Random Food Thoughts

I'm starting to think that almost anything is better roasted than cooked any other way. I'm sure there are exceptions, like lettuce (although actually if I had to cook lettuce--gross--I would probably take roasting over a number of other options), but it works so well for so many things!

I'm just thinking especially of things I only had steamed or boiled when I was a kid, and thought were OK, but have since had oven-roasted and thought were much more delicious.

Like asparagus, and cauliflower. Both great roasted. Try it!

I know steaming is supposed to be one of the healthiest ways to cook, because you can make things all nice and tender without adding a lot of fat, and I certainly appreciate some beautiful bright green steamed snap peas or broccoli, but honestly, just drizzle something with olive oil and roast it and it will probably be awesome.

Also kind of awesome, the way that when you get vegetables from the Community Supported Agriculture farm, they leave on parts that you don't usually see, like the greens on radishes and carrots and the outer leaves of cauliflowers. This inspires me to try perfectly edible parts of plants that I wouldn't have thought to eat otherwise.

More food for your CSA dollar, more interesting meals, and more vegetables in your diet.

Radish greens are pretty delicious, very fresh-tasting and a little spicy. Carrot greens are a little tougher and I wouldn't really go out of my way to find them, but they're all right. The cabbage-y leaves of cauliflower, if you toss them in with the florets and roast them together, are very nice.

To sum up, roast more plants, and eat more of the plant, and you shall not go far wrong.

Unless you eat more of the potato or the tomato, which you should not do because the greens are kind of poisonous. I'm all for increasing variety in ones diet, but only non-poisonous variety.

I mean, unless you're trying to make yourself sick for some reason, in which case I wouldn't advise it, but I suppose it's a free country. If you try to make someone else sick, though, there's definitely a law against that, so it's not a totally free country.

I should probably stop now.