Recipe
Vegetables you'll actually finish
This isn't really a recipe, it's the reason your vegetables end up in the bin. Almost nobody dislikes vegetables. They dislike boiled vegetables with nothing on them.
Four things make a vegetable worth eating: heat, fat, salt and acid. Get those right and it barely matters which vegetable you picked.
What you need
Ingredients
- Whatever vegetables you have (genuinely, any)
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Lemon, or vinegar
- Garlic
- Chilli flakes, optional
How
Method
ROASTED, HOT AND HARD. Oven as high as it goes, 220°C / 425°F. Toss in oil and salt, single layer, 20 to 25 minutes. Don't stir it every five minutes. The browning is the point. Lemon over the top as it comes out.
GARLICKY GREENS, FAST. Hot pan, oil, sliced garlic for thirty seconds until it smells good but isn't brown. Greens in with a pinch of salt, tongs, two minutes. Squeeze of lemon. Done.
QUICK PICKLED, RAW. Thin-sliced cucumber, red onion, carrot or radish. Equal vinegar and water, a spoon of sugar, a good pinch of salt. Twenty minutes on the counter. Keeps a week and lifts every meal prep container you own.
Worth knowing
Notes and swaps
- If it tastes boring, it's almost always missing salt or acid. Try acid first.
- Cook more than you need. Cold roasted vegetables are a better lunch than most lunches.
More like this
The 4-week meal plan
Four weeks of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks, built on fibre and protein, nothing from a health food shop, nothing you need a scale for. Plus a new recipe whenever I have one worth sending.