Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday and food is such a central part to the day – turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potato pie, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and pecan pie. I bet you are drooling now, just at the thought of it.
American Thanksgiving is a gloriously colorful affair, and some people insist that you must have something orange, something green and snappy, and of course that ruby red cranberry sauce. Every year my vegetable arty tart gets picked up on social sites as a Thanksgiving side. It always makes me smile as it was intended as just a regular dish, but I can see how this colorful dish could be part of a celebration dinner.
As Thanksgiving is only once a year, people do want to pull out all the stops and want to impress with a colorful spread of food. If you don’t feel like going to the effort of making a vegetable arty tart, here is a simple alternative. I cut some sweet root vegetables in the shape of leaves and roasted them in the oven. The cooked vegetable leaves are then tossed in a sweet and tangy mustard, caper and maple dressing and garnished with fresh herbs.
This vegetable side is good anytime of the year, but particularly good in winter time, when we all crave a bit of color and fun. So, if you have some leaf cutters lying about, don’t just make cookies with them- use them to turn a vegetable side into something spectacular.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Vegetables
- 250g uncooked red beets (skinned, topped and tailed)
- 500g butternut squash, skinned
- 400g of large potatoes, washed and peeled (Yukon Golds are ideal)
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary
- 3 – 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
- Pepper and salt
Dressing
- 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 6 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of grain mustard
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, (or to taste)
- 1 heaped tablespoon of capers
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary
*I used these Leaf Cutters for this recipe
Method
- Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F/ 200 C.
- Slice the potatoes and butternut squash into thin slices. You could do this by hand with a knife, or use a mandolin on it’s thickest setting. I cut mine with a knife – they are about 1/8 inch thick. Try to ensure the slices as even as possible.
- Next, slice the beets the same way. User a separate chopping board for the beets as they will bleed into the other vegetables.
- When all the vegetables are sliced, user a leaf cutters to cut out the leaves. Once again, keep the beets on a separate chopping board to the potatoes and squash. ** A word of warning- raw root vegetables are a lot tougher than soft cookie dough, so use a towel underneath your hand when you press down on the cutter, to prevent sore, red hands! To make the leaves even more authentic looking, you could score some veins on the leaves with a knife. I did this with a few leaves, but it’s a bit more effort, so totally optional.
- Place the potato and squash in a bowl and toss in most of the oil, paprika salt, pepper and some herbs.
- Put the oiled squash and potatoes on one of the lined baking trays.
- Put the beets in the same bowl, and toss them in the remaining oil, paprika, salt, pepper and herbs. Then pour them onto the other baking sheet.
- Put both baking sheets in the oven. Cook the smaller leaves for 20 minutes and the larger leaves for 30-40 minutes.
- While the vegetables are cooking, make the dressing by mixing together the vinegar, olive oil and mustard in a bowl.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Next, add the maple syrup to the dressing. I have suggested ‘one tablespoon, or to taste’, as everyone has a different preference, so you should make it as sweet or as tart as you like it.
- When the vegetables are cooked, place them on a warm serving dish.
- Pour on most of the dressing (I like to reserve some dressing to serve in a jug on the side ). Scatter the capers on top.
- Garnish with some fresh thyme and rosemary before serving.
