Here’s my very first guest post of a winter roast vegetable salad from Lizzie Moult from Strayed from the Table. She sent it through our new nifty EasyGuestPost plugin. When we put up the plugin for beta testing I received several comments saying they’d be willing to guest post but this is the first of what I hope will be many guest posts. You all have fantastic recipes that I hope you’ll share.
I must admit I was a bit excited when I logged in to my WordPress admin and saw the post in my drafts. I yelled for John and said, “There’s a guest post!!” I immediately emailed Liz and thanked her and made plans to meet for lunch today.
She doesn’t live close by but she was coming to town anyway and meeting her for lunch gave me a great opportunity to pick her brain about improvements we could make to the plugin. She had a couple of suggestions and we’ll see if we can incorporate them.
Strayed from the Table is a blog that was started by Liz’s husband Roy. He’s the type of person who’ll travel around the world for the best dishes and Liz had worked in the food industry for years before they met, so food is important to both of them. Roy posts occasionally but the blog is firmly in Liz’s hands. She’s a lovely young woman who knows a lot about food.
Here’s her guest post.
Here in Queensland we are so fortunate to have the sun warming up our days after a frosty morning. With the blue sky over head, a frosty southerly reminds you it is still winter. Beetroot, parsnips, carrots and onion make a colourful lunch when paired with freshly picked radicchio and spinach.
Since we have moved to our new block of land we are living with just the basics. Which means we have power, a roof over our heads and a great view. This means, lucky for me my good friend Allison has come to my aid with the use of her kitchen which has an oven. Life gets a bit dull when you can’t bake something for a while.
Sitting outdoors we tuck into our baked feast with the heat on our backs enjoying a little vitamin D. Probably a few other minerals and vitamins in the veggies too.
- Bunch of thyme
- 2 carrots
- 2 parsnips
- 2 small beetroots
- 2 large onions
- Rose of garlic
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Generous handful radicchio & spinach
- Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
- Place ¾ of the bunch of thyme, stalk and all on the bottom of a large backing dish, drizzle with a little olive oil.
- Cut the vegetables into similar sized pieces and place into the baking dish. Separate the garlic and sprinkle over the top of the vegetables.
- Drizzle again with olive oil, and season generously with salt and pepper.
- With the remaining thyme, take the leaves off the stalk and sprinkle over the top of the vegetables.
- Bake for 45min, checking half way through to give them a stir.
- Once vegetables are cooked, place the radicchio and spinach in a large bowl, add the roasted vegetables and any oil remaining in the dish and discard the thyme stalks. Give the leaves and vegetables a light toss.
- Serves four as a salad or six as a side to a main meal.
- Notes:
- Add a few chili flakes before baking to give a little heat to the dish.
Thanks for testing the guest post plugin, Lizzie! Please visit Strayed from the Table and say hello to my new friend! Now, who’s next with a guest post? I need a few more tests before we can launch the new plugin.
I appreciate any help! 🙂
I’m counting the days until winter!! YUM 🙂
I love reading about winter when it’s summer here.
The salad looks delicious, such rich colors.
LL
I love roasting vegetables in the winter!
Mmmm these roasted vegetables could certainly liven up my morning 😀
They look delicious!
So glad the plug in is working!! 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I love roasted vegetables. Roasting works magic on vegetables. It makes them soooooo delicious and sweet. This salad looks and sounds delicious!
Okay seriously that is AWESOME!!! I still need to download it, I am so excited to try it out:-) That salad sounds like a dish my hubby would adore:-) Beautiful, Hugs, Terra
How cool is this! It looks like the WP plugin worked! What a great guest post! Love the salad and loved discovering Lizzie. Headed to check out here site!
I am loving the look of this salad!!
Thanks Maureen, the post turned out great. I look forward to reading the next guest post.
And thanks for the kind words.
Love the whole idea of guest posting. And salad looks great.
The sald looks fantastic! Even though it’s still Winter I can feel the days getting warmer. Looking forward to summer!
I’ve been meaning to write a guest post for you but haven’t had the time. Will definitely do it some time this week! 🙂
I actually miss winter vegetables and this salad is a beautiful way to use them
Thank you to the introduction to a new blog
Very, very cool Maureen! I’m so glad that it worked so well and I can imagine how excited you were when you saw it there in your drafts! 😀
This was a great post with a great recipe!
Gorgeous sweet flavours in this salad, Liz. This would really cheer up winter weary tastebuds. Maureen, another star!
I’m glad the plug-in is working. And yes, the weather does seem to be warming up. The last couple of days in Sydney have been lovely. Great looking salad. I love all thee root vegetables xx
Roasting veggies brings out the sweetness and this is one thing that I’ve always planned to make at home … i couldn’t resist the look of this lovely looking salad.
Happy Weekend and enjoy the fab season you have there right now, while we sweat here haha.
Malou
We are still in the midst of summer and heat wave, but cool weather and the root vegetables will be here soon and I can make this. Planting radichio and hoping for a good harvest.
We can’t wait for you to give up summer, Norma! 🙂
I love any and all roast vegetables. This is such a nice combo of flavors. I’d definitely be adding those chili flakes, loving spicy as I do. And I’m really wanting weather cool enough to enjoy this dish properly. Really nice – thank you.
The roasted vegetable salad looks wonderful!
Roasted veggie salad would really make for perfect dinner on a monday night!