Roasted Veggies Redux or “How will I gorge on vegetables today?”

May 6, 2012

I haven’t talked about roasted vegetables recently, but that doesn’t mean they’re far from my mind. Uh-uh.

As any dieter knows, the only food we don’t have to eat in moderation is vegetables. In fact, we’re encouraged to eat those veggies the way we used to eat chips, mmm, and cookies, yum, and ice cream, delish!, and…but, ahem, I digress.

Back to vegetables. I have many new readers to the blog, and I thought it would be helpful to re-visit roasted vegetables because they provide a really good solution to that never-ending diet question:

How will I gorge on vegetables today?

At least once a week, I make a large pan of roasted vegetables–usually root vegetables because they’re filling. Here’s the fun part: I mix and match at whim. For the lunch in the photo above, I had cooked en masse, so to speak, carrots, parsnips, butternut squash, onion, rutabaga, fennel, and—true to my “Make a New Vegetable Friend Campaign”—a black radish.

(Yes, you read that correctly. I found a radish, about the size of an apple, that had a black skin. Following one my mantras—nothing ventured, nothing gained—I peeled it and threw it in. The nice thing about radish-y vegetables is that they sweeten when they’re roasted, which this one did.)

I cook every pan of roasted vegetables the same way:

1. Spray pan with cooking spray.
2. Throw in chopped-up veggies.
3. Add about ½ cup broth or water.
4. Sprinkle with a spice (basil, thyme, cumin, etc.)  (I do not generally add oil in order to keep the calories down, and I wait to salt until I’m eating.)
5. From my WW leader: She adds no-fat salad dressing. (optional)
6. Cover and cook for 30 minutes in a 350° F oven. (The veggies steam-cook in this part.)
7. Uncover and cook for another 30 minutes. (They continue cooking and brown in this part.)
8. Done!

“Wait a minute,” I hear you saying. “Don’t these vegetables cook at different rates?” Yup, they do, but here’s the thing: I like all the different textures of hard and soft (and the different flavours). If I didn’t, I’d have to cook them separately. Way, way too complicated for me.

Low-cal ways to dress ’em up!

Okay, so now I have my large pan of roasted veggies. I use some as side dishes at dinner, but mostly they become lunch (as in the photo). To make them more filling and add protein, I have

• Added ½ cup of cooked beans. (I’ve used navy beans in the photo, but any beans will do. Another interesting texture too! )
• Mixed in, or topped with, grated cheese and microwave. (I’ve used 2 tbsps. of sheep romano in the photo.)
• Added 2-3 ounces of cubed tofu.
• Added ½ cup of cooked quinoa.

Got any ideas? Please let us know!

Want to read my other, hopefully helpful, rants on roasted vegetables?

• DIY Roasted Vegetable Medley
• Thanks to Roasted Vegetables, I Didn’t Gain a Pound
• Demystifying Root Vegetables + A Get-Started Recipe