The Easiest Way To Upgrade Roasted Vegetables
by Adina Steiman
You know how to roast vegetables, don’t you? Cut them up, toss them with olive oil, hit them with salt and maybe some other seasonings. Scatter on a baking sheet and roast at 400F, turning once or twice, until tender and golden brown. Right?
Chances are, if you’re familiar with these moves in the kitchen, you’ve probably done them hundreds of times. Cut up. Toss. Roast. Repeat. After all, roasting is one of the easiest, surest ways to intensify the flavor of vegetables. But let’s face it: If you’re living the roasted-vegetable lifestyle, it’s easy to tire even of the most perfectly caramelized morsels. What you need is an upgrade, a quick trick that will make any tray of veg way more exciting.
You need to infuse your oil.
While your oven is preheating, take just a few minutes to heat your oil with whatever herbs or spices you have on hand. In just minutes, your oil will start sizzling, and the aromatics you’ve added will release plenty of flavor—far more than they would if they were just tossed with the vegetables and oil and roasted.
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Here’s how to do it:
Pick aromatics (and oils) that go well together.
Even just one herb and one spice will do the trick. Long ribbons of lemon zest and sprigs of rosemary with olive oil. Curry leaves and mustard seeds with coconut oil. Butter, thyme, and smashed cloves of garlic. Sesame oil, scallions, and sliced ginger. Basically, whatever herbs, spices, and aromatics taste good together will taste good on your roasted vegetables.
Keep the spices whole and the aromatics in large chunks.
No need to mince your garlic or strip your rosemary leaves from the stem. The sizzling oil will extract flavor from your aromatics with minimal prep. In fact, the bigger the pieces you’re frying, the less likely they’ll be to burn quickly.
When your oil smells amazing, it’s ready.
All your little pot of infused oil needs is the occasional stir as it cooks. And once it starts sizzling, it should be ready to drizzle over a sheet pan of vegetables in just a minute or two.
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Drizzle the flavored oil over your vegetables, then toss and roast.
Once your oil is ready, just pour it over cut-up vegetables on a rimmed baking sheet. Wait a minute for the oil to cool, then toss with your hands to thoroughly coat the vegetables before putting them in the oven to roast.
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photo: Adina Steiman
