Fire-Roasted Winter Vegetables

Ant'ny and I came up with this dish, for a special occasion back in 2005. Imagine that...Ant'ny eating a dish made entirely of vegetables...

Fire Roasted Winter Vegetables

1 large acorn squash
1 lb. red potatoes
1 lb. onions
1 lb. whole carrots
1 lb. parsnips
2 bulbs of garlic
1/2 C. olive oil
1 T. rubbed sage
2 T. salt
1 T. dry rosemary
juice of one lemon

First, light the grill. I prefer to use charcoal, and I like to add a couple of baseball-sized chunks of soaked hickory wood right before cooking. This recipe takes quite a while to cook, so you will want to make sure you use good charcoal that can keep a hot fire for a couple of hours, and you will want to use a quality grill or smoker that can hold heat well. And lastly, you might want to place a vegetable screen over your grill, so that some of the smaller items don't fall through while cooking.

Scrub the potatoes thoroughly, and cut into 2" chunks. Peel the parsnips and carrots, and cut into 2" long pieces. Peel the onions, and cut into quarters (tip: do not cut off the root end until after cooking...it will help hold the onions together). Cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and pulp, and cut into 2" chunks. Peel and chop off the stem end of the garlic bulbs, but do not separate into cloves.

In a large salad bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, sage, salt, and rosemary. Stir until well-blended. Add the cut vegetables, and toss until well-coated.

Grill the vegetables on medium heat (about 4" above the coal bed), turning every 30 minutes or so. While cooking, try to keep the vegetables as close together as possible so that they do not dry out. Cook until tender, which could take 60 - 90 minutes.

Arrange the roasted vegetables on a serving dish, sorting the vegetables out and placing the garlic at either end. This way, your guests can easily pick out their favorite vegetables (not everyone likes onion or parsnips, you know.) The individual cloves of roasted garlic are to be picked off of the bulb and squeezed over the vegetables as desired.

Serve with hot melted butter and fresh black pepper. Goes great with just about anything.

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If you don't/can't use a grill, you can prepare this dish in the oven. Bake in a deep-dish roasting pan at 425 degrees until tender, stirring every 30 minutes or so. Cooking the vegetables this way is much easier, but you don't get that good smoky flavor.