Sundays are the perfect day for a quick roundup of your fridge and to take stock of what you have, what you need for the upcoming week and what you need to get rid of. And if you’re anything like us, there are sure to be a few veggies in the fridge drawers or on your countertop that are on the brink. Not fresh enough for salads any more, not really destined for the bin yet. We’re here to implore you not to waste them! You can roast just about anything with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and some herbs. Those bendy carrots? Will taste amazing after a stint in the oven! So will the slightly wrinkly bell peppers, the lone sweet potato, that onion that you used half of the other day, the three mushrooms rattling in the back of those fridge drawers. They’ll have a wonderful rich, roasted flavor and you can be proud of how thrifty you are and not a little smug. They’ll taste amazing with your favorite pasta or rice, on top of a salad or with an omelette. We were cooking with orange and yellow bell peppers, a red onion and cherry tomatoes today.
Ingredients:
Whatever vegetables you have on hand: bell peppers, onions, carrots, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, fennel, sweet potatoes, potatoes, the list is endless.
Optional: garlic
Olive oil
Salt
Ground pepper
Fresh herbs: oregano, rosemary and thyme work best. If basil is what you have lying around, the leaves will need to be soaked in olive oil and then put in the oven just the last 5 minutes because they burn easily.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut the vegetables up. Bell peppers should be cut into quarters. Onions can be quartered and spread out in segments. With carrots it depends on how thick they are. If they are thin, just peel them and trim off both ends. If thick to very thick, halve or quarter them. Cherry tomatoes and mushrooms don’t have to be cut. Sweet potatoes and potatoes should be peeled and cubed into inch long bits. If you want to add garlic, just peel some and throw the cloves in whole.
The trick is to make everything basically the same thickness, so everything roasts the same. Spread all the veggies out evenly in a single layer on parchment paper in a deep sheet pan or in a oven safe casserole dish that you’ve sprayed cooking spray on or coated with olive oil.
Squiggle olive oil generously over the veggies. Sprinkle salt all over. Depending on how full your sheet pan is, you’ll need between half a teaspoon and a whole teaspoon. Grind pepper over everything. Throw on a sprig or two of rosemary, oregano or thyme. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the smell is making your mouth water. Voilà! You can now pride yourself on being a Master of Zero Food Waste.
