Roasted Vegetable Medley with Couscous

Roasted vegetables are one of my favorite things to make, (there’s a good possibility I say that about all my recipes, but it’s true in this case!). There are so many different kinds of vegetables and flavors a person can add, and it easily adapts to the changing seasons – lighter vegetables and fresh herbs in the summer, or autumn squash and heavier spices when it gets chilly. It’s also one of the best ways I’ve found to make sure all the vegetables I buy actually get eaten, which is a constant challenge because I always over buy and want one, or seven, of everything! 

In addition to tasting great as a standalone dish and having an enormous amount of flexibility, roasted vegetables can also be added to all kinds of things to make a complete meal. I added them to couscous in this case, but they are also fantastic with rice, or mixed into salads or pasta. They can also effortlessly be reinvented into something else the next day; I sometimes blend up the leftovers with some broth or cream for a delicious and hearty soup the next day.

I think you get the point, so here’s what I did:

Getting Started

I cut up two yams, two zucchini, two yellow squash, and one carrot into bite size pieces and added them to a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Next I roughly chopped a leftover onion I had in the fridge, breaking it apart in the pan. Then I peeled about half a head of garlic, leaving them whole, and threw in a little less than  an 8oz package of white mushrooms (for good measure), which I cut into halves.

After all the veggies were in the pan, I added some vegetable broth (enough so there was about 1/4 inch in the bottom of the pan), a generous amount of olive oil to make sure everything was well coated (if you don’t put enough olive oil in, the veggies will get dried out), fresh herbs, and salt and pepper, and mixed everything together. 

Bake your medley at 400 degrees for approximately 30 - 40 minutes, or until the veggies are tender. About half way through make sure to toss and add more olive oil if it looks too dry. 

Wrapping it Up

Once the vegetables were done, I tossed the mixture with a pre-seasoned couscous (the box variety), which felt a little like cheating, but why mess with a good thing?! As I mentioned, you can add these veggies to all sorts of things. I like adding it to couscous because all the extra yummy juices soak into the little granules of pasta, and somehow it tastes even better the next day!

          Ingredients

          2 yams

          1 carrot

          2 zucchini

          2 yellow squash

          8oz package white mushroom, cut into halves

          1/2 yellow onion

          4 or 5 cloves of garlic, peeled

          Vegetable broth (about 1/2 cup, see directions above)

          1 tsp coarse salt

          1 tsp pepper

          1 sprig rosemary (remove leaves by pulling against the grain), finely chopped

          2 sage leaves, finely chopped

          1 sprig thyme, finely chopped

          Olive oil to coat vegetables

          2 (5.4 or 5.6oz) boxes of flavored couscous (I used the Toasted Pine Nut variety)

          Servings: Enough for an army (6-8)

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