Never Fear, Veggies are Here!

SO many beautiful vegetables at the Signature Kroger out on Studemont near I-10; I am mesmerized and just want to buy up the entire market, lol.  I had found some really cute little potatoes at HEB in a 1.5 lb container which was an assortment of red, white & purple potatoes. With Chris making a pit-stop back home this evening and heading back out to another job for a few more days, I decided I was going to cook him and Keith (his bro) some lunch with some yummy veggies that I wanted to roast up because I know he has been missing some good home cooking. Now you can roast any just about any combination of veggies that tickle your fancy, but I am kinda regretting not picking up some parsnips now because those are really great and would've added a nice flavor profile.

Ingredients:

2 Carrots

1/2 Butternut Squash

1 Eggplant

1 medium onion

8 oz pkg button mushrooms, cut in quarters

3/4 lb asst bite-sized potatoes

6 garlic cloves

1 heaping tsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 Tbs fresh rosemary, chopped

3 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tbs Sherry Vinegar

2 tsp - 1 Tbs kosher salt

1 heaping tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Cut off top & bottom of eggplant, then peel sections of the skin off.  Cut eggplant into cubes, place in a colander, sprinkle with salt (approx 1 tsp) and toss with your hands to ensure all cubes are salted.  Let sit for an hour to remove the excess water (this will also help remove some of the eggplant's bitterness).

This is the water that was released from the eggplant

Rinse the eggplant very well to remove the salt and then pat dry.

My butternut squash was 2 lbs so I only used half of the squash: remove skin and cut into cubes.  Cut your onion in half; cut into thirds and slice thick.  Peel your carrots and cut into cubes as well.  What I like to do with my garlic is run it through my microplane which produces a garlic paste.  I was lucky to find an assortment of bite-sized potatoes at HEB: white, red and purple; cut in half.  

Toss all your vegetables with the fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, salt, fresh-cracked black pepper, olive oil, sherry vinegar (you can use any vinegar but I opted for my sherry this time) & garlic and place in a 15" x 10" jelly roll pan and spread evenly.  Sprinkle with the crushed red pepper flakes.

Bake for 1 hr, re-tossing veggies at the 30 min mark.

What started out as a large quantity of veggies, turned into approx 4 cups of roasted veggies, and boy do they taste yummy!  The vinegar is not too overpowering, and the crushed red pepper flakes add just the right amount of bite.

Hope you give this a try because it's a great way to serve up veggies.  I must advise that if you are going to use dry herbs as opposed to fresh, only use 1/2 of the recommended amount.  Let me say this: fresher is better when it comes to herbs though.

Until next time, Happy Eating!