You're A Vegan, What Do You Eat? (Roasted Vegetable Edition)

I've been on a real Roasted Vegetable kick lately-- I guess it's the arrival of winter.  Somehow I just want clean, simple foods.  Warm and nutritious.  

Mainly, I've been roasting green things, such as broccoli and asparagus.  After washing and cutting up the vegetables, I toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and lemon juice.  Then I arrange them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes.  I will warn you though, that a little bit of roasted broccoli goes a long way.  Maybe it is just because I still have somewhat of a hyperemetic aversion to most green vegetables (a difficult and sad situation, especially since I am vegan), but I find myself regretting it if I eat more than a couple pieces of roasted broccoli.  At least in roasted form, though, I can eat a little of it.  That is more than I can say for raw or steamed.    

 

 

Still in the mood for roasted vegetables, this evening I tried to recreate the amazingly delicious dish I made for Thanksgiving last year.  I took onion, celery, leeks, carrots, brussel's sprouts, and potatoes and tossed them with a mix of olive oil, melted Earth Balance, salt/pepper, and garlic and onion powder.  I roasted them at 425 (the smoke alarm goes off if I set the oven for any higher than that) for about 55 minutes.  I also made a package of Whole Foods Vegan Stuffing, and I made my own gravy from this recipe.

Vegan comfort food at its finest.  Well, sort of.  The gravy was pretty good, but I thought the stuffing and vegetables were rather lackluster.  The vegetables seemed to hold more promise than the stuffing.  If I were to do this again (which I probably will), I would eliminate the celery (even though I recall that being pretty good at Thanksgiving last year) and leeks.  I think it also needed a whole lot more of the Earth Balance baste, with a lot more garlic powder added to it.  And a splash of liquid smoke too (I had forgotten I'd added that last year).

As for the rest of the family, Rob really enjoyed the meal (he did not think the packaged stuffing was bland), but Will wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.  Which is how he is with most foods.  It is frustrating.

Still, it was a good meal to have for the coldest day of the season so far.  I think it was only about 11 degrees when I ran this morning (I felt like I had brain freeze on my forehead this morning when running into the wind even though, yes, I was wearing a hat), and the high might have been around 20.  Cold day, but for the most part, we stayed warm.

Thanks for reading.