Miso Maple Roasted Root Vegetables

We have a great recipe for basic roasted root vegetables, which is a good place to start if you haven’t tried a lot of roasted dishes. From there move onto some of our more complex roasted root preparations, like pot pie or maple roasted with celeriac and apples.   This miso-maple combination a well-balanced sweet and savory pairing. Miso is a fermented paste used in Japanese cooking.  Miso is usually available at natural food stores, Wegman’s, and Asian Markets.  If you cannot eat gluten, be sure buy brown rice or mellow white miso.  Miso can contain additives and other grains.  Miso Master brand Miso and South River Miso Company make gluten free miso varieties.  I have seen both of these at Greenstar in Ithaca.  Traditionally miso is not cooked, and we use it in a more traditional format in our  noodle soup,
but occasionally we do cook it. Our favorite is mellow white miso (gluten free), but you can experiment with different types like dark or brown rice miso.  This glaze is fairly customizable-add more miso or more tamari to your liking.  We added a few pats of butter to the pan and sprinkled the top with fresh ground pepper.

Start with 2 lbs (or enough to fill your baking sheet) of roughly chopped root vegetables.  Cut them into a smaller dice for faster cooking, if you like.  In the winter, I like to cut roots into big chunks and let them slowly roast in the oven, but a smaller dice is good if you’re have time constraints.  Mix the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.  You can also add protein if you’d like to make this an easy meal.  Add cut up sausage chunks or diced tofu.

Combine roots and glaze, bake on a parchment lined pan for easy clean up or just oil the pan first.

Miso Maple Roasted Root Vegetables adapted from Food52
About 2 lbs mixed root vegetables peeled and chopped, enough to cover a large pan (pictured-a handful of small carrots, one small celeriac, and 2 large parsnips)
2 tablespoons miso paste
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon tamari (use gluten free if necessary)
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
1-2 tablespoons butter
fresh ground pepper

Optional: 1 lb local sausage or 1 lb extra firm tofu

Preheat oven to 425F.  Mix together miso, maple syrup, rice vinegar, tamari, olive oil.  Taste, and adjust miso if desired.  Place chopped vegetables (add protein if using) in a large bowl and mix glaze over vegetables until coated.

Line a baking sheet with parchment.  Spread vegetables into an even layer.  Cut butter into small chunks and sprinkle over the top.  Grate pepper over the top.  Bake at 425F for 40-50 minutes stirring halfway.