Roasted Root Vegetables with Horseradish Sauce

The grocery store had purple potatoes the other day. As you know by now, if there is a food that’s not the “normal” color, I have no choice but to purchase it. This led to a fun incident tonight in which, while Mike is chopping vegetables, I hear a sudden intake of breathe.  I assume Mike sliced his finger. Nope, just startled by the purple insides. Heh. Much better than bloody finger(s) to deal with while we’re trying to prepare dinner. I laughed at him and dinner making continued. We ended up with this tasty dish.

• 2 cups cubed carrots
• 2 cups cubed turnips
• 2 cups cubed potatoes
• 1 cup cubed onion
• vegetable oil (for drizzling)
• sea salt
• freshly cracker pepper

For the horseradish sauce:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2-4 tablespoons prepared horseradish

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Combine the carrots, turnips, potatoes and onions in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast until vegetables are tender and starting to brown along the edges, about 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, combine the yolk, lemon juice, water and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together. While continuing to whisk, add in a few drops of oil, then a few more, to start the emulsion. Add the remaining oil in a slow, steady stream. When all the oil has been added, stir in the horseradish.
4. Once the vegetables are ready, serve, drizzled with horseradish sauce.

(Serves 2-3)

Obviously, purple potatoes are not required to make the dish. But if  you can find them, they certainly make the dish more colorful.

The horseradish sauce is really mayonnaise with horseradish added. When you’ve first made the mayonnaise it should be thick enough to cling to the whisk. After the horseradish is added it thins out and is more pourable. I provided a range for the amount of horseradish to add since that will depend on how much you like horseradish and how “spicy” your particular horseradish is. Unless you really douse the vegetables you’ll have leftover sauce. To make less you’d have to start using part of an egg yolk, and that seemed silly. So save the rest and think up other dishes that horseradish could accompany.