Small Bites: To make it through the fall, roast your vegetables

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“Small Bites” is about exploring the broader world of food and drink in Madison through approachable and specific experiences.

As much as I love complex flavors and complicated recipes, it’s impractical to make cassoulet every week when the winds finally sweep in the cold air. I’m not particularly motivated to begin a 12-step recipe when the sun sets at 4:30 p.m. every afternoon; and, in a season of general inactivity, rich foods make me feel sluggish. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s impossible to eat cassoulet more than once a season without getting gout.

So, when I want maximum flavor with minimal effort, I steer away from multi-step recipes and towards simple technique: roasting some hearty winter vegetables. They’re the closest thing you’ll find to local and seasonal in Madison for the next few months, so it’s time to get well-versed in the possibilities. 

Simple food is often the most delicious. In the summer, when green beans are fragrant and grassy, I lightly blanch them and toss them with split cherry tomatoes, fresh sourdough croutons, and a mustardy vinaigrette for a vibrant panzanella. In the late fall and winter, I swap out green beans for hearty vegetables like squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower. Just a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and high heat transform starches into caramelized edges and deep flavor.

Low on prep and high on passive cooking time, roasting is a godsend. It’s also relatively new as a culinary concept. Roasting has only become a common form of cookery since the 1980s. Though it seems second nature now for anyone who’s had roasted Brussels sprouts at a New American joint in 2014, slapping your vegetables in a 425ºF oven and calling it a day has only been de rigueur for the last 15 years or so. And now we get to reap the lazy benefits of turning it into our weeknight relief. 

After you’ve roasted your vegetables, well, the possibilities are endless. Flavor enhancers like nutritional yeast, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and chili crisp are all excellent condiments, and assembling a meal is as simple as adding a cooked grain or greens. The key is to keep things simple so you don’t have to try and read a cookbook in your too-dark-at-six-o’clock kitchen. While almost any combination could work, here are a few that turn up in my household on a regular basis. 

Inspired by a few Carla Lalli Music recipes in That Sounds So Good is charred broccoli served with farro and nutritional yeast, almost a weekly staple at our table. Toss some broccoli with olive oil, salt, black pepper, and perhaps some Aleppo pepper, and roast in the oven at 425ºF until it’s deeply browned and the crowns are charred (like, 30 minutes). Cook some farro according to the package with a few cracks of black pepper and a splash of olive oil in the water. When it’s just about tender, add some salt and give it a minute to be absorbed into the grains. Strain the farro, and serve the charred broccoli over it with a generous dusting of nutritional yeast, a squeeze of lemon, and a sprinkle of finishing salt to make it pop. The nutritional yeast adds a savory punch while the acid from the lemon brightens everything up. Done and done. 

If my partner and I both crave a salad, we often default to Yasmin Khan’s Sunshine Salad, made with roasted sweet potatoes and pan-fried halloumi. While there are a fair number of components, it’s less of a recipe than a suggestion of tasty things to combine. Roast sweet potatoes, pan fry some halloumi, and toss with split cherry tomatoes, a diced avocado, plenty of arugula, and a simple lemon vinaigrette that includes zest (lemon zest is where all the lemon flavor is). It’s hearty enough for a cold night, and its bright flavors help carry you through the premature darkness as we all stare down the winter solstice. 

Roasted squash goes great with a light tahini dressing and freshly roasted croutons to make a sort of winter panzanella. Roast your squash with cubed bread, all lightly coated with salt, pepper, and—you guessed it—olive oil. Mix up tahini with salt, lime juice, a dash of honey, and enough water to thin it to your preferred consistency, and then drizzle it over the top of everything once it’s cooled a bit. You can check a recipe if it’s your first time working with tahini, but eventually, this all will become muscle memory. 

When we want some spice, I default to a simplified version of this roasted aloo gobi recipe. Toss potato wedges and cauliflower florets in olive oil, salt, and your favorite curry powder, and roast. Dice an onion and sauté it until it’s translucent. Add some more curry powder and sauté it with the onion until fragrant. Toss in some diced tomato and a little water, and cook down until it forms a sauce. Toss the potatoes and cauliflower in the pot with everything else and serve with rice. 

All of these options are easy, and only take about 15 to 20 minutes of active cooking time. With a few reps of cooking each, the dishes take very little brain power to execute. There are a lot of reasons why one might struggle with cooking right now, but there’s no reason we need to sacrifice tasty food just to get by. All you need are some ingredients, an oven, a general idea, and enough patience to break down a broccoli crown. The miracle of roasting is here, and it’ll get you through to soup season. All you need to do is believe. Then again, if you are looking for a fight in the kitchen, that cassoulet recipe is quite good—just be sure not to skimp on the good stuff.