The garden is harvested and put in storage for the winter waiting for me to start using what I was able to grow this past summer. The weather is definitely changing and that brings on my desire for warm, comfort foods.
I freeze a lot of my garden vegetables to use in soups, stews, and other dishes throughout the winter. I make large batches and freeze them in individual or larger, family size portions. One of my first go-to soups is a roasted veggie soup since I have most of the ingredients chopped up in my freezer.
First I gather and prep all my veggies, onions, and garlic that I’m going to use. I happen to like beets a lot, but I realize I am in the minority, so switch them out with something else, say cauliflower, or squash, or another veggie you really like. That holds true for any of the other veggies, you just need about 7 cups of chopped veggies, plus your onions. You can use purple or yellow onions, I happened to have purple ones this time around.
If your veggies were frozen, don’t worry, you can roast them in the oven that way, it just might take a little longer.
Next split your veggies onto 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper. One tray for the harder veggies that take longer to cook and the other for the rest of the veggies. Divide your garlic in half between the 2 pans, this ensures a garlicky flavor throughout and sprinkle some sea salt and black pepper on the veggies.
Bake your harder veggies in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes then add the other tray and bake an additional 15 minutes.
While your veggies are roasting, gather and prep your herbs. You can certainly use dried herbs, but I recommend fresh ones, the flavor is a lot better. If you need to use dry the ratio is 1 tsp dried to 1 tbsp fresh. So use a heaping 1/2 tsp each of dried herbs.
During you last 15 minutes of veggie roasting time, you can start on your rue and stock (sorry, no fancy pictures here). Melt the butter in a large stock pot and whisk in the flour, cook for a few minutes to brown the flour a little bit, this will take the pasty taste out of the flour. Slowly whisk in whatever stock you decided to use, if you are meat eaters and think you will miss having meat in your stew, use beef broth, but vegetable broth/stock works great too.
Once your vegetables are done, add them to your stock plus the fresh herbs. I generally throw in a few handfuls of fresh spinach or kale or beet greens at this point too. Mix this all together and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Now it’s time to enjoy!
Roasted Veggie Stew
Equipment
- Large Stock Pot
- 2 Sheet Pans
Ingredients
- 1 cup beets cubed
- 1 cup potatoes cubed
- 1 cup carrots diced
- 1 cup broccoli florets and stems
- 1 cup bell pepper diced
- 1 cup mushrooms sliced
- 1 cup beans cut into bite sizes
- ½ cup onions diced
- 2 tbsp garlic fresh minced
- 2 tsp Thyme chopped
- 2 tsp oregano chopped
- 2 tsp parsley chopped
- 8 tbsp butter
- 8 tbsp flour
- 4 cups veggie or beef broth
Instructions
- Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. On 1 spread out the potatoes, beets, carrots and 1 T of garlic. On the other spread out the rest of the veggies and remaining tablespoon of garlic. Drizzle the veggies with olive (or canola) oil and sprinkle on a little sea salt and black pepper.
- In a 400° oven, roast the pan with the potatoes for about 30 minutes (until tender and browning). Roast the remaining veggies for 15 minutes (until tender). The outcome reduces the veggies down to about 4 cups.
- In a 4 quart (or larger) sauce pan, melt 8 T of butter then whisk in the 8 T of flour. I like a thick, hearty stew, but if you want it more soup-like, use only 6 T each of butter and flour. Whisk this mixture for a few minutes to start browning the flour and take the pasty taste out of it. While whisking, slowly add the 4 quarts of veggie or beef broth. Don’t add the broth too fast or it will result in clumps.
- Then add the fresh herbs and your veggies. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Enjoy!