Roasted roots

You may have seen a slightly unusual accompaniment to my smoked mackerel fish cakes the other day.  Yes, they were roasted carrots and radishes!  Two things we don't often roast but I'd given my son boiled carrots earlier in the day and we were a little low on vegetables so didn't just want to give him the same.  I'd seen roasted radishes in gastropub type menus and thought "why not?"

I often say to parents who have children who are fussy; "try cutting or cooking things differently".  For example, when my son was a baby he went off halved grapes.  I tried slicing them one day and he liked them again!  He went off broccoli for a while so I tried it in my monster mash and he loved it again.  Get the idea?  So although my son loves carrots, I thought I'd try and mix it up a bit.  If your child is less keen on carrots, they might go for this and the radishes lose all of their 'heat' on roasting meaning they end up just tasting of lovely roastiness.  Is that a word?  Probably not.

Roasted roots

Ingredients

1 medium sized carrot
Approx 4-6 small red radishes
1-2 tsp olive oil

Method

Top and tail the carrot and give it a wash.  Rinse the radishes and take off any leaves.  Halve the radishes and cut the carrots into sticks.

Toss in the oil and roast in a baking dish at 200oC / 400F / Gas mark 6 for approx 40 minutes.

My son asked for seconds of the radishes!

These would be great finger foods for babies.  Just check they're cooked for long enough and are cool enough to handle.

Make it Thrifty:

Cook in the oven at the same time as other items, like my fishcakes to cut down on energy costs.