Oven Baked Summer Root Vegetables

Scrape the potatoes and cut in half unless very small. Trim and scrape the carrots and cut into 1 inch/2.5 cm pieces discarding the tail end bits. Top and tail the shallots, remove the outer skin and split into two where there are naturally two bulbs. Separate out the garlic cloves but leave the skin and ends untouched.

Top and tail the beetroot and scrape where necessary, and cut into quarters. Swill well under cold water to get rid of excess juice.

Put all the prepared ingredients into a shallow oven dish, bury in some pieces of rosemary, sprinkle with a few tablespoonfuls of olive oil and season fairly generously with some salt.

Put in the oven at 400°F/200°C/Reg6 for about an hour, turning carefully to minimise the beetroot bleeding every fifteen minutes or so. About fifteen minutes to go, top and tail the courgettes, cut into slices and add to the mixture along with a sprinkle of olive oil.

Note this is a good natured dish, so you can turn it down if necessary so that it arrives at the required time. Serve when ready  Zoom  .