Roasted Vegetables with Lemon-Caper Vinaigrette Recipe

I didn’t prepare this roasted vegetable side dish for Thanksgiving, but I probably should have. It takes advantage of root veggies and it’s perfect for late autumn and winter. It’s very similar to a few sides I’ve prepared in the past, but with this dish, the vinaigrette (or sauce) is different. It uses parsley and capers as the primary ingredients and it’s simply delicious.

The Recipe

I really don’t mind roasting vegetables all winter long. They’re quite plentiful in the supermarket and they don’t really cost all that much. My favorites are all different types of potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, various squash and almost anything else you can find in “that section.” For this recipe, I used two types of potato, Brussels sprouts, carrots and sweet onion. I do love my sweet onions.

This recipe is extremely straightforward. All you need to do is to prep and roast the vegetables and then prepare the sauce. The original recipe called for tossing the cooked veggies with the sauce, but I chose to simply spoon the sauce out and drizzle it on top of everything else. I think my way is fine. It’s less messy and less committal.

Overall, roasted vegetables taste very good. In this recipe, a small amount of white granulated sugar is used to promote browning in the oven and to offer a hint more sweetness. Also, everything is tossed with olive oil, thyme and rosemary. Regarding the sauce, I really enjoyed it. It consists of only a few ingredients and it was perfect. Not too much and not too little. Capers go a long way in my book as well and this sauce incorporates capers.

Ingredients

Serves: 4-6

1 Pound Brussels Sprouts, Halved
1 Pound Red Potatoes, Cut into 1-Inch Pieces
1 Pound Sweet Potatoes, Cut into 1-Inch Pieces
4 Sweet Onions, Trimmed, Peeled and Quartered
6 Carrots, Trimmed, Peeled and Cut into 2-Inch Pieces
6 Garlic Cloves, Peeled
6 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
2 Teaspoons Dried Thyme
1 Teaspoon Dried Rosemary
2 Teaspoons White Sugar
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons Parsley, Chopped
2 Tablespoons Capers, Minced
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Step-by-Step Instructions

I’d like to thank America’s Test Kitchen for this recipe. I haven’t used their resource, which is called The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook, in quite some time and I’m glad to be back with it. I plan on using it more over this winter season.

Pre-Heat the Oven

Adjust one of your oven racks so it’s in the center position and then pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Prep the Vegetables

After I set the oven up, I went ahead and prepped all the veggies. I cut up both the red and sweet potatoes.

Next, I cut up the onions and the carrots.

And finally, I sliced the Brussels sprouts in half.

Toss to Coat the Vegetables

Add the potatoes, Brussels sprouts, onion, carrots, garlic, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, thyme, rosemary, sugar, 3/4 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper to a large bowl. Toss everything until the vegetables are coated well with oil.

Roast the Veggies

Spread the vegetables out on a large baking sheet. When the oven is to temperature, place the sheet in the oven for about 35 minutes. Since I really loaded my tray up, I had to keep it in the oven for about 15 minutes longer.

Here’s a photo of the baking sheet before I put the vegetables into the oven.

And here’s a photo of the vegetables after they came out of the oven.

Prepare Vinaigrette

In a medium sized bowl, combine the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the lemon juice, parsley and capers. Mix these ingredients together well.

If necessary, you may season this vinaigrette with salt and pepper to taste.

Plate & Serve

As I mentioned above, I chose to scoop the sauce out onto the veggies after they were plated. Either option is fine. You can pour the sauce onto the vegetables and mix before serving as well. When you’re ready, plate and enjoy!

The Final Roasted Vegetables & Caper Vinaigrette Dish

This was such a simple recipe to prepare. The majority of time was taken up with the prep work and the roasting. Otherwise, this wasn’t a challenging one. That’s not to say it wasn’t good, because it was. If you decide to give this recipe a try, please let me know how it turns out down in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading!