Roasted Asparagus

All thanks to changing a cat box, I now know how to roast vegetables. And lemme tell you, roasted vegetables are way better than boiled or steamed any day. Oh but you want the cat box reference explanation?

As I was lining a fresh kitty litter tray with newspaper, I saw a book review on a book called The Perfect Recipe For Eating Great and Losing Weight by Pam Anderson. I was intrigued by her story. This is the America’s test kitchen lady, Cooks Illustrated lady, Martha Stewart of recipes and she had made an intention to change to her mind and body and lost a substantial amount of weight.

I held onto the scrap of newspaper for when I was ready to make better choices for myself. A year later, when it was that time, I bought her book. I really embraced her style and reuse many of her recipes as well as her philosophies.

The two big take-aways were a confidence to make soups and to roast vegetables. I had tried red potatoes and sweet potato cubes with red onions, carrots, and mushrooms tossed with balsamic and oil and rosemary as a bed for a pork tenderloin . But now I’ve roasted green beans, beets,cauliflower, and yes, asparagus. When you toss the roast veg back into a salad with crumbles cheese, nuts, and fruit, you are eating a masterpiece.

All that is required is that the vegetables to be a uniform size small enough to be roasty and sweet after 20-25 minutes. The veg chunks only need to be tossed in olive oil and a little salt, I use kosher, and placed on a cookie sheet in a hot oven, 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Try it out if you haven’t and you’ll marvel at the difference. The natural sugars caramelize and beets and carrots end up like vegetable candy. I was most shocked by the cauliflower and the green beans. But one of our favorites is the asparagus. Snap the end off of each (they naturally snap at the perfect spot) and you won’t have a fibrous inedible end of the stem to deal with.

Bon Appetite!