Spicy Sweet Roasted Root Vegetables

Jeff likes to call these crispy, roasted vegetables, “Little Crunchies.” By using a fairly small dice on the vegetables, each forkful can deliver a delightful mix of carrot, sweet potato, and parsnip. Feel free to adjust the spices to your preferences. Other spice options could include a little chipotle chili powder, garlic powder, or ground cloves.

Yield: about 6 servings

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted*

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon cayenne

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• Kosher salt

• 1 lb. carrots, peeled, cut into a 1/4”-1/2” dice

• 1 lb. parsnips, peeled, cut into a 1/4”-1/2” dice**

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into a 1/4”-1/2” dice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine the melted butter and olive oil in a large bowl. Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, and nutmeg. Add the carrots, parsnips, and sweet potatoes to the bowl and toss to coat the vegetables.

Dump the contents of the bowl onto a baking sheet and spread out into a single layer. If needed, use two baking sheets - you don’t want the vegetables to be too crowded and steam, rather than roast.

Roast at 400°F for 30-45 minutes, until tender and browned. Toss the vegetables with a spatula every 15 minutes.

Notes

*If you’re making a vegan adaptation, skip the butter and use a total of 4-5 tablespoons olive oil instead.

**If the parsnips are large, they can have woody cores within the wide ends. Remove these by slicing the parsnip in half to isolate the wider end. Quarter the wide end of the parsnip lengthwise. Use your knife to make an angled cut into each quarter to remove the core. See sketch below.

A silly sketch demonstrating how to remove the woody cores from large parsnips.

Spicy and sweet roasted carrots, sweet potato, and parsnips.