Roasted Winter Vegetable Baklava

I have been living in denial of the season change and wholeheartedly avoiding all fall activities. My sweaters remain sequestered in the basement, but I dug this recipe out of the archives in spite of the fact that it contains the word winter in the title.

I cannot believe that I haven’t posted this recipe before. I also can’t believe that it hasn’t appeared on Smitten Kitchen or The Pioneer Woman or some other big-time site. It originally appeared in Gourmet, a magazine that I know for a fact those authors subscribed to. So, what is their problem?

Perhaps they thought it was too dry, which is what Glenn and I thought the first time we made it and, probably, why I didn’t blog about it. It was, apparently, so dry that Glenn and I had a serious debate about whether or not it could be served to company. After proposing several solutions (ranging from creating an accompanying yogurt sauce to steaming the vegetables), we agreed on a few simple alterations.

The altered (perfected?) recipe is below. To sum up the changes: we used more vegetables, sliced everything thinner, and added broth to the cooked veggies. Perhaps the best addition was the accompanying salad: spinach, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette, which was a tart, refreshing side.

Roasted Winter Vegetable Baklava
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup bread crumbs
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 sweet potato, peeled, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 medium fennel bulbs, halved and sliced lengthwise 1/2 inch thick
3 parsnips, sliced diagonally 1/4 inch thick
4 carrots, sliced diagonally 1/4 inch thick
1 large onion, halved and sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 cup broth
1 package dill, chopped
fennel fronds, chopped
1 stick butter, melted
half a package of large phyllo sheets

Process the walnuts and breadcrumbs in a food processor until finely chopped.

Preheat oven to 425 with racks in upper and lower thirds of the oven.

In a large bowl, toss all vegetables with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Divide between two four-sided sheet pans and roast for 35 minutes, stirring vegetables and switching positions halfway through.

Pour 1/2 cup of broth over each pan of vegetables. Combine in a large bowl and set aside.

Have ready a 9 by 13 baking dish, melted butter, phyllo dough, walnut mixture, and a basting brush. If you’ve worked with phyllo before, you know the drill. Unroll the dough from the package. Brush the top sheet of dough with butter and carefully peel it up and place it perpendicular to the dish on one side, allowing the dough to hang over the edge. Brush the next sheet with butter and place it on the other side of the pan. Sprinkle some of the walnut mixture over the entire dish. Make another layer of dough using two sheets of phyllo and sprinkle with walnut mixture. Repeat a third time. If the dough is hanging over the edge of the pan, fold it inside.

Dump the vegetable mixture into the phyllo-lined baking dish. Brush another sheet of phyllo with butter, fold it in half and place it over the vegetables. Repeat until the top of the dish is covered. Sprinkle the remaining walnut mixture over the top of the dish.

Bake at 425 until the phyllo is golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.