Roasted Root Vegetables with Fresh Herbs

I have an extensive collection of dried herbs in my cupboard, but nothing beats fresh herbs in a recipe. For the past couple summers, I’ve kept an herb pot on my balcony. Winter comes, the plants die. I’ve never been great with plants (I’m trying! Maybe too hard?) so I just let the winter take them away. In the summer, I start over again. Well this year, I decided to be proactive. I had rosemary, oregano, garlic chives, parsley, tarragon, basil, and thyme growing outside. As soon as fall hit, I took part (or all) of each plant, and planted them together into a larger pot that is now on my kitchen table in the sun. I left the basil and tarragon outside, since they weren’t doing very well anyways. The rest of the plants did great inside for a few months, but over the past month or so many of them have perished. Only the parsley and garlic chives still survive. Somebody please come teach me how to take care of plants, I love them so. I’ll feed you in return.

Fresh herbs are wonderful minced in salads or dressings, to flavour homemade butter, and wherever else you’d like a flavour boost. But where they really shine is when they’re roasted or grilled with vegetables. If you haven’t experimented much with fresh herbs, I suggest you give it a shot! The flavour is often nicer, and since the herbs are fresher they provide more nutrients.

I made this dish a month or two ago when my rosemary, oregano, and thyme were still alive and well. RIP. If you’re like me and no longer have access to fresh herbs, you can substitute dried herbs in this recipe instead. And if you’re better with plants than I am, consider growing some fresh herbs! People keep telling me it’s easy, so maybe you’ll have better luck than me. Save the butternut squash seeds from this recipe and eat them roasted or raw (I’m lazy and eat mine raw and sprinkled with homemade seasoning salt, almost every time).