Veggie Cook-a-thon!

Don’t know where I stumbled across this idea—Atlantic online, maybe? NY Times cookery sections? Somebody’s blog??—but it stuck with me: when you find yourself with a bunch of veggies, whether because you got a lifetime supply from some warehouse store or because your garden produced a bumper crop or because some friend showed up at the door with armloads of produce from his own garden, COOK IT NOW.

And the easy way to cook it?

Roast it.

During the holidays when I fell heir to branch after branch of wonderful fresh Brussels sprouts from the All Saints Silent Auction, whereinat we submitted a fine donation of The Copyeditor’s Desk’s time, I overhead other partiers remark that they would roast their veggie loot and it would be wonderful. So indeed I did cook the sprouts in the oven. The result was pleasing enough.

Weather being somewhat nicer just now, I decided to try cooking a Costco Lifetime Supply of bagged Brussels sprouts in the propane grill.

Dumped them out of the bag into a mixing bowl; added some pecans. Then sprinkled a little olive oil over the mound, tossed well to coat, and spread everything in a wire grilling basket.

Preheated the grill to about 400 degrees; then turned the heat down to “medium.” Set the veggie/pecan mix in; let it cook a few minutes; tossed them around and then let it roast until done. The result is a kind of barbecue al dente. Very tasty on its own. Even better when you add other items, such as chopped roasted peppers or fresh herbs or minced green onions.

The logical thing to do here is to divide the cooked veggies into  meal-sized portions, pack them in Ziplock bags, and freeze. Then when you need a serving of (fill in the blank: sprouts, asparagus, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, squash…etc.), pull it out, add whatever blandishments you please, and enjoy!