Why you should roast your vegetables slowly
When you think of slow roasting, you probably immediately think of juicy pulled pork or a huge leg of lamb, but did you know that vegetables also benefit from spending a long time in the oven? These are our favorite flavor combinations.
Usually, vegetables are roasted in the oven at a high temperature until they are nicely browned and perhaps even crispy. Delicious, but when you roast vegetables slowly, they develop a completely different flavor.
Because you cook the vegetables slowly in large quantities of olive oil, their texture becomes soft and luxurious. Another wonderful bonus: the oil absorbs all the flavor from the vegetables and other seasonings. Whatever you do, never throw it away. This is liquid gold that you can pour over your next vegetable dish, fish, rice or egg. You have never tasted anything so delicious.
Lots and lots of oil
The technique is quite simple: put your favorite vegetables in an oven dish with plenty of olive oil and seasonings of your choice. Cut a bulb of garlic or an onion in half and roast it along with the vegetables, or add your favorite herbs. It depends a little on which vegetables you use, but allow approximately 1 to 1.5 hours at 175 °C. Small cherry tomatoes, for example, only need 45 minutes, but you should roast eggplant, zucchini or bell pepper for at least an hour and a half.
When it comes to flavors, anything goes. Garlic is a very good combination with tomatoes, together with some rosemary or thyme, for example. It is also delicious to add coriander, cumin or fennel seeds. Really, anything is possible. Or take it in an Asian direction and add ginger and (dried) chili pepper. Lime or lemon zest also works wonders.
Burrata
What should you eat those vegetables with? Simply serve them as a side dish with a delicious piece of fish, but they are also very tasty cold. Store them in the refrigerator together with the oil and eat them on bread, with your salad or with a generous ball of burrata. Mmmm…
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