Vegetarian Recipes: Veggie Root Stew

Ingredients:

1 tbls. olive oil
1 cup chopped sweet onion
3 tbls. chopped garlic
2 ½ tsp. fresh chopped rosemary
1 ½ cups diced, peeled sweet potato
1 ½ cups diced, peeled white potato (I prefer Yukon gold)
2 ½ cups diced rutabaga (peeled)
2 cups diced white turnip (peeled) – about one medium turnip
3/4 cup diced parsnips (peeled) – about one medium - large parsnip
Pinch of sugar
4 -5 cups veggie stock
¼ cup of ½ and ½ or whipping cream
Salt and pepper to taste (White pepper is a good choice to mix with black if you have on hand)

To Make:

Prepare all the veggies in advance before beginning – peel, dice, measure, etc.
In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium/high and cook the onion 5 mins or until tender.
Add in the garlic and rosemary and stir, cooking for another minute.
Add the potato, rutabaga, turnip and parsnips.
Stir to combine with the onion, garlic and rosemary.
Add a large pinch of sugar (this helps the root veggies taste the best!).
Add the stock and bring to a boil (usually about 4 cups or a carton - be sure to just cover the veggies).
Simmer, covered (with lid to side a bit to allow steam out to prevent boiling over) for 45 mins to an hour or until veggies are tender (rutabaga always takes the longest, so be sure to check it).
Take 2-3 cups and place in a blender – removing center piece (to allow steam to escape) and cover with a clean towel. Blend and return to pan (alternatively, I used an immersion blender to do this). You may want to add more stock after doing this to adapt the consistency to your liking.
Add in ½ and ½ and warm through (I left this out when preparing this time – dairy is to be omitted during the veggie cleanse I am doing – it is MUCH better with the ½ and ½ - so add it or a vegan substitute for best results). It is still very tasty without it though!
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with a drizzle of good olive oil, fresh rosemary spring and toasted bread.

Adapted from a “Cooking Light” recipe.

Vegetarian Recipes