The Wonderful World of Vegetables

Cast-iron Cooked Vegetables

Caramelized broccoli, peppers, and onions

I love my griddle. Seriously. It is the best kitchen gadget I have. Get one now. It caramelizes meats and veggies perfectly. At my house, we eat a lot of vegetables and I cook some sort of veg every single night. My hubs is sort of ambivalent about vegetables and always always leaves them for last on his plate.  I love thinking of new ways to cook them, but sometimes the simplest approach is the best. A little olive oil, salt, pepper and bam....delish vegetables. My trusty cast iron griddle makes it super easy for me to make them taste good. Veggies have lots of natural sugars in them. With the help of the super hot griddle and some oil, they turn crunchy and have little tasty brown bits on them. The brown bits equal flavor.

Always preheat the griddle (medium heat) before using it. It must be hot. Before putting the veggies on the griddle, toss them with salt/pepper and 1-2 TBL of EVOO in a big bowl. Make sure they are seasoned and evenly coated with oil. Then simply place chopped vegetables on the griddle. Make sure the cast iron griddle is on medium heat. Turn your veggies several times throughout the cooking process. To see if they are ready, pull a veggie off and cut it open. Cook it to desired doneness, anywhere from 10 minutes for green beans and peppers to longer periods like 20 minutes for broccoli.

THE ART OF ROASTING

*If you don't have a griddle, use a super hot 450 oven. Put the cookie sheet or sheet tray in the oven as it preheats. Then when you put the veggies on the tray, they immediately start to cook and caramelize. There is nothing worse on earth than soggy steamed vegetables. Gross.

You can cook almost any vegetable by roasting them (or using your cast iron griddle). Cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, brussel sprouts, asparagus, bok choy, peppers, onions, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, mushrooms etc. For some vegetables, cast iron will not be appropriate. Beets, acorn squash, potatoes, butternut squash have longer cooking time and are ideal for oven roasting. When roasting, try not to crowd the cookie sheet.

Paprika dusted butternut squash ready for the oven

Become comfortable with this cooking method, your food will taste better as a result. In addition, never overcook your veggies. They should be al dente (to the tooth) and have some bite to them. If you need help learning how to do this, cut a veggie open after 5-10 minutes and taste it. Then assess if they need longer. Check again after 5 more minutes. The end result should be perfectly cooked and delicious. Sometimes it is trial and error before you are comfortable roasting vegetables. Think about the veggie itself. If it is long and skinny like green beans or asparagus, it will have a shorter cooking time like 10 minutes. Cauliflower and broccoli take a longer amount of time. The butternut squash in this picture required around 50 minutes of roasting. I dusted hot spanish paprika on the squash with salt, pepper and oil before going into the oven.

Perfectly roasted brussel sprouts and mushrooms

The brussel sprouts required a two step cooking process. I cooked the mushrooms first. I cut them into quarters and sauteed them in 1 tbl of oil until water was released and they were tender. I then put them aside and added them to the roasted brussel sprouts toward the end of cooking. Always halve brussel sprouts and allow around 20-25 minutes to roast. Coat with oil, add salt, pepper and put them on your preheated cookie sheet. They are delicious and make a frequent appearance at my house in the fall and winter.

Vegetables are truly a wonderful thing. Roasting them brings out their natural sugars and really makes them an enjoyable part of the meal versus just a side dish that people eat because they have to.