Oven Roasted Vegetables

I have always bought fresh vegetable and usually steam them. My daughter grew up liking most veggies and used to only eat them this way, no sauce, no cheese, no butter, just steamed. Although this is not bad, it's great that she loves vegetables, but now that she is 15, I think it's time to add some variety. Whenever I would prepare them a different way, I'd always throw some carrots or broccoli in the steam pan for her, that was easy enough. Last year when I started going downtown to our Farmers' Market I picked up some fennel, and Florida sweet onions, little red potatoes. I decided to roast them all, and that was a treat.
Now I've always roasted squash, sometimes eggplant, and asparagus for awhile. It does make for an easy, no fuss, no muss way to add some pizazz to a simple meal. Just sharing, here's a few ideas.

I like to look for the larger asparagus for roasting. The thinner ones I use in a stir fry or frittata. After washing and trimming the ends, place in a flat pan or what I use, my med stoneware bar pan, it works great for this. Just drizzle with some good olive oil, sea salt, Parisan Bonne Herb blend, this time I used feta, and slivered almonds. Roast until tender, or however done you like, my husband like it a little al dente. My daughter still won't eat asparagus.
She does like brussel sprouts though...go figure! She came home from a friends and said she wanted brussel sprouts...what? I had to call her friends mom to ask how she did them. Turns out she used the frozen box with butter sauce, so that's what I did. Maranda scraped the butter sauce off before she ate them. Then I would just get the bag of frozen ones, but I never ate them...yuck! When I saw Lynda post this on her blog Lynda's Recipe Box.

I thought this would be a great way to try brussel sprouts, and it was. I actually liked them. You can put the cleaned and halved sprouts (you can leave the small ones whole) in a bowl and toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar before you put them in the pan, or just do it in the bar pan. I added walnuts instead of pecans, just because I had them on hand, and topped with grated Parmesan reggiano cheese. They were tender and tasty!

Our family does love cauliflower, and we like it several ways, steamed, raw, even made into a cold dip (which I've posted). Again just to do something different try roasting it. This time I used lemon juice (fresh squeezed of course) olive oil and a little garlic, salt and pepper.

Oh, and it seems I always have to add a cheese, hmm. A little Parmesan on top. I think next time I'm doing curried cauliflower.

I even oven roasted crispy kale. Let me know what you add to your roasted veggies!