A Simple Dinner

Simple meals can sometimes be the best. Every so often you should let the natural, inherent flavors of your foods come out. Accent their positive qualities and I think that you will be overwhelmed at what even the simplest ingredients bring to your plates.

There are immense joys that can come from the simplest of foods. Everybody is familiar with the three vegetables in this meal, potatoes, cauliflower, and broccoli. They are old friends, even if we are occasionally embarrassed of our love for the fattening, starchy potato. Each of these "old friends" has secrets though that many never discover.

A simple meal of roasted potatoes, cauliflower, and broccoli

My friendship with the potato goes so far back that I can't remember how we first met, but I can tell you about the ways I have enjoyed the potato, as french fries, as hash browns, as home fries, as steak fries, as "boiled/baked" potatoes, as mashed potatoes, as baked potatoes. We cook and eat potatoes in so many ways because they are so flexible. In fact, we have so many ways to cook potatoes that it is easy to forget one method, sometimes for years. I have been on a steamed or baked potato kick for years.

Broccoli and cauliflower are more recent friends. The first time that I actually enjoyed these two was back in the day when all of my foods were boring browns and whites. I was 19 eating at a Denny's restaurant in Jackson, MS. I ordered a hamburger and fries and she had the salad bar. I finished my burger and was still peckish, she had some leftover broccoli and cauliflower with a bit of ranch dressing, I ate and loved it. To be honest I loved ranch dressing.

I became a confirmed eater of raw vegetable swimming in creamy salad dressings. I later gravitated toward vinaigrettes, but the cooked veggies were still years away. I was prejudiced against cooked vegetables. I thought cooked broccoli had the worst smell in the whole world. I later learned that this can come from the sulfur compounds in the broccoli that break down as it dies in your refrigerator and the cooking process. The secret to keeping that odor far away is to eat your broccoli when it is fresh, and DO NOT overcook it.

The first time that I ate cooked broccoli and liked it was at the Iron Horse Grill in Jackson. They fried it as an appetizer and served it with a cheese sauce. It was wonderful and is now a family favorite.

It took me longer to love cauliflower. Lets be honest. Raw, it feels funny on our tongues. The texture is a bit like indoor/outdoor carpet. Cooked, it feels gritty against the tongue as the arrested flowers scrape against the tongue. When I learned that cauliflower gets an enticing nutty flavor when cooked with a high, dry heat (instead of boiling and steamy) cauliflower and I became fast friends.

In the above picture you see our simple dinner. The only thing that I would change if I were cooking it right now is the addition of grape or cherry tomatoes. Roasted tomatoes become explosively juicy and the bright red from cooking would make that plate really pop with color.

Not bad and it let us have apple turnovers for dessert.

Adam's Roasted Veggie Dinner

serves 3

3 small or medium russet potatoes

1 broccoli crown

1 cauliflower crown

1 cup of grape or cherry tomatoes

3 TBS of olive oil

3 tsp of Mrs. Dash seasoning

salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425. Place baking rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Cut potatoes into wedges and put in mixing bowl. Add 3/4 of the olive oil and Mrs dash. Using a spatula mix the contents until the potatoes are coated in oil. Put potatoes on to a baking sheet and place in hot oven.
3. While the potatoes are roasting, cut broccoli and cauliflower into bite sized pieces and put them into your mixing bowl. Add remaining oil and seasoning and toss until the vegetables are thoroughly coated. Add to the pan in the oven.
4. Assuming that it took about 10 minutes to prep the vegetables, roast the vegetables with the potatoes 5 more minutes.
5. Leaving the vegetables in the oven, turn the oven on to "High" broil. Broil the vegetable until the potatoes turn golden brown and the veggies begin to caramelize.

If you look at the Nutrition Facts, you may be surprised that this recipe has 14 g of protein in it. Where did it all come from? Believe it or not, it came from the broccoli and cauliflower. Look it up on the internet and be amazed.

Cook for enjoyment. Eat to live.
Update February 13, 2015

Tomatoes make the color pop

I had said that tomatoes would be a good addition to this meal, and, as you can see, the red of the tomatoes adds a nice visual excitement. Roasted tomatoes are juicy bombs of zesty flavor. Be sure to work them in where you can.