The Perfect Staple: Oven-Baked Vegetables
So after long experimentation with different ways of preparing food, I discovered that baked, now reinterpreted as oven-roasted vegetables are the tastiest food that I can live on, until I don’t have to eat anymore.
So easy to digest, fuss-free and immensely versatile. The flavour combinations are pretty much endless, especially when you change up the herbs, spices, condiments and oils that go with it.
You support your health. You support farmers and local growers. Your finances stay in good shape, too.
Chances of messing up your meal are slim to none. It gets done within a reasonable time. Without vigilant supervision, too! The clean-up afterwards is manageable and ridiculously short in comparison to almost every other dish that you could make.
Oven-roasted vegetables are a legit main serving. When eaters with other palates, dietary needs and sensitivities join, vegetables from the oven can be offered as a supporting dish. I promise that they will be devoured (!) and win over the pickiest eater.
You can store the left-overs — if you have any. If you do meal prep ahead of time and bake large portions for the upcoming week, you will have fast, high quality meals and snacks on hand and fine, familiar ingredients for stews, soups, relishes or dips. It is fun to work with a food processor, too: it alters the consistency, while keeping the flavour and the nutritional benefits.
Oh, and the scent of baked vegetables doesn’t stick to your hair or to your clothes like fried or cooked dishes do.
What is not to love about it?
I feel like I had an earth-shaking revelation. Ha ha. Well, people have been roasting produce for a long time. A few months ago, I read about the remains in a South African cave that suggest a pretty early practice of roasting. ( @ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2228880-earliest-roasted-root-vegetables-found-in-170000-year-old-cave-dirt/ ) Why not — if there was fire, roasting veggies and fruits must have been the next best thought!
Still, to declare “I am going to make that what I eat all the time!” and “This is my signature cuisine now!” takes aplomb.
I am notorious for aplomb. This is easy and delicious. I am surfing with it into the New Year.
I recommend it to all who are simplifying.
Suitable for first time chefs, too.
…
To the gourmet chef:
I am fully aware that I can learn a lot more from you than you can learn from me about food preparation.
I understand that people’s minds are wired in different ways: what is a solution to me is perhaps not so exciting to you, and what captivates you is something that I can not cram into my lifestyle.
Nonetheless, I hope I gave you the clue that simple dishes are crowd pleasers as well. If you ever find yourself short on time or in the wrong mood to prepare a meal, roasted vegetables will delight your taste buds, too.
…
A friendly and scrumptious New Year 2023 to all my readers.
25 December 2022
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