Friday, March 31, 2006

Roasted Celery Root, Parsnip, Carrot and Fennel

This vegetable roast marked a couple of firsts for me - my first taste of fresh fennel and of celery root. I love carrots and parsnips, but I had ambitiously purchased a lovely organic fennel bulb and celery root that I was dying to try, yet had no idea how to prepare. I searched online for recipes, most of which were soup recipes, or gratin recipes that called for heavy cream. I really just wanted to taste the purity of each vegetable, so I went ahead and tried them raw (yay celery root, boo fennel - a lil strong for me) and decided to roast them, hoping it would turn out. Obviously, this would be must tastier with 3 times as much oil and a good bit of Parmigiano Reggiano, but my reality being what it is, this was good, tasty, and low cal.




Roasted Celery Root, Parsnip, Carrot and Fennel

1 sm. Celery Root (80)
1 med. Parsnip (59)
3 med. Carrots (106)
1 med. Fennel bulb (84)
1 TB + 1 tsp. olive oil (160)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel and cut root vegetables into 1/2-inch pieces. Remove the top portion (making sure to reserve enough fronds to garnish) and the tough outer layer of the fennel bulb; cut into 1/4-inch wedges.

Toss the root vegetables on a cookie sheet with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the cookie sheet and toss the fennel in with the root vegetables and 1 tsp. olive oil. Continue baking for 45 minutes, or until the vegetables are golden and tender. Toss with chopped fennel fronds and serve while warm.

Makes 4 servings, 122.25 calories per serving.

3 comments:

Lexi said...

I love celery, not so much fennel, but i love to roast vegetables and roots! I am nuts about it!
Of course some would think that I add alot of oil to my roots but I hardly ever do, what I do is I let meat roast on a grill above the roots and the fat from the meat will pour over the vegetables. Chicken being my favorite ;) AND I hardly oil the chicken either! Yummie!
I forgot tot ake a photo yesterday becuase me and the man had afight, but I made spareribs and roots in the oven, it was delicious!!!
I usually make roots in the oven if I'm feeling in a binge mood becuase I can eat alot without it being too unhealthy ;)
I'll post some recipe soon, just been stressed about work :)

GS said...

I have some celery root (celeriac) to play with so I might just roast it. I do like fennel - baked, braised and raw. The trick to having it uncooked is to slice it finely (or even "shave" it). You get a hint of aniseed and some crunchiness without it being over powering.

Luke Bohanan said...

Good root veg combo. I picked up some parsnips and celeriac today and was thinking of the same combo with fennel and carrots. I feel validated that someone else tried it first. I will be Julian mine and toss with a lemon vinaigrette and parsley and capers. I will blog the results at a later date.