try to get these as uniform as possible.
  3. In separate bowls (ie beets in one bowl, squash in another etc), toss the vegetables in a little olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle generously with fresh herbs, as well as a little sea salt and black pepper.
  4. Arrange the vegetables in a baking dish (mine is small – 10×6″), lining up a few slices of each type at a time. Use your fingers to stuff any leftover herbs in between slices.
  5. Put the dish in the oven and roast for 40-45 minutes. If you want the tops to be a bit crispy, broil for the final 1-2 minutes of cooking.

Notes

* Aim to try to find turnips, beets and squash that are about the same diameter so that they’ll line up uniformly in your casserole dish. You can always trim them after slicing in order to make them fit, but it’s easiest if you can find equally-sized ones from the beginning! My dish is 10″x6″ but you may need more vegetables than called for above if yours is larger.

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 45 mins
  • Category: side dish
  • Method: roast

Keywords: Thanksgiving, root vegetables, roast, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, Whole30, sugar free, gluten free

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

Herb Roasted Root Vegetables | My Fresh Perspective | This paleo, vegan, Whole30-friendly side dish is perfect for Thanksgiving, holiday entertaining, or simply enjoying on your own! #paleo #whole30 #thanksgiving #antiinflammatory #squash

So tell me…

  • Are you hosting any get togethers over the holidays?
  • What’s on your holiday menu? 

Anti-Inflammatory Eating 101 Guide - Eat Spin Run Repeat

31 thoughts on “Fancy Shmancy Herb Roasted Root Vegetables

  1. This looks so good that I bought some vegetables from farmers market today to give it a try. I have tried a similar recipe from the web made with potatoes some time ago, and though I followed it carefully, the upper part of the potatoes were baked very nicely golden but too dry, while the lower half were still not done. Yours look moist and tasty, you did a great job with this dish.

  2. What do you think about making this the night before and then baking the next day? Do you think the vegetables will dry out?

    1. Hi Alissa! Great question. I think it could be done, as long as you’re able to add some moisture back to the vegetables before you go to cook them. (I love your thinking too – it would be so nice to have all the chopping done ahead of time so you just have to pop it in the oven!) I don’t think they’d dry out much if you keep them covered. You could either wait until the day of cooking to toss the vegetables in the oil and herbs, or if you want to save yourself time the day of cooking, you could always use a basting brush to add a little more olive oil if you find the raw veggies need it. I never tried that so can’t say for sure, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Let me know how this turns out for you – I’d love to hear your feedback regardless of which method you go with!

  3. I love this! I am writing vegetarian recipe round ups on my blog in 2018 (to encourage people to try meatless monday- everyone has to start somewhere) and would love to feature you. You can check out my blog (for beginner environmentalists) at sunshineguerrilla.com. Is it alright if I share this link to your recipe?

  4. Hey, just wanted to mention I can’t get this recipe to print. Every time I click on “click here to print the recipe” it sends me to the home page of the website.

    1. Hi Brandi! Thank you so much for letting me know. This was a recipe I hadn’t yet updated to the same recipe card format used on other areas of the blog, but I’ve fixed it now! You should now be abl to click the print button, and the recipe will open in another tab, ready to print. Let me know if you run into any issues. I hope you enjoy this one!

  5. I made this for Thanksgiving, and it was a hit. I would add a bit more liquid or fat to the bake, but otherwise, it was perfect.

  6. I went looking for a dish that resembled hasselback potatoes but was layered with different veggies too. I’ve got to tell you that I will be adding butter to my version of this recipe, probably a LOT of it.

  7. Did you find that any of these needed blanching or pre roasting before slicing?
    I’m using red beets, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, a butternut squash, and purple sweet potatoes. Thanks!

    1. Hi Danielle! You definitely don’t have to blanch them if you cut them thin enough. You can if you like, but if you use a mandolin slicer and get a reasonably thin cut, you should be fine to just skip the blanching part. Hope you enjoy this one!

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