Author Archives: samroutledge

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About samroutledge

CTO and Chief Geek at Softcat, the leading infrastructure provider to the UK midmarket, enterprise and public sector.

Roasted roots with chilli jam

Posted by samroutledge in Dinner, Vegan, Vegetarian and tagged with , ,

This is something I discovered today – pretty simple and the recipe is pretty much the title. This winter, I’ve been doing carrots and parsnips, slow roasted in the oven with olive oil, garlic and a bit of thyme – and adding a spoonful of honey for the last five or ten minutes, which makes them lovely and sweet and sticky.

Today, though, I decided to try something different – I left out the thyme, and at the end I added a bit of some chilli jam I was given for Christmas. It was AWESOME! So, here goes with the recipe:

Three parsnips

Four carrots

A tablespoon of olive oil

Two cloves of garlic

Two tablespoons of chilli jam (or to taste!)

Peel and chop the carrots and parsnips into chunks. Chuck them in a roasting dish (I like the LeCreuset dishes as you can serve straight to the table) with the olive oil and chopped garlic. Roast, slowly (180C or slightly less if you have time). I tend to leave them on the bottom of the oven for an hour while roasting something, seems to be the right sort of temperature. Worth checking and stirring occasionally of course! Towards the end, about ten minutes before you want to take them out, stir in a spoonful or two of chilli jam.

Beautiful!

Welcome carnivores, omnivores, veggies, pescatarians and vegans alike!

Posted by samroutledge in Uncategorized

Hi and welcome to my new blog! I’m Sam, a keen amateur cook. Whilst I will eat more or less anything – and there’s nothing better in my mind than a great steak (we’ll get to that at some point!), I do most of the cooking for my family.

That’s where it gets complicated! My wife, mainly for health reasons, is basically vegan plus fish and eggs (yes, I know, there will be those of you who want to debate whether that’s really vegan or not – I describe it that way as that’s the easiest way to explain it to restaurants). And, just to complicate things more, my four-year-old daughter has just decided she loves animals too much to eat meat. I don’t know whether she will stick with it, but she seems pretty determined.

So the point of this blog is to talk about the complexities of catering for such a variety of culinary predilections. I’ve got reasonably handy at concocting flexible dishes that can involve meat, or not – and some interesting, tasty, vegan options suitable for carnivores too.  Expect recipes, ideas, suggestions and tasty things I have come across. Oh, and when it comes to recipes – don’t expect precision. I’m a bit of a ‘just chuck a bit in’ kind of cook…

Enjoy!