A Hearty (Healthy) Harvest Meal
The air outside is getting crisp. Area farmers are bringing in the last of their bounty. It’s the time of year that I absolutely adore for a couple of reasons. First, the fall harvest represents some of the most delicious ingredients grown by our friends at Angelic Organics and Hazzard Free Farms. Second, it’s cool enough to move my cooking back inside from the summer spent cooking everything on the grill and smoker. There’s nothing like filling your home with the smell of a home-cooked meal, mixed with fresh air and the sounds of rustling leaves coming through the open windows. It just makes it feel like fall for me.
Time is always a consideration when preparing meals. I always hear from readers that they don’t have time to cook. The trick is to take as many shortcuts as possible so that your meal tastes and looks like you slaved over it for hours. All it takes is a little planning ahead.
The recipes below create one of my favorite harvest meals. All are cooked in one oven, set at the same temperature, and you simply add the dishes in stages so that it all comes out of the oven at the
same time.
Starter: Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Apple Salad
Side Dish: Cumin Roasted Pumpkin
Main: Apple Sage Stuffed Roast Chicken
Apple Sage Stuffed Roast Chicken
- 1 whole 4-5lb chicken, innards removed
- 1 Honeycrisp apple, sliced thin
- 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
- Fresh sage leaves
- Sea salt & black pepper
Preheat the oven to 425°. Rinse the chicken well and pat dry with paper towels. Place chicken in a roasting pan (tip: line the roasting pan with celery stalks to keep the chicken from sticking to the bottom of the pan).
Season the cavity and skin with sea salt and pepper. Stuff as much of the apple, celery, and sage leaves into the cavity as possible. Add anything left over to the bottom of the pan so the chicken can rest on it.
Roast for approximately 1 hour. Cook until the thigh temperature reaches 175°. Allow to rest 10 minutes before carving.
Cumin Roasted Pumpkin
Put in the oven with 45 minutes left on the chicken.
- 1 fresh pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and cleaned
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
Clean and peel the pumpkin. Cut into chunky 2” cubes. Add cubes to a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and cumin.
Spread the coated pumpkin on a foil-lined baking sheet and put in the oven for 45 minutes. The pumpkin should be somewhat browned and fork-tender when done.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Apple Salad
Put in the oven with 20 minutes left on the chicken.
- 4 C Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Honeycrisp apples, cored, thinly sliced
- 2 C arugula
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Toss brussels sprouts in a bowl with half of the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread on a foil-lined baking sheet (save time on cleanup!). Roast, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and crisp (with a hint of char in places), for approximately 20 minutes.
Combine roasted brussels sprouts, the remaining olive oil, sliced apple, arugula, and lemon juice. Season salad with salt and pepper.
