Roasted Winter Veggies with Wild Rice

 This recipe is in the January 2015 Real Simple magazine. It immediately jumped out at me as something that appeared to be an easy weeknight meal. I was happy that it actually turned out as easy as it looked and, wow,  the flavors were awesome. It's a perfect winter meal, highlighting veggies that are in season and easy to find. We had a hard time finding plain wild rice without seasoning in our grocery store and ended up buying a rice blend (wild and red).  I think the finely chopped Manchego in the parsley sauce is what makes this so good, adds a nice bite and a little cheesy flavor without being heavy. I love the crunch from the almonds too. It reheated nicely for lunch the next day.  I tweaked a few things from the original and included directions I had to look up, like what types of winter veggies need to be peeled and which you can leave the skin on! 

Roasted Winter Vegetables over Wild Rice with Almond-Parsley Sauce

• 1 cup wild rice 
• 1 acorn squash, seeded and cut into 1 inch thick wedges (yes, you can leave the skin on, I learned that you don't have to peel acorn squash)
• 2 turnips, quartered (you do need to peel turnips, just like you would a carrot or potato)
• 1 apple cut into wedges (about 6)
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges (6-8)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
• 1 cup fresh parsley (flat-leaf if you can find it) chopped
• 1/3 cup roasted (unsalted) almonds, chopped
• 2 ounces Manchego cheese, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (cut the lemon into wedges to use for serving later)

1. Heat oven to 450. While that preheats, cook the rice according to the package instructions. Our rice blend wanted us to put butter in the water as it boiled, we did a dash of olive oil instead and the texture was great. 
2. Toss the squash, turnips, apple and onion with a tablespoon of the oil and a little salt and lemon pepper. Put the veggies on a baking sheet.
3. Roast the veggies, turning once, until they brown and get tender. This takes about 20-25 minutes.
4. In a small bowl, combine the parsley, almonds, Manchego, lemon zest, a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon of each)
5. To serve, put down some rice in a bowl, top with the veggies (make sure to split up evenly) and top with some sauce. Squirt a lemon wedge on top. 

***Makes 4 servings

***This is a 3 on Bryce's dish scale. More than your average meal, but not bad.