Roasted Vegetables (and Fruit!) with Curried Couscous

Once the winter root vegetables start coming in, I can't help myself. I just have to have a big heapin' plate full of them -- roasted, warm, and lightly spiced. Just delicious. So after our first CSA box to feature these fall veggies came in, I made myself a fast, easy-to-prepare (but not necessarily well-balanced) dinner of roasted fall vegetables and a side of curried couscous.

Roasted Root Vegetables (and Fruit!)

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sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

onion (red, white or yellow), peeled and quartered

carrots, washed and chopped

garlic, peeled and broken into individual cloves

peaches (fresh), chopped

several sprigs of rosemary (or other herb of your choice)

olive oil

salt and pepper

There is no set recipe for this dish. Simply preheat your oven to 350. Then, gather whatever vegetables (and fruit, occasionally) you plan to use for dinner.Begin with the vegetables that will take longer to roast -- potatoes, onions, and carrots, for example. Coat in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in oven about 30-40 minutes.

Then, open the oven door and toss in the next set of ingredients -- the ones that will take less time to roast. For this example, I added the garlic and fresh peaches. Stir with a spoon to make sure the new additions are also coated in oil. Roast for another 15-20 minutes, or until everything has softened.

Because I was ashamed to admit to my blog followers that I normally just eat a big bowl of this for dinner, I decided to add some kind of grain to the menu. I whipped up a motley curried couscous to serve as a side.

Curried Couscous

1 T oil

1 onion, chopped

1 T curry

3 c water

2 c couscous

Heat oil in a saucepan. Add onion and saute until soft, about six minutes. Add curry powder and heat one minute. Add water and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer curry water for 10 minutes.

In a separate pan, saute the couscous in oil for about 3 minutes -- until it begins to toast. Pour in the curry water. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand about 10 minutes. Easy, and certainly more flavorful than plain couscous. But, for the record, I would recommend going the extra step of making a more interesting curried couscous dish -- one that includes peas, almonds, etc. Look for that in the future. For now, just concentrate on the roasted vegetables (and fruit!).

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