Roast vegetables

Roast meat and vegetables were always part of our weekly diet when growing up.

Our Mother cooked on a coal range.

The roast vegetables were always a special part of the meal.

Mum coated the vegetables in flour and they often had quite a crust on them by the time they came through the roasting process.  More crust, more flavour I thought.

There was always yummy gravy made from the meat drippings in the pan to go with meal.

In our family Linda and I became known as the gravy twins as we were known for loving seconds of roast vegetables with lashings of tasty gravy.

We still enjoy our roast vegetables and make our own gravy from the drippings - no compromise there.

When preparing the roast vegetables I do the following:-

• I take a large clean plastic shopping bag and check it has no holes in the base;
• I place 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon hot curry powder, 2 teaspoons sea salt and a sprinkling of ground black pepper in the bottom of the bag;
• Peel, cut and add as many roast vegetables as you think you need for your family.
• Hold and twist the top of the bag to prevent flour from escaping and give the flour and vegetables a good shake.  Good idea to hold the bottom of the bag with you other hand.
• Tip the contents into the baking tray next to your meat and cook alongside until crisp.
• Add a little oil to vegetables if you think there is not enough drippings from the meat.

For a basic roast you can do just potatoes and sweet potatoes (kumara for us New Zealanders), but you can also add as many root vegetables as you like - pumpkin, quartered red onions, carrot, parsnip and beetroot are all great additions.

Often, when having a salad, I make up what we call a Roast Vegetable Medley.  I include as many root vegetables as possible from the above list and cut them into bite size pieces before roasting.

For the Roast Vegetable Medley there is no meat to cook them with.  I pre heat the oven to 210 degrees celsius (410 degrees fahrenheit), I line a large baking tray with baking paper, tip the vegetables into the tray, drizzle with olive oil, cook for 30 minutes near the top of the oven, take out, turn over the vegetables, cook for another 30 minutes.  At this point you can assess whether you would like them to be a bit crisper or not.

We enjoy them hot with the salad and they are just as nice cold next day as a snack or with a meal.