Recipe: Caramelised Vegies

With balsamic Port Reduction

The balsamic port reduction in this recipe is a little bit naughty and more than a little bit nice! You can substitute port with orange juice and orange peel. Mmm…

Ingredients

¼ jap pumpkin, cut into thick wedges

1 small sweet potato, peeled
& diced into thick chunks

1 carrot, cut into thin ‘fingers’

1 red onion, halved and sliced

1 eggplant, halved lengthways and sliced

5 whole garlic cloves

1 zucchini, sliced into 2cm thick rounds

1 red capsicum, cut into 2cm thick strips

¼ cup cold pressed olive oil

2 tbsp rapadura sugar

1 bunch rosemary

1 tsp sea salt

Optional: 250g feta

Reduction

1 cup balsamic vinegar

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup port

Method

Preheat oven to 180^oC.

Arrange pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot and onion on one baking tray. Arrange eggplant, garlic, zucchini and capsicum on a second baking tray. Evenly divide olive oil, rapadura sugar, rosemary sprigs & salt between the two trays to coat the vegetables. Roast the first tray containing pumpkin, sweet potato etc for approximately 10 minutes before adding the second tray of softer vegetables to roast for another 10-15minutes until all the vegetables are soft & caramelised.

In a medium saucepan, bring balsamic vinegar, brown sugar & port to boil on a low heat for 10 mins, stirring frequently. Stir & simmer for another 15mins, until sauce thickens. Set aside to cool. (Cooking for longer will further reduce the alcohol content and thicken the reduction).

Crumble feta through vegetables and drizzle over balsamic reduction.