For the first recipe in the Veggie Tales special project, here is a easy to make dish that shows that vegetables can be simple without being bland or boring. This is a great dish to prepare and then roast in the oven while making the rest of the meal. Because the vegetables are so substantial, there is little need to serve with more than an entree, such as chicken, fish, or steak. The wonderful thing about vegetables is that they, quite literally, go with any main dish.

Substitute any available vegetable; the key in roasting the vegetables is to prepare them so they are all roughly the same size and will cook at the same rate. In colder months, use root vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips) rather than summer vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, peppers). Other spring and summer vegetables, such as asparagus or green beans, would be good in this dish as well.

Rustic Roasted Vegetables

2 aubergine (baby eggplant) or 1 large eggplant
3 medium zucchini
2 sweet bell peppers, such as red, yellow, or orange
1/2 large sweet onion
1/2 lb baby bella mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
zest of 1 lemon
olive oil
flat-leaf parsley, minced (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F and coat a 13×9 baking dish with cooking spray (or olive oil).

To prepare eggplant, remove cap and stem, then halve lengthwise and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces. Repeat with zucchini. For peppers, cut into 2-inch wide strips. Place cut side of onion on board and cut in half crosswise, then cut lengthwise into pieces about 2 inches wide. Rinse mushrooms under lukewarm water and halve any large mushrooms.

In prepared 13×9 baking dish, toss prepared vegetables with garlic, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and olive oil. Use enough olive oil so that vegetables are lightly coated. Add minced parsley, if desired.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until vegetables have cooked through and are crisp-tender (or to desired tenderness). If pan dries out, add additional olive oil or water as needed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 5:05 am and is filed under Recipes, Side Dishes, Special Projects, Veggie Tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.