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This is kinda dumb, but I realized in my 40’s you can cook almost any good quality vegetable the same way, and it tastes good Most vegetable recipes look like

by chubot 1y ago

This is kinda dumb, but I realized in my 40’s you can cook almost any good quality vegetable the same way, and it tastes good Most vegetable recipes look like a lot of ceremony, and it seems like they may be sensitive to mistakes So instead I just cut any vegetable up, peeling anything that seems hard or stringy Then toss in a high quality oil and salt (I use walnut oil, seems to make a difference) And roast it from 350 to 400 for 25 to 45 minutes, turning it in the middle Using your eyes and nose is enough to fine tune the temperature and time This works for celtuce (make sure to peel it), lotus root, all kinds of leafy especially bitter greens, all kinds of potatoes, squash, and root vegetables, eg beets, celery root, parsnips, … Lotus root is a real standout: it has a pleasant fragrance with just salt and oil. You don’t need any sauce The main ones I stay away from are anything stringy, like celery, some asparagus I’ve gotten very good reactions from people who are much better cooks than I I keep a wiki page of the times and temperatures I’ve tried different spices, but it doesn’t make it much better. The quality of the ingredient matters more than the recipe and cooking method — by a lot IMO So many of these vegetables I get from the farmers market (eg amish), but also from the Chinese market Some vegetables from Safeway and now Whole Foods are quite bad imo — they require elaborate cooking to make palatable Probably the only thing I would tweak is adding some acid like lemon or vinegar to some, but empirically it works without

maplant 1y ago
I have some great news for you... this also works for most meats
- chubot 1y ago
  I do cook meats this way, but I’d say it’s only 50% to 80% the quality/flavor of what a good cook can do, say with a beef bourguinon or a bolognese With the vegetables, I’d say it’s more like 80% to 120% the quality, based on the fact that it’s very possible to get better and fresher ingredients than even expensive restaurants. And also restaurants are biased towards meat, for commercial reasons. I would never say that meat doesn’t benefit from spice and sauce, but I do feel that way about many vegetables - the flavor is the thing itself I also think meat benefits from more time than vegetables, and there is more to manage with the fat and skin, etc. But yes it does certainly work, just less foolproof and not necessarily optimal! i.e. most people can beat the generic parameterized algorithm for meat, but not sure about vegetables :-)

by chubot 1y ago

maplant 1y ago

I have some great news for you... this also works for most meats

chubot 1y ago
I do cook meats this way, but I’d say it’s only 50% to 80% the quality/flavor of what a good cook can do, say with a beef bourguinon or a bolognese With the vegetables, I’d say it’s more like 80% to 120% the quality, based on the fact that it’s very possible to get better and fresher ingredients than even expensive restaurants. And also restaurants are biased towards meat, for commercial reasons. I would never say that meat doesn’t benefit from spice and sauce, but I do feel that way about many vegetables - the flavor is the thing itself I also think meat benefits from more time than vegetables, and there is more to manage with the fat and skin, etc. But yes it does certainly work, just less foolproof and not necessarily optimal! i.e. most people can beat the generic parameterized algorithm for meat, but not sure about vegetables :-)