Roasted Carrots & Beets With Crispy Buckwheat & Dill Yogurt

Author Notes

Buckwheat is my new favorite kitchen companion. Though often cooked like rice, buckwheat is not a cereal grain, having nothing to do with wheat, but instead the seeds from a plant in the rhubarb (Polygonaceae) family.

I long assumed it was unduly, coarse, and needing hours of cooking to soften its edges. But nope. Buckwheat groats boil to tender in about 15 minutes, or can be baked until crunchy, adding pops of flavor and texture to anything from granola to this roasted root vegetable dish. This ingredient also provides another good option for those avoiding gluten and concerned about sugars, as it’s gluten-free and low on the glycemic index.

My other favorite kitchen companion is a good sheet pan. Most that I grew up with were flimsy, warping as soon as they hit a hot oven, and in general not a joy to use. In restaurant kitchens, sheet pans are heavy-duty, serving a whole host of functions from, of course, roasting to covering pots of boiling water, catching spills, and acting as platters in a pinch.

The only downside to using one item so many ways is the clean-up. Enter: foil. Vegetables don’t stick to the foil the same way they would to the sheet pan—and they brown beautifully, too. After dinner is done, the foil is simply balled up and recycled. I often don’t even need to wash the pan.

In this recipe, I roast the beets and carrots together. I don’t bother peeling the carrots if the skin is tender. Since I find beet skin rarely pleasant to eat, I just peel it with a vegetable peeler before cutting. Beets are a bit denser than carrots and, in general, take longer to cook. Cut them a bit smaller and both vegetables should finish cooking at the same time—plus, by roasting together, the beets will bleed their maroon onto the golden carrots, yielding a sunset-like color palate to the finished dish. (Roasting vegetables with a convection fan on will encourage them to cook more quickly and develop the caramelized exoskeleton hallmark of well-roasted veg.)

Herby yogurt pumped up with citrus is one of my favorite sauces to have on hand because it pairs well with just about anything, including that bag of potato chips that occasionally becomes dinner unto itself. If making in a large enough batch to use throughout the week, the herb is the weak link in this very strong chain. I tend to chop the herbs and store separately so they don’t get weird. The citrus will hold with the yogurt just fine for several days. —abraberens

Test Kitchen Notes

Every month, in Eat Your Vegetables, chef, Ruffage cookbook author, and former farmer Abra Berens shares a seasonal recipe that puts vegetables front and center (where they should be!). Missed an installment? Head here to catch up. —The Editors