Roasted Vegetables

This is not really a recipe.  It is more of an outline or a guideline on an incredible side dish.  Roasting vegetables brings out their sweetness through the carmelization of sugars.  After you try this, you’ll never look at brussels sprouts or turnips the same way again.  Serves as many as you like.

Ingredients:

The only real rule here is to roast like vegetables together.  For example: you can roast potatoes, turnips, brussels sprouts, and beets together, but you wouldn’t want to add zucchini or spinach to that mix because there is too much water in both and they will roast much quicker than the others.

Try roasting spinach, kale,  and/or chard together.  Top with some breadcrumbs and drizzle with olive oil and you have a really tasty side dish that doesn’t taste like steamed or sauteed greens at all.

Here’s a few combinations for you to consider:
The first two examples above are awesome.
Asparagus
Green beans
Kohlrabi
Carrots
Celery
Fennel
Artichokes
Corn

Method:

The prep method is quite easy:  Take the  vegetables you have chosen and clean, peel, cut into bite-size pieces, and toss them with some olive oil, salt, & pepper and roast at 350F for approximately 30 minutes to an hour.

You want whatever you are roasting to be browned and a little shriveled.  That’s the carmelization process.  You can add other flavoring agents such as olives, capers, garlic, onion, shallot, leek, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.

You can add lemon juice before serving to brighten the flavor,  you can add herbs, you can add cheese,, or you can serve as is.  The flavor of the vegetable itself is so good you may want to just enjoy as is.  Enjoy!