Roasted Baby Roots with Sherry-Shallot Vinaigrette
- ½ cup (65 grams) uncooked plain quinoa, rinsed
- Coarse salt
- 3 small shallots
- Olive oil
- 1½ pounds (680 grams) mixed root vegetables (I used radishes, turnips, and mixed beets), tiny if you can find them, scrubbed, trimmed of all but a bit of stem, and halved lengthwise
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) sherry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, plus more for finishing
- 2 big pinches of coarse salt
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper
- to serve (optional)
- Dabs of soft goat cheese
- Dollops of thick yogurt
Instructions:
Halved and roasted until blistery and sweet, studded with coarse salt, and tossed with faintly crunchy quinoa, this preparation has texture.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Bring the quinoa and 1 cup salted water to a boil. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until quinoa has absorbed water. You’re looking for about 1½ cups cooked quinoa. Set aside.
- While grain cooks, prepare vegetables. Peel shallots and separate cloves, if there are two inside. Place in a medium square of aluminum foil, coat with a few droplets of olive oil, and wrap in foil, creating a packet. Place on rack in oven.
- Coat a baking sheet or roasting pan lightly with olive oil. Arrange the root vegetables in one layer, and drizzle lightly with additional olive oil. Squeeze lemon juice over the vegetables. Sprinkle generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Add roasting pan to oven. Roast vegetables for 20 minutes, then flip them and roast for another 10, or until tender and a bit crackly. (Larger ones might take longer to cook through.)
- Remove vegetables from oven, and set aside. Remove shallot packet with tongs. Carefully remove the shallots from foil packet, and toss into the blender. Blend with sherry and balsamic vinegars and 2 pinches of coarse salt and some pepper. Drizzle in olive oil. Sample vinaigrette, and adjust seasoning to taste.
- Spoon three-quarters of quinoa onto a platter. Arrange roasted roots over quinoa, and sprinkle with remaining quinoa. Drizzle the entire dish with shallot-sherry vinaigrette. For a little extra, you can finish it with additional droplets of your balsamic. Serve with goat cheese or yogurt, if using.