Roasted Bits of Cabbage Heaven

Here was the question I asked on Facebook last week: "Do you eat vegetables? And I'm not talking about corn and potatoes, turns out those don't count. What's your favorite vegetable recipe? I'm in need of some new recipes and Pinterest is just filled with cake pops or clever ways to make cupcakes look like lady bugs, or crock pot meals. Help me eat more veggies! I'm bored with salad and green beans."

Turns out my friends do eat and cook vegetables, a lot. And did I get a lot of responses? Heck yeah, I did. Veggie loving creative friends to the rescue. I've got almost 25 new recipes to try. And zero excuses to eat salad all the time. So I'm going to work my way through most of these new recipes over the next few months. And other than an aversion to bok choy, leeks and mushrooms, Joe is up for it too.

I started this veggie recipe extravaganza with something I am familiar with and love on Monday. Because it was a Monday night and I'm notoriously low-key, read lazy, on Monday nights and not up for anything challenging or exciting. So we went with a modified version of Bethany's roasted Brussels sprouts. They were divine. I took her advice to use a little bacon fat on the sprouts and it made all the difference and while I had to cook some bacon to do that, why not toss about three crumbled pieces of bacon and some shallots into the mix? Joe and I devoured them. I had the leftovers for lunch the next day and I groaned in happiness, thankfully I was alone or I might have gotten some weird looks. But these sprouts are groan worthy. Like What About Bob groan worthy.





We had roasted asparagus on Wednesday night, but I forgot to take pictures. So you'll just have to trust me that we didn't have boring salad. I figured out the key to making roasted asparagus taste as good as it does in a fancy restaurant. More salt! Like more salt than is dignified or safe for those with high blood pressure. Salt did the trick and the asparagus were perfect. And it really wasn't that much salt, just more than I normally use. And though we did have salad twice this week, the inclusion of avocado, sweet grape tomatoes and some gorgonzola made it delicious. As Joe says, "I want to put avocado on everything."

Next week we are getting more adventurous with the veggies. We are trying green smoothies for breakfast, balsamic glazed carrots and quite possibly something cabbage based, if I can get over my aversion to actual cabbage. My grandfather used to just eat raw cabbage like he was biting into an apple and he made me try it once and I nearly threw up on myself. So cabbage and I are not friends. We'll see if we can work on that relationship. Can you roast cabbage in bacon fat? Because that might work. What are you eating this week?
  

Roasted Brussels Sprouts (from Bethany)

1. Preheat oven to 500F. Adjust one rack to lowest position and place baking pan on rack to preheat.
2. Prepare 2 lbs of brussels sprouts by removing the outer leaves and cutting off the bottom of the stalk on each sprout. Cut each in half from stem to top.
3. In a bowl, drizzle some olive oil (or melted bacon grease, yum) over the brussels sprouts and stir with your hands to make sure they're all evenly coated.
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Mix
   
5. Arrange sprouts on a baking sheet. I like to arrange mine so they're all face-down at first.
6. Roast for 10-15 minutes, turning sprouts halfway if you like. Roast until deeply charred and tender.
7. (I added this step) Eat and enjoy deeply, possibly moaning inappropriately in mixed company.