Keep It Simple for Summer

Roasted summer veggies

My rule of thumb for my kitchen is to keep it simple. Food tastes best when the natural flavors of the ingredients enhance and complement each other, not when it is overcooked and smothered in heavy sauces. Likewise, nutritious and delicious food shouldn’t take a lot of time to prepare.

While the bounty of my CSA (community supported agriculture) excites me every week, I am familiar with the feeling of overwhelm. Considering how I will use everything, make it taste good and avoid waste. In those times, I lean on the keep it simple standard. When I brought my share home last night, I made a simple dish of roasted summer vegetables using the purple carrots and zucchini, red onions from the previous week’s share and a few other vegetables I had hanging out in my refrigerator like beets and sweet potatoes that were tinkering on the edge of spoilage.

I preheated my oven to 400, chopped the vegetables into chunks and tossed them on a foil-lined baking sheet with 2 cloves of chopped garlic. I coated it all in a mixture of olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and baked it for 45 to 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Note: you can add any fresh or dried herbs you have on hand. I used some sage from a previous share that I had frozen.

What it means to eat a rainbow

The finished product

Because I like to eat lots of raw, cooling foods in the summer, I balanced the roasted vegetables with a big, simple green salad to create a satisfying meal with a variety of flavors and textures. The dish also makes a perfect side for grilled, organic meats, fish or even mixed with pasts for a rustic pasta dish. It’s versatile!

What I didn’t eat at dinner, I had as leftovers for lunch, which is another one of my keep it simple tricks: cook once, eat two or three times. Keeping it simple, allows me to eat a wholesome healthy diet and affords me more time to spend outside of the kitchen, doing work I love, enjoying my love ones and soaking up the sunshine.

The perfect meal or side dish