Roasted vegetables from the garden

Last weekend, my friend James and I decided to go check out a u-pick. I have been in Edmonton a long, long time and I have never actually been to a u-pick here! Anyways, we found a pretty nice one west of the city. Unfortunately the berries were kind of picked over, but there were lots and lots of vegetables there! We got corn, potatoes, beets, lettuce, cabbage, beans and there was much more there. I hope to go back sometime soon with more of a plan (I had no plan, so I was hesitant to pick lots of vegetables).

Later in the week, I realized I still had some veggies kicking around that needed to be eaten, so I decided to whip up some corn on the cob and BBQ tofu and with only two burners (my other two have not worked in years), I had no room to get vegetables done for my dinner. So I got ready to do a little roasting.

Roasting vegetables is one the easiest ways to cook vegetables. It is not the quickest, but comparing to steaming, roasting brings out more flavour and leaves my stove top free for other things. It is definitely one of my favourite ways to cook vegetables. All I usually do is toss the veggies of choice with some oil (usually olive oil, but you could use grape seed, sesame, or pretty much what ever is on hand) and some salt and pepper. Sometimes I will go so far as to toss some dried herbs in with it too if I have some around.

Some roasting tips:
* Heat your oven to 350 - 400 F (lower for veggies that cook fast and higher for those that take longer)
* use some tin foil on your baking sheet so things don't stick and things are quick to clean up after too.
* if you have some dried herbs on hand, use them. You don't need much and it will change up the flavour a bit
* Add a little vinegar or citrus before roasting.
* Toss them at least once or twice while they are cooking so they come out even

for my dinner, I made roasted zucchini, tomato and basil with fresh corn on the cob and BBQ Tofu:

The vegetables
Pre-heat the over to about 375 F. While you are waiting, chop up your vegetables into bite size pieces (about 1 1/2" thick). Put the veggies in a bowl and toss with about 1 Tbsp of olive oil (just enough to coat them). add in some salt and pepper, dried herbs and a splash of lemon juice. Next, get a cookie sheet and cover it with tin foil. Spread the veggies on the sheet and put it in the over for about 20 minutes. Once or twice through cooking, toss the veggies around so they cook evenly.

Corn on the Cobb
This is so easy, you don't need a recipe. Bowl a big pot of water and if you like, salt the water. While you are waiting, shuck the corn removing the husk and silks and if you are like me, feed some to your guinea pigs :)

Add the corn to the water and cook for 8-10 minutes. 10 will make the corn quite soft, so adjust accordingly if you want it more firm.

And that is about it. I added some BBQ tofu to my dinner. Something I make a lot because I don't have to prep and it's fast.