Roast Vegetables

In my rare stints in buildings with cable tv, I am drawn to the Food Network. Andrew and I can barely pull ourselves away from the tv when we have to stay in a hotel, and kids used to volunteer cheerfully to be the one to take the car in for maintenance (so they could sit in the waiting room and watch History Channel or Discovery).

On Food Network, I'd seen segments on roasting vegetables. But it was my friend Lora who really sold me on it. She makes a wicked vegetable & chicken dish that's roasted, with Emeril's Essence for the spicing. (I tried to find her instructions on her blog, but couldn't. She must've posted it on the homeschool email list instead.)

Today for dinner we indulged in roasted vegetables. This time it was turnips, beets, carrots, and onions.

For Alia's baptism dinner last weekend, I was trying to figure out what to serve (gluten-free!) that could be prepared ahead of time and kept warm in crockpots. To accompany the barbecued pork, roasted vegetables seemed like a good plan. I roasted carrots, cabbage, onion, potatoes. When they were nearly done, they sat in a crockpot (on low) until after church. I got several compliments on the veggies, and the only complaint I heard was, "Why didn't you make more vegetables?" (Uh, that would be because Katie only has so much jelly-roll pan and only so much crockpot space.)

Katie asked how to make roasted veggies. It's easy!

Choose two or three or more veggies. Chop. Cut the slow-cooking species (such as carrots) into smaller chunks than the faster-cooking kinds (such as potatoes, turnips, or cabbage).

Put the veggies on a shallow pan that has sides (jelly-roll pan or a 13x9). Pour a decent amount of olive oil over them (more than a drizzle but not so much as to totally waste the olive oil). Toss the veggie chunks with the olive oil. Then sprinkle with salt and pepper and whatever other spice you want. We find rosemary particularly yummy with roasted veggies. Or Emeril's Essence. But whatever strikes your fancy that day will work, like, say, a combo of garlic powder and basil and thyme. Toss again to spread the spices around the veggies.

Pop the tray into a hot oven (400° to 500°) and cook till tender, anywhere from 30-75 minutes, depending on amount, kinds, and temperature.

Easy as pie. (No. Easier.) And delicious. And nutritious. And easy to clean up afterwards. I'm not seeing a downside here....