Roasting Vegetables - Sweet Potatoes and Tomatoes

It's pretty much fall and that means it is the perfect time to roast some veggies and todays weather put me in the roasting mood. One of those great fall vegetables to roast are sweet potatoes. Although there are a lot of ways to prepare sweet potatoes, roasting is by far my favorite. The best part is, it's super easy.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

• 1 Sweet Potato
• 1 Tbs Grapeseed oil
• Pepper and other seasonings

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is heating chop sweet potato into bite sized pieces. Slicing the potato crosswise and then cubing the slices into quarters works best for me. The size of your sweet potato pieces will also affect how long you cook them for.  I also typically don't peel my sweet potatoes because it is a lot more work and there is nothing wrong with the skins, in fact that is usually the healthiest part. Toss the cubed pieces in with some olive oil and seasonings of your choosing. For a more savory flavor, cayenne pepper is recommended but a lot of people think a sweeter flavor is best, this is where you can use cinnamon and sugar if you'd like. Spread the pieces on a baking sheet making sure they don't touch. 

I cooked my sweet potato for 30 mins, checking in on them every now and then and giving them a little stir. The roasted sweet potatoes are great by themselves but usually I have some hummus around that I like to dip them in... this time I decided to make an avocado hummus. It's actually kind of funny because I was thinking if sweet potatoes and avocado would actually be good together when I came across this blog post for a pizza with sweet potato and avocado crema. I knew if someone else had tried it, it would be a great idea. I didn't have chickpeas so I just threw an avocado, clove of garlic and a bit of tahini sauce and lemon into a food processor. Turned out great.

My next roasting adventure included campari tomatoes and in my opinion are the best tomatoes around. These were super easy to roast and tasted amazing. To roast these babies, it's best to use a lower temperature for a longer time period. You can roast as many tomatoes as you want, but it's best to keep them spaced out. 

Roasted Tomatoes

• 2 TBS grapeseed oil
• Pepper
• Garlic (sliced)
• Salt
• Other seasoning
• Sliced tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees then put the grapeseed oil, seasonings and garlic in a shallow baking dish (I used a glass cake pan - 9x13). Slice the tomatoes and mix them in with the oil and seasoning mixture. I roasted my tomatoes for about an hour. Campari tomatoes are rather small so they didn't take as long as larger tomatoes might. The tomatoes are done when they are soft and a bit wrinkly. 

I ate my roasted tomatoes with some polenta I made in the crock pot - which is actually a lot easier than making polenta on the stove. 

Keep on roasting everybody!