roast a veg!

We visited my sister-in-law and her family a few weeks ago in Princeton NJ.  It was a great weekend away from the late-June heat of Manhattan and, as always we had the best time hanging out with our nephew and his beautiful little sister, whom I got to meet for the first time.

Joseph and Nora share a CSA basket with some friends of theirs, and  our second or third day with them, the veggies arrived in all their glory. While little August began to demonstrate how many vegetables he can call by name (he’s due to surpass me in intelligence by the time he’s 8.) Nora started chopping things up.  Part of the excitement and challenge of having random veggies every week, she told me, is figuring out new ways to integrate them into the meals she prepares…. and this particular night, we were fortunate enough to watch her use them all.

“Roast a veg!” is the exact term.  Nora learned it from a friend of hers back in Cambridge, England… and aside from having quite the catchy name  (you might find that, like me, you’ll get the urge to roast a veg just so you can say you’re roasting a veg)  it’s so easy and so delicious and so good as leftovers the next day that, like me, you’ll probably become addicted.

Here’s how to roast a veg:

1. Buy a bunch of veg (zucchini, brussel sprouts, carrots, peppers, onions, shallots, potatoes, green beans… you name the veg…)

2. Chop it all up, toss it in olive oil and salt, don’t forget a generous serving of coarsely chopped garlic.

3. Roast it! Go for heat and go for time: the roastier the veg, the better.  You’re checking the 450 degree oven for crispy, caramalized, half-their-original-size veggies, an impossible-to-clean roasting dish, and probably-no-leftovers-because-its-just-that-good.

ready to roast!

Seriously, this is the simplest thing in the world, but it’s made such delicious summer meals for us in the past few weeks… as a side, or stirred it into some couscous or quinoa for a complete meal, I just can’t help being this excited about it. I would like to note that it’s highly recommended — if you have no A.C. and your kitchen is your entry way is your living room  is your apartment and your oven acts like a furnace bumping up the temperature in the entire place by 20 degrees — that you head up to your rooftop and have a cocktail or two while it cooks. Gotta get creative with enduring the summer heat.

forgot to photograph before we served ourselves & so excited to eat all the shots are blurry. eh.