Roast Vegetables

Virtually any root vegetable can be cooked with a small amount of liquid, the liquid becoming a glaze that combines the flavors of the cooking liquid and the flavors released by the vegetable itself. (The liquid is usually water, but it can also be broth or cream.) This is the system used for glazed carrots, onions, and turnips. Unlike glazed vegetables, roast vegetables, in the strictest sense, are cooked in the oven with no liquid except for a small amount of oil or melted butter to keep them from drying out. Sometimes vegetables for roasting are peeled and at other times vegetables (beets, winter squash) are roasted unpeeled. Vegetables intended for roasting can be left whole or can be shaped in the same way as glazed vegetables, but the size is important only for appearance and, if a combination of vegetables is being roasted, to ensure that the vegetables take the same time to cook. Green vegetables are rarely roasted, because they need boiling water or steam to soften them; roasting only turns them gray and hard.