Fire Roasted Vegetables

30 Sep

Don’t you hate it when you’re all ready to make something and realize that you either don’t have enough of a key ingredient? Or worse yet, it spoiled?!

That’s what happened to me. I had a beautiful yellow bell pepper but I waited too long to cook it. Since I had mentally gotten ready to cook, there was no turning back. I went to the grocery store really quick and got bell peppers. They didn’t have any yellow ones so I grabbed a couple of red and green ones.

Right before I was about to put these into the oven, I thought it might be yummy to roast garlic too. I sliced off the top and drizzled olive oil on it. See how some of them are popping out? They slide right out of the skin and taste amazing!

Recipe: “Fire-roasted” eggplant, bell peppers and garlic
Makes 3 servingsIngredients:

1 zucchini, sliced lengthwise
1/2 of a medium eggplant, sliced into 1/2″ circles*
1 red bell pepper, cut into 6 strips with insides removed
1 green bell pepper, cut into 6 strips with insides removed
2 whole heads of garlic, with pointy side sliced off
1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 tbs of oregano or dried parsley
2 tbs of balsamic vinegar
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 ts of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Baking sheet

Procedure:

1. Heat oven to 475 F.

2. Combine Olive Oil, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, oregano (or dried parsley) with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Stir well.

3. Place all the vegetables in a large bowl.

4. Pour marinade from step #2 over the vegetables and mix thoroughly, using tongs, until coated.

5. Place vegetables in a flat baking sheet (I used my cookie sheet with foil over it). Make sure they are not overlapping.

6. Add the garlic heads to the baking sheet and drizzle a hint of olive oil over it.

7. Bake for 15-16 minutes, then turn over if necessary. Bake for another 3-5 minutes until tender.

*I cut the eggplant too thin and some of it burned. Make sure you cut thick slices!

If you hear sizzling, don’t worry. It’s the acidity of the vinegar combining with the high heat, giving the veggies the “I’m fire-roasted” signature look. Just make sure your oven is not on fire!

(I also unsuccessfully cooked some chicken breast with sake. When I figure out how to make it better, I will share the recipe. Any pointers on how to cook with sake successfully would be great!)

I’ve never tried roasting veggies before but it was super easy! You should give it a try. =) These vegetables were so well seasoned. For lunch yesterday, I made a sandwich: two slices of sliced Gouda cheese, chicken, with grilled vegetables on whole wheat bread. It was a scrumptious lunch!

What are your favorite vegetables to roast?

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  • Leigh

    Looks so good…and healthy.

  • S

    ooh this reminds me of something..you should totally make a garlic spread! you just roast the garlic, and when they all pop out, you keep on mincing, and flattening down with your knife to get it all mushy, and then spread it on anything…i did it for my turkey burger and it was AMAZING. i love garlic….sigh. Great dish! ur site always makes me hungry.

  • ambitious

    Oh nice, S!! I do have some roasted garlic left and ended up using it in fried rice. I’ll try that. thanks!!!

  • http://merescribbling.blogspot.com Fiona

    Ooh, I do this all the time–it’s so simple! I never thought to add balsamic vinegar and it made a world of a difference. But the beauty of this dish is that there’s no “required” ingredient to make it work. My mantra is whatever non-leafy veg in the fridge will do, tho my faves are zucchinis and carrots.

  • gLors

    Thanks for this recipe! I’ve roasted veggies but never using balsamic vinegar which I <3. It was a good change…
    p.s. in ur recipe index, this recipe is hyperlinked with the eggplant dip one…

  • ambitious

    YAY for first time trying of a recipe!

    Thanks Glors for pointing out the weird link!!! :)

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