Recipe: Herbed Vegetables (aka "VeggieWOW Bake")

This is a recipe that was inspired by a dish a friend of mine made (her name is Dana, pronounced like 'Donna'). She owns a wonderful little store called "Family Food Mart" where I buy the freshly butchered goat meat for my goat curry.

If you don't keep tons of herbs in your kitchen or garden, you can find most of those listed below at The Fresh Market or at an Indian grocery. If you don't feel like spending a fortune on herbs you may not use very often, consider the abridged basic version of the recipe (below).

Herbed Vegetables (aka “VeggieWOW Bake”) by Michelle Young

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Vegetables:

Yellow Squash

Roma Tomatoes (5 – 7)

Yellow Onion

Herbs/Spices: (spices are whole unless indicated otherwise)

Fresh Garlic Cloves (minced and whole, mixed)

Oregano

Marjoram

Thyme

Savory

Fresh Rosemary Sprig (broken into 1” pieces)

Tarragon

Cherval

Coriander Seeds (fresh ground)

Fennel Seeds

Cumin Seeds

Yellow Mustard Seeds

Lavender Buds

Cinnamon (ground)

Sea Salt

Red, White &Black Pepper mix (Fresh Ground)

Cayenne Pepper

BASIC VERSION:

Fresh Garlic Cloves (minced and whole, mixed)

Oregano

Black Pepper

Salt

Cayenne Pepper

Directions:

Wash squash and tomatoes, and peel the onion. Quarter the Roma tomatoes, and cut the squash and onion into chunks of your preferred size (not too small, or they’ll dissolve during cooking). You can also use zucchini or eggplant in this dish, or any vegetable that’ll absorb flavors well…personally I wouldn’t use carrots, but they might be good too.

Put your vegetable chunks into a large bowl and start adding your herbs and spices to taste. Some herbs you can go to town with, like oregano and most of the green dried herbs. Other ingredients, like the cinnamon or cumin, you’ll want to just add a dash. Feel free to be generous with the lavender – it’s awesome! You can also be generous with the mustard seed. Just use your creativity – you can hardly go wrong, and if you do you’ll know what to change the next time! ;-)

Once you’ve added all your seasonings, stir the mixture until the vegetables are evenly coated. Empty the bowl into a baking dish (I use a Pyrex bread loaf pan), being sure to scrape all your seasonings from the sides of the bowl into the baking dish. Pour a generous amount of olive oil over the top of the vegetables – I usually have about ½ inch of oil at the bottom of the dish, more or less. Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for about an hour. I guarantee the odors will have you salivating long before the dish is finished!

Best served in a bowl with bread or rice . I prefer a nice mini baguette – the bread is perfect for dipping into the juices - sort of like going to an Italian restaurant, but the oil/juice mixture is much tastier than olive oil with cracked pepper. (In the South we’d call that “sopping”). If you serve with rice, I suggest a fragrant jasmine or basmati.

Enjoy!