Healthy Eating Tip #1: Roast your Vegetables (Roasted Cauliflower Recipe)

You may have heard that boiling your vegetables often deprives them of their natural nutrients. And if that's not reason enough to stop boiling your vegetables, then how about this?: vegetables TASTE BETTER roasted.  To top it all off, roasting vegetables is easy to do . . . What's not to love?

Mmmm . . . tasty!!!

A good rule of thumb is: If it can be boiled, it can be roasted. To date, I've roasted cauliflower, asparagus, sweet potatoes, carrots, new potatoes, and summer squash, and I'm sure there are many, many more possibilities.


Roasted vegetables are also quite versatile when it comes to serving alongside your serving of meat or fish or tofu, if that's how you roll. You can season them with essentially anything in your spice rack, garlic, fresh herbs, or, of course, cheese.

For a straightforward guide and testimonial for roasting vegetables read this article by Francis Lam. It's everything you need to know about roasting vegetables.

A few more tips than Francis Lam offered, from an experienced roaster:

1. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. It's A LOT less messy at clean-up time.
2. Don't overdo the extra virgin olive oil. For a while there, I was making this mistake, drenching my new potatoes in several tablespoons of olive oil. It not only takes away from the health benefits roasting vegetables provides but also makes your veggies a bit soggy, and one of the best parts about roasted vegetables is their crispiness.
3. Actually, that's it. Roasting is so easy, it's pretty hard to mess up.

Here's a basic example of roasting vegetables, and, again, it can be used for just about all vegetables you'd normally boil:




Roasted Cauliflower


Ingredients:


1 head of cauliflower, chopped into 1 inch florets
2 T of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp. of table salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground coriander or another spice (optional)
a roasting pan or baking sheet, parchment paper


Preheat oven to 450 degrees.


Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, toss the chopped cauliflower with the 2 T of olive oil, the salt and pepper, and the coriander, if using (or use another dried spice from your spice rack . . . get adventurous!).
2. Place cauliflower on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet in an even layer.
3. Place on the middle rack of your preheated oven.
4. Cook for 40 minutes, tossing and turning the cauliflower once or twice in the middle of the roasting process.
5. Remove the pan from the oven and serve cauliflower immediately, adding fresh herbs, if desired.

1 C of roasted cauliflower is a measly 70 calories, but it's so good, you'd swear it was 700.


Again, and I cannot stress this enough, roasting veggies is one of the easiest, healthiest, most delicious things you can do for your family. If you're like me, you'll never go back to boiling your veggies.

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