Let's be honest. Whether you love your veggies or not (I do), they can get boring. You steam them, saute them, or boil them. You toss them with butter, oil or salad dressing. Maybe, if you're feeling daring, you fry them.
Sure, you can eat them. well many of them, raw and salads can be interesting. However, more and more, I am a bit nervous about raw vegetables. Many times, they are imported from nations that have, shall we say, less than ideal sanitation facilities in the fields. Bacteria get absorbed into the produce so washing does little good and you wind up spending much of the day in the bathroom. To make sure your veggies are safe, you must cook them.
Here is a way to fix something different that will make vegetables a treat again. Use vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, onion, parsnips, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, turnips, sweet potatoes, yellow squash. Cut them into bite sized pieces. Toss them with olive oil and any herbs you want (a bottled, dried, Italian spice blend is fine). Spread them on a baking sheet in one layer. place in a 325 oven for about 20 minutes, and that's it. You basically want the vegetables to be soft and a little caramelized. The carrots and potatoes (and parsnips - does anyone still eat these tasty vegetables anymore?) may take a bit longer so either put them on a separate sheet or cut them into slightly smaller bites. At the opposite end, mushrooms may take less time, so, use a separate baking sheet or don't cut them as small.
The smell of these roasting vegetables is intoxicating and the taste will amaze you. You can do this with broccoli and cauliflower, but you will have to work out cooking times to suit yourself, because some folks like these veggies very firm and others, like me, like them ultra soft. Eggplant also works, but, again, you have to experiment to suit your own taste.
There you have it; a simple tasty and quick way to make vegetables interesting.
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