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Thursday, January 5, 2017

Baked Root Vegetable Fries (easy, gluten free and vegan)


The weather here in the Pacific Northwest has been abnormally cold the last few weeks, with more snow and ice than we've seen in several years combined. To top it off, our apartment building has had almost no heat and hot water for close to two months because the boiler broke... again... just like it did last year in the midst of a cold snap... they keep trying to fix it, but improvements have been small and incremental...

So yeah...

I'm looking for any excuse to turn the oven on and hold my hands over that delicious heat.

I don't know about you all, but I find that when I spend most of my day shivering, bundled in three pairs of socks, a blanket, and finger-less mittens I like to have a little bit of comfort food for dinner.

And there are few things more comforting than a plate full of easy, baked, barbeque-flavored root veggie fries. Unless, of course, you dip those root veggies into a little puddle of my Homemade BBQ Sauce.  Add a bottle of wine and there's really no reason to go anywhere else for the night!

Turnips, sweet potatoes, rutabaga, all are excellent, less-starchy alternatives to white potatoes. And if you're wanting nightshade-free fries, these root vegetable fries are definitely the way to go.




 Of course, you can always re-heat the leftovers and serve them for breakfast the next day. Or chop them into hashbrown size and fry them to crisp them up again.

Then you can have comfort food for breakfast, and not feel guilty because you're actually eating healthy vegetables! 

These are very simple and easy to make. You can always switch up the seasoning if you like, and use rosemary and sea salt, or chili powder, or turmeric and curry, or get creative and do something else entirely!

But the BBQ flavoring I have below is definitely best served with my Homemade BBQ Sauce. Trust me, you won't regret it!




Gluten Free, Vegan BBQ Flavored Root Vegetables (serves 4)

2-3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, or rutabaga, or 1 large turnip 
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp white or brown rice flour
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp brown sugar


Directions

Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 425F. 

1. Peel root veggies and slice into french fry shapes. Long thin strips work better for these, rather than pub fry style, as thick-cut pub fries will take longer to cook and will be a bit softer inside, rather than crispy.

2. In a large bowl, toss root vegetables with olive oil to coat.

3. Mix remaining seasonings together to blend. Sprinkle over root veggies and toss to coat. Lay out fries on baking sheets and bake 30 minutes, turning the fries over halfway through. Keep an eye on these, as sweet potatoes tend to cook a little faster than turnips and rutabaga. Turn heat up to broil and cook another 3-5 minutes, until fries are browned.

Serve warm and enjoy!


What's your favourite French Fry dipping sauce?








Have you seen the latest novel in my romance series, Lady of the Caravan? Get it now, and follow the queen's cousin as she braves the dangers of Egypt's great desert to marry a nomadic chieftain. 
 


 
 

2 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear about the heat issue. That is really difficult to deal with. I love your recipe for root fries. I'm going to give this a try. I also shared this post on Google, Twitter and P interest.

    ReplyDelete

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