This one-pan recipe makes A LOT so it can be used as a main dish or as a side dish. One thing to note is that this recipe doesn’t freeze the best so it’s best to use it for meal prepping and eating throughout the week or for a festive potluck dish. See my notes below on how you can re-heat the leftovers and add to other leftovers to make new delicious dishes!
WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN BUYING BACON
I don’t cook with bacon very often but I’m starting to enjoy incorporating it into a few new dishes! Bacon has a lot of nutritional benefits when cooked + sourced correctly. When using bacon, make sure not to burn it to a crisp – once you get the “charred” look, the good quality fats have turned into carcinogenic free-radicals that can do damage to the body! Good quality bacon, cooked correctly, can be very high in B vitamins (especially B1-Thiamin, vitamin B12-Cobalamin), Zinc, Selenium, EFA’s (especially Omega-3), Iron, Magnesium, and Potassium.
When buying bacon, it’s important to look for quality, local products. Luckily, Canada is known to have the cleanest bacon in the world! Because pigs do not have a lymphatic system, it’s important to know where your bacon is coming from. Keep it clean, ethical and local by keeping these tips in mind:
- Clean, local and ethical: look for for animals that have been raised in a grass-fed, free range, pasture-based environment. My favourite local companies to buy from are Berryman Brothers and Carnivore Meats.
- If you cant buy local, make sure the products you buy are:
- Grass-fed
- Free of added antibiotics + growth hormones or steroids
- Free of preservatives and flavours
- GMO free
- Farm raised
- Hand cut, center cuts (ideally)
- Uncured or free of added nitrates
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pound brussel sprouts, detailed + cut in half
- 3 – 5 small parsnips, cut into sm-med sized pieces
- 1/2 butternut squash, cut into sm-med sized pieces
- 6 pieces of bacon, cut into small chunks
- 1 small head of broccoli, cut into sm-med sized pieces
- 1/2 pound green beans, detailed + cut in half
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp fresh cracked pepper
- 1 tsp Himalayan salt (optional)
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 425F
- Toss ingredients all together in a bowl. If you need a bit of oil, you could add 1 tbsp of coconut oil, avocado oil or ghee but I find the bacon has enough grease that I didn’t need to use any added oils.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread veggies evenly across the sheet. Make sure the veggies aren’t piled on top of each other so that they are spaced evenly. This will allow for a more even cooking process. You may need 2 baking sheets to attain this.
- Cook for 15min, stir and then cook for another 15min or until light golden brown and veggies are al dente.
- Enjoy!
NOTES
- I served this recipe with a smoked sea salt + rosemary steak, topped with caramelized onions + mushrooms.
- With the leftovers, I re-heated them and added them to a leftover Thai Curry sauce I had made earlier this week. These roasted veggies would also be lovely in this chickpea + leek soup made by my former teacher, RHN and red seal chef!
With love,
Heidi MacAulay
“Eat more plants. Do more yoga. Read more books.”