Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Roast your veggies

About 6 years ago or so, I stumbled across a recipe in an ancient Betty Crocker cookbook for oven roasted vegetables. It included a lot of fall & winter veggies, combined with a packet of onion soup mix and oil, roasted in a 400-degree oven. In the years since, I've tweaked this recipe millions (okay, tens) of times - and this is my most recent evolution to include lower carb/low starch vegetables:

1/2 eggplant
10 Brussels sprouts
10 mushrooms (Shiitake are the most flavor-y)
1 baby zucchini
1/2 bunch asparagus spears
About 15 green beans or so
1/4 yellow onion
1/2 garlic clove, minced (or to taste)
Salted butter & vegetable oil
Kosher salt & pepper

These quantities are totally adjustable to your taste. Just wash & cut each one into bite size pieces (the Brussels sprouts I just slice in half & put face-down). Chop butter into tiny bits and spread evenly onto jellyroll pan. Scatter a scant amount of oil around pan to help increase the smoking point of the butter. Place all veggies onto pan, & roast for about 30 minutes or so, total (depending on oven temps). Check every 10 minutes to ensure there's no burning goin' on. You might choose to stir each time you check on them. I usually don't stir them until after the 2nd check (or after they've been in the oven for around 20).
Oven roasting is one of my most favorite ways to make vegetables. Sure, it takes a tad longer than just steaming or microwaving - but you will seriously freak out when you taste how much better they are roasted.
This is absolutely fantastic with some wheat rotini, Parmesan, and Meditrina (Sokol Blosser).

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