Green giants

Roasted Winter Vegetables 1
For another easy, exuberant and convivial main course, try filling your largest oven tray to the brim with winter veg and roasting them to sweet, caramelised perfection. This wonderful, warming main course hardly needs to be the same twice in a row.

One of the quickest ways to make it is to cut up enough sweet potatoes for 1 person into chunks (skin left on), cut 2 red onions into quarters and toss them in olive oil with a few cloves of unpeeled garlic.

Add plenty of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, a dash of Tabasco and not much else (though a delicious addition is a mango peeled and cut into chunks – it dissolves and caramelises splendidly).

Roast in a very hot oven for about 20-25 minutes till the potatoes are not only tender but starting to crisp. Remove from the oven and spoon some ready-made tamarind paste all over.

Meanwhile blanch some topped and tailed green beans and, when tender, fold them into the roasted potato slices.

For your dose of protein, add a handful of slivered whole almonds. You can toast them first or simply let them brown gently in the oven for the last 5-6 minutes of roasting time. Slices of goat’s cheese, lightly browned on top, offer a sharp contrast, or marinated tofu would also roast perfectly with the sweetness of the potatoes.

Next page: More Roasted Winter Vegetables