Vegan MoFo: Roasty Fancy

When some friends were over for dinner a few nights ago, we were talking about how lucky we were that they didn't have any serious vegetable or herb dislikes or food allergies since we forgot to ask them before we cooked the meal. There were enough cashews and cilantro to harm or turn off many of our friends. I'm always assuming that if someone has an allergy or a serious dislike that they will tell me, but you never know, so I've got to be careful about that.

AA likes to talk about how we're pretty "easy" as vegans go, but that's not really true. He'll eat most anything vegan that you make him, but around here, he's very selective about how much garlic, onion, and shallots he will eat. For me, there's fennel -- and fennel seeds*, anise, and anything licorice tasting -- though I often forget how much I dislike that flavor until I bite into a christmas cookie.


People rarely try to serve me fennel, and since I didn't grow up eating it, it's one that I've never given a fair shake cause it smells too much like those christmas cookies. But when I saw it at the coop yesterday, looking really fresh and pretty and hailing from a farm I particularly like, I figured it might be worth giving it a try again.

It seemed to call out to be roasted, and a look through my cookbooks confirmed that, and so I put some olive oil on my hands and rubbed the fennel, dropped it in a pan, and put it in the hot oven. Then I started to envision all kinds of roasted goodness and sought out my farmers market brussel sprouts, beets, and then, as an afterthought, some shallot and some kale, rubbed all in oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper, ground fenugreek and mace.

While all the vegetables were roasting, I got to thinking about how I could complement the roasty vegetables with something crunchy and something tangy. Right away, last week's Iron Chef Challenge came to mind again! I sliced one of the Gourmet Golden apples we got yesterday -- an apple that at the tasting AA exclaimed "That's fancy!" -- and microplaned some ginger over them. In retrospect, the ginger would have been even better had it roasted with the beets, but this was the kind of lunch that just kind of develops as its made, and by then, the beets were almost done roasting.


When everything was done roasting, I piled it all -- beets, brussels, fennel, shallots, crispy kale, gourmet golden apples and ginger on top of baby romaine from the market. On mine, I drizzled a little fig vinegar, and cause I still have lots, I sprinkled hazelnuts on top.

When I asked AA which parts he liked best, he said the surprises -- the fennel and the shallot. Turns out, roasted fennel and roasted shallot are both delicious. I was already on to shallots, and now you can call me a fennel convert, too, but still, there's nothing better roasted than brussel sprouts and beets. They're the best thing my oven can do -- better than cookies.

If you're reading this and thinking of commenting, might you include what vegetables you avoid, or what vegetables you used to avoid and now you love? I'm curious, yes, but if I happen to find myself cooking for you one day, it'll help me know what to leave out!


*I usually sub ajwain or almost anything else when one of my Indian recipes call for fennel seeds, but I picked up some of those the other day, too.