Yes, we’re on a medjool date bender. And why not; is there anyone who doesn’t adore these things? They’re so gooey and sweet, it’s hard to believe that something quite so lush is actually good for you, mountains of fructose aside. Oh and the carbs and the calories notwithstanding. Between the dates, the hints of maple syrup, and the already-sweet nature of roasted orange veggies, there’s more than a smidge of a candied note going on here but in our defence, Your Honour, we’d like to point out the feta, herbs and balsamic vinegar. These bring their variously salty, fresh, acid, puckery balance to the proceedings and you can sling more of any of these in if you so wish. We’d also like to plead “winter”, may it please the Court. We’re big wusses when it’s cold and seek out comfort wherever we can get it. At the dinner table, that translates to mooshy, burnished, sweet, roasted veggies, lashings of olive oil, gobs of honey or maple syrup, cheese, and some crunchy, rich indulgence like pecan nuts. Oh and the dates. Desperate times, and all of that. 

For this dish we were actually inspired by an instagrammer who has an obscene following thanks to specialising in roasting vegetables, fish, chicken and what have you, then confecting all kinds of honeyed/salty/vinegary/olive-oily/herby/nutty toppings to scatter over them. There is an American accent involved and also a heavy use of ‘OMG a-MAzing!’ The first few times you watch, you think, “that food is incredible and I’m so giving it a go.” The formula quickly gets monotonous however and we find ourselves wondering exactly how many variations on a theme of nutty/cheese/herby/olive-oily/sweet topping there can possibly be. Endless ones apparently, but all power to the ‘grammer. To think we could’ve been madly successful at topping things with toppings like her, if we’d timed it right. 

SERVES 4-6

600g pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into thin wedges (about 1.5cm)

3 carrots, peeled and cut into thick batons

1 medium-large orange sweet potato (about 350g), peeled and cut into 1cm-thick slices

50ml maple syrup 

balsamic vinegar, for drizzling,

extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Date sprinkle

8 medjool dates, pitted and coarsely chopped

75g (½ cup) pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

2 spring onions, chopped

small handful each flat-leaf parsley and dill sprigs, coarsely chopped

75g feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 190 ˚C, fan-forced. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Spread the carrots on one tray and add the pumpkin and sweet potato to the other. Drizzle half the maple syrup, about 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, to taste, over each. Using your hands, toss to coat the vegetables; make sure they are in a single layer. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, then roast for about 35 minutes or until golden and tender.

Meanwhile, for the date sprinkle, place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss to combine.

When the vegetables are cooked, place them on one tray, or a large, warmed serving platter, and scatter over the date sprinkle.