Roasted Autumn Vegetable Barley With Almond Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
4 tsp olive oil
1 bunch baby beets, stems trimmed, scrubbed
1 None onion, chopped
1 cup pearl barley
2 cups vegetable stock
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
None None FOR THE ALMOND SAUCE
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 bunch mint, leaves picked
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400\u00b0F. Arrange sweet potatoes and garlic in a large baking pan. Drizzle with 2 tsp of the olive oil and toss to coat. Season to taste. Wrap beets individually in foil. Place on baking pan.
Bake 35-40 mins, until tender and sweet potato is golden. Reserve garlic for almond sauce.
Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tsp oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Saute onion 4-5 mins until tender. Stir in barley, then add stock. Bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, 20 mins.
Add broccoli. Cook a further 2-3 mins. Remove from heat. Let stand for 5 mins.
For the almond sauce, process nuts in a food processor until well chopped. Squeeze garlic from skins. Add to nuts with mint, yogurt and lemon juice. Process until almost smooth. Season to taste.
Wearing disposable gloves, rub skin from the beets. Cut into quarters. Stir beets and sweet potatoes into barley. Serve with almond sauce.