Monday, December 28, 2009

Roasted Veggies


I, originally, started this blog, away from my first blog, as my way of focusing on food, and eating....most importantly our behaviors and habits that surround the way we....I.... eat, that's why the first title of this blog was "Food and Thought"....not "Sets and Reps", lol!. Most of my first blogposts were recipes and pictures of homemade foods, or about the thought processes of a complusivve overeater, me, and how I had been inspired to take control of my health by cooking and preparing my own homecooked foods and meals.....and I wanted to share that same inspiration. Discovering the beauty of real foods, mostly veggies.....and pressure cooking! lol

There is not one day that goes by that I'm not in my kitchen preparing my breakfast, lunch or dinner.....and making enough for the next few days, if not the next week. I consider cooking my hobby and my Joy.

Since we are, smackdab, in the middle of winter, roasting veggies is natural. Turning on that hot oven, rubbing veggies down with plenty of oil, S & P and letting them roast away, to carmelized goodness is, just about, a daily event at my house.

My BFF, Fawn, turned me on to a great combination of roasting shitake mushrooms, brussel sprouts, and yams, (garnet) together....I'm forever grateful for this introduction to Shitake mushrooms AND roasting a variety of mixed veggies, wheras I used to roast only one type of veggie at a time, (thanks Girlfriend!). Since then mushrooms are always thrown into the mix. Here's what I roasted last night. (be sure and save the mushroom stems for stock)


Fingerling potatoes (I bought a big bag at Costco, and I have to say....I don't care for the purple ones)


My neighbor, Peter, the first Chef I ever knew, turned me on to Fingerling potaotes about 9 years ago. His favorite roasting combination was fingerlings, shallots, whole garlic cloves and fresh thyme.












red onion

shallots (another favorite and only $1.29 lb at the Vietnamese market)














shitake mushrooms (again...1/2 the priceat the VM, only $3.99lb instead of $6.99lb at WF)
white button mushrooms













brussel sprouts (halved)














whole garlic cloves
fresh thyme
plenty of salt and pepper










Toss with olive oil. I start with 2 tbl per roasting pan (4 in this case) and then I add as needed....never more than a couple of tbls more (total). Roast in an oven @350-400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, shaking the pan, or turning the veggies over, once half way through.


I toss roasted veggies with romaine lettuce and homemead lo-cal Ceasar Dressing.....the ones that actually make it that far, lol! I also added a heaping helping to the turkey meatball and bean soup for Marks dinner tonight.

I only used potatoes because we had leftover turkey and gravy...I rarely use potaotes! But if you're not into startchy veggies like me, for instance, potatoes, rutabaga, beets, yams and squashes (buuternut), then lots of other choices like cauliflower, carrots (I used those tonight), tons of onions, celery, and broccoli....oh, or throw some apples or pears into the mix...goodness I just thought of that...yum, yum!

Of course spices, spice things up. A dusting of curry powder, chili powder, red pepper flakes (another favorite of mine), fresh herbs like thyme, oregano, and rosemary, etc.

lo-cal Ceasar Dressing

1/2 plain yogurt, 1/2 mayo, lemon juice, crushed garlic, anchovy paste (or 2 anchovy filets minced), S & P



parmesan cheese optional (I rarely add it....but that's just me)

12 comments:

Mark Reifkind said...

yummmmmmy. I love your roasted veggies, they are the best. people that have never tried this have no idea what they are missing. all the taste and the nutrition at the same time.crazy goodness.

Tracy Reifkind said...

This, coming from a man that can eat ice cream, cookies, and candy, in unlimited amounts! lol

Good God....

The Veggie Queen said...

I have been roasting many Brussels sprouts these days, too, since they've been selling a large stalk of them for $2.99 at Trader Joe's. Must be close to 3 pounds of them. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and often do.

I love the purple potatoes -- my favorite. And they also have more antioxidants. But give me any roasted roots and I am happy.

Happy cooking. Here's to a wonderful New Year, filled with good food and pressure cooking.

Mark Reifkind said...

honey,

just because I can eat crap and not gain weight doesnt mean I prefer it to real food.especially YOUR real food :))

guy said...

Ma'am, you just made me hungry!! That looks damn good.

Mark Reifkind said...

guy,

it's great eats and it's relatively simple. I probably could do it,lol.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Jill,

I was just on you blog yesterday and I was going to make a comment about Delicata squash, but since you wrote the post in Nov, I decided it was too late, lol!

Anyway, my friend Fawn also introduced me to Delicata squash, which she cut into 3/4 inch rounds, stuffed a salmon mixure into the middle and baked.....yummy! Delicata is one of my favs.

I was visiting her in St. Paul in Oct, and one of the few veggies you can get at that time of year is squash. The downtown Farmers Market was full of squash, squash, and more squash! Amber Cup, and Hubbard were another two I had never tried before and I love them.

I'm starting to teach my daughter-in-law how to cook (with the PC of course), and as much as I recommend your DVD, and I know you're a vegetarian, I really wish you could put together another instructional pressure cooker DVD for non-vegetarians. The benefits for using it for meats is so great, not only a time saver, but a money saver.

Have a great year.

Tracy Reifkind said...

guy,

It doesn't take much to get me hungry! lol

I have to limit my "cooking show" TV watching sometimes, and I joke about "no food talking" during my kettlebell classes. Talking about food can get out of hand!

ajam00 said...

These veggies look awesome and I can't wait to try it myself.

The Veggie Queen said...

Tracy,

I appreciate your asking me to provide meat recipes but it's not part of what I do.

I actually filmed 2 meat dishes -- Asian beef tips with snow peas and Fajita chicken and rice-- for my DVD. But when it came right down to it, I couldn't send the DVD out into the world with meat recipes on it.

Look to Lorna Sass or Miss Vickie for guidance with meat. All I know how to do is cook a whole chicken and not much more.

Glad that you discovered so many different squash. I am a huge fan.

Happy New Year. Keep on sharing the good stuff.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Jill,

I get it! Sorry, I forgot that your vegetarism is for the best reasons....the aniamls.....I didn't mean to offend.

Anyway, I'm familiar with the other two PC advocates, but nothing helps remove the "fear" (and that's all it is, really), about using a PC than seeing it demonstrated. You can talk until your blue in the face......which I have btw, lol


The only reason I kept this blog going is because of my love of cooking, especially with the PC....as you too have found out, blogging can be challenging. In fact I heard blogging was dead, but I can't seem to "facebook" either, lol!

The Veggie Queen said...

Tracy,

Blogging is not dead. In fact, it still draws people.

Thank you for understanding why I am not into meat -- there are many reasons. I don't like to touch the stuff.

If you join Facebook, I'll see you there.

Keep up the good work,
Jill