We put a lot of work into our gardens so we can eat- fresh delicious vegetables.
While steaming your produce is quick, and gives you the least altered vegetable taste, roasting your harvest is almost like doubling the number of vegetables you grow. Roasting- or baking- sweetens the flavor, and allows you to put food in the oven and do something else while it cooks.
Let's start with a few recipes. Roasted potatoes. Take freshly picked potatoes- or store-bought spuds, wash and dry them. Next, coat them with olive oil, salt to taste , and sprinkle them with rosemary. Bake in a casserole dish, or foil covered pan. 400 degrees for about 40 minutes will yield a potato so unlike its micro-waved cousin that you'll think you've discovered a new food group. All potatoes benefit from roasting, but the yellow varieties are my favorite.
Carrots get the same treatment- except dill or parsley would be the herb of choice.
Cabbage production has been high this year- ok-- extreme. Plenty of cole slaw, and two batches of sauerkraut. But when my wife roasted a quarter cabbage with garlic and butter, suddenly the crop looked a little meager.
Again- Roasting vegetables is easy. Don't get confused by the energy and attention needed to fire roast peppers. You probably do some roasting already. The smoky flavor of corn on the barbecue is hard to beat.
I have a few kohlrabi that have gone past their prime, and while they're not as good as the younger plants for dipping into hummus, by roasting them, the toughness disappears, and a new hearty flavor emerges.
Green beans, broccoli, and cauliflower all roast well. Don't let me lock you into an herb selection. Experiment with the things you grow, but don't forget to try roasted tomatoes with fresh basil.
