Rustic Oven-Roasted Herbed Root Veggies & Sweet Smoked Sausage
It’s the middle of the week and dinner is starting to seems daunting, at least for me. I surveyed my pantry and fridge and thought – ‘oh, I need an idea!’ Then it came to me. Time to make use of these ingredients:
Celery, carrots, potatoes, onions & parsley are a few of my pantry staples. That means – I try to NEVER run out of these items.
I had very little time to get a meal on the table, several things happened at the last minute to cause me to run behind. Isn’t that just how it goes? But because my pantry was stocked and I had a plan, I was able to persevere through & still serve a tasty meal. No dining out, no fast food lanes & no frozen dinners (yay).
Another item I like to keep on hand is smoked sausage. I prefer turkey smoked sausage because of the lower fat content but I found a yummy brand at Whole Foods the other day and couldn’t resist.
For this meal, I chopped everything into approximately 1″ pieces in order to ensure even cooking.
After chopping all of the veggies, I lightly coated them in canola oil and added a few hearty shakes of my favorite steakhouse seasoning blend by McCormick. I tossed them onto two parchment lined baking sheets, along with the smoked sausage & in the oven it went. 40-45 minutes later, dinner was served. It was so good! Honestly, this meal will be revisited routinely in our home.
I love roasting and slow cooking in the oven, the clean-up is minimal and I can let it do its “thing” while check my other to-do’s off my list.
Surprisingly for me, the green onions and celery were my favorite part of the meal, probably because they are something I do not usually oven roast. The addition of parsley was key to this dish. It added a fresh flavor without being aggressive. I think thyme would have been good too ((and I have a ton of it growing in my beds and window boxes)) – I just didn’t have time to pick thyme leaves off the woody stems.
This meal is simple, not really creative or unique. But when I needed a tasty, no mess meal in a hurry, this did just that and more. Score one for a family meal at he dinner table!
- 1 &1/2 lbs of your favorite smoked sausage
- 6-8 medium carrots
- 1 head of celery
- 1 bunch of fresh parsley
- 8-10 green onions
- 5-6 medium potatoes, (I love the Klondike Gold variety)
- 2 T canola oil
- steakhouse seasoning blend, to taste (I prefer McCormick's)
- Preheat oven to 400°. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl combine all veggies & parsley, after they have been washed and chopped into approximately 1" chunks. I also chopped the green onions into 1" pieces, but quartered (lengthwise) the whites of the green onion.
- Drizzle oil over veggies, season to taste (I used a 2 teaspoons or so). Toss to coat.
- Slice sausage into 2" chunks & spread the sausage out evenly on baking sheets.
- Pour half of the veggies on each baking sheet and spread out into a single layer.
- Place pans in the over for about 40 minutes at 400°, tossing halfway through to ensure even baking.
- If you are serving less than 4 I would half the ingredients. However, leftovers (which we did not have) would be tasty!
Here is what happens: the skin crisps! The inside gets all soft and sweetly tender, but when you bite through skin, it sort of pops. ((It is especially yummy!!)). the end, until we roast carrots again & then I will urge you, all the same.