Roasted Vegetables

I know I’ve recently written about the wonders of roasted cauliflower. I’m a convert for sure. So after admitting that I might possibly have been “wr-r-r, ahem, wr-r-r, uh … a little bit not right about certain vegetables, I decided to take a giant leap of faith. I became a vegetable roasting fool.

I gathered a whole lot of different vegetables and set out to roast and test them. Gee, that makes it sound like I put my galoshes on and went out into the fields to harvest them. The reality is that I just drove to the grocery store and got a nice selection of vegetables to try. I wanted to see which veggies would fare the best.

I cleaned them all up and tossed them with a little olive oil, added halved cloves of garlic and sprinkled chopped bacon on top (because what doesn’t taste good with bacon sprinkled on it, I ask?) and roasted them till they were soft and golden brown on the edges.

Aren’t these absolutely gorgeous? They are a thing of beauty. And I am here to tell you that I am now eating vegetables that I never would have before. I roasted cauliflower (big surprise there!), regular brussel sprouts, broccolini, fennel, butternut squash, baby brussel sprouts, and red beets. All received equal treatment, except that the beets, broccolini, and fennel did not have the bacon.

The cauliflower goes without saying, was delicious. Both the regular brussel sprouts and baby brussel sprouts turned out really good. Bob and I were astounded at how good they turned out. We were actually still smiling after eating them! The butternut squash was heaven and I will admit that the beets weren’t bad, either. I would definitely make any of those again, and again, and again.

And as for the “not-so-good” corner? The broccolini was just too fragile to be roasted. The fronds were pretty much totally dried out and crunchy, and not crunchy in a good way. The stems weren’t as bad as the fronds, but not by much. The fennel didn’t fare much better. I found that it lost a lot of its flavor. It even lost its color. At least the broccolini still looked kind of pretty. I wasn’t impressed at all. I’ve heard several chefs on the Food Network say how wonderful roasted fennel is. I just don’t see it.

So there you have it! My very informal exercise in finding some veggies that are good for roasting. I’m sure that there are some other good ones. If you have any ideas just let me know. I really am loving these veggies! Who knew?