Root Vegetable Ragout

This week my produce delivery was a much better mix of stuff: tomatoes, lettuce, collard greens, bananas and oranges plus some other goodies. This means, of course, that I’m no longer getting the box of stuff that is locally sourced – I just couldn’t eat any more root vegetables. Every day for dinner I was trying to come up with some other way to use them. I figured as long as what I’m getting is at least organic I’m still thinking of the earth and being a better person [or something].

While I was still up to my eyeballs in root vegetables, I made this great ragout that I served alongside a tasty rosemary crusted beef tenderloin. The recipe came from epicurious and was originally from Gourmet magazine. While this is not vegetarian in its current state, it could very well be made so by subbing the meat stock called for in the recipe with vegetable stock. While I think you could probably make it vegan by dumping the butter for another fat, I do think butter really adds something to the overall dish.

Root Vegetable Ragout
Adapted from Gourmet magazine, January 1999

1 medium turnip, peeled and diced
4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
4 medium parsnips, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup beef stock (4 fluid ounces)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425. In a shallow roasting pan, toss vegetables with oil and roast for about 25 minutes or until the vegetables and tender and just starting to caramelize. Take out of the oven.

In a large pan, heat the butter until it foams and then reduce heat to medium. Add in the roasted vegetables, stock and salt and pepper. Bring this up to a simmer and continue to cook until the stock becomes a glaze over the vegetables. Serve immediately.

I was really happy with how this came out. The sweetness of the parsnips and carrots evened out the turnip, and there was just enough glaze over everything. This is something I’ll definitely be making again, it was so easy! It also works out well in larger quantities, as a friend of mine made three roasting pans of vegetables for a pot luck not too long ago.