Roasting is always right

Now that I'm back from a busy spring break, time for a quick post before friends arrive from NY.

Every weekend, I carefully plan the following week's dinners. I sit down with my cookbooks, leaf through them, and put together a nice menu that should last til my next shopping expedition. Some weeks, as we all well know, are out-of-control. On days I don't have the energy to cook, I will recklessly and cavalierly ignore the menu I spent so much time devising and make something else. When this happens, I am suddenly confronted with a motley assortment of vegetables at the end of the week. That's when I roast vegetables. Everything goes together when it's roasted. The high oven temp coaxes out some wonderful flavors with very little effot on my part.

Next time you're stumped as to what to do with 3 carrots, half a red onion, a red pepper, and a broccoli crown: roast them!

Roasted Vegetables

Assorted veggies, such as carrots, parsnips, peppers, onions, zucchini, summer squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, fennel, mushrooms, asparagus, green beans.
Olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400.

Cut up whatever vegetables you decide to use into similar sizes so that they will roast at the same rate. Toss the vegetables onto a rimmed baking sheet or into a shallow roasting pan, coat with enough olive oil to lightly coat the vegetables and the bottom of the sheet or pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pop into the oven.

Check the veggies after 15-20 minutes, depending on the amount you're roasting. Stir them around on the baking sheet or in the pan and put them back in the oven. After another 10 minutes, everything should be nicely browned and cooked through. Add more salt and pepper if they need it, and serve the vegetables hot or at room temperature.