Healthy Dinner: Sea Salt, Rosemary & Thyme Roasted Root Vegetables

Perfectly following the ‘clean eating’ principles, this dinner dish is made from fresh ingredients and only contains natural sugars and slow carbohydrates. Continue reading to discover more about the benefits of carrots and sweet potato for your skin, bowel and energy level!

Hello and welcome fall!

Do you know what’s funny? Despite the fact that I love summer, the warm sun on my skin and the energy that I get from the excess daylight I currently find myself in, by end of the summer I always look forward to the fall and can’t wait for it to convincingly set in.

Fall season means to me cozy candle light evenings, wrapping myself up in a blanket on the couch (which my boyfriends very much dislikes; he says it makes him think of an old lady) and exchanging cold salads for heavy traditional Dutch dishes.

Craving calories and carbs

As soon as the fall comes in sight, I look forward to these heavy dishes and my appetite for them increases. This is actually quite logical: during the fall temperatures decrease and the body uses up more energy to keep itself warm. This results in a higher calorie burn, which in turn makes the body crave heavier, calorie-richer and carbohydrate richer meals.

Potatoes are an easy way to add both calories and carbohydrates to a diet. I hear you thinking: why would I want to eat more calories? Well, because you workout for instance, or currently don’t eat enough of them. Did you know you can calculate how much calories you need? Calculate how much you need right away!

Traditional Dutch revisted

While fall and winter are quite cold in the Netherlands, traditional Dutch fall and winter dishes typically contain potato. Now I think it’s nice to give an old, traditional Dutch dish a little twist. I for example do so by using sweet potato instead regular potatoes (like I did in this revised traditional Dutch sauerkraut hotchpotch recipe) and using a wide color palette of carrots. 

Colorful carrots & beta-caroteen

For this recipe I used carrots in orange, purple and yellow, but you can also use (conventional) orange carrots. Remember this blog on beta carotene? Orange carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, which is good for your skin. In this article you can read more about beta carotene, what it is good for and what it can do for your skin.

Sweet potato and their benefits

Jut like carrots, sweet potato is high in beta-carotene. Furthermore, sweet potato is fiber-rich, which is helpful in keeping your blood sugar stable and keeps your bowel movements going. In addition, sweet potato contains slow carbohydrates, which provides you with energy for a long time.

Sweet & Salt

I like how the soft, sweet flavors of sweet potato and carrot perfectly fit together and combine with sea salt, rosemary (which I grow on my balcony: super fun and tasty!) and thyme. For the crispness I add  some pecans at serving.

About the recipe

While I pre-heat the oven, I mix the carrots and sweet potato with olive oil, thyme and sea salt, after which they have to cook in the oven. … Only minutes Voila: a snap, there is a fragrant autumn meal ready, even if not yet repaired cases fine!

Feel like making oven roasted root vegetables yourself? Here you are: the recipe. You’re welcome 😉