garlicky roasted potatoes, cauliflower and artichoke hearts

Memories of a Roman lunch spot offering of a mixture of potatoes and artichoke hearts lay dormant many years in the back of bob's culinary folder in the food storage brain compartment until one night he finally suggested a similar combination of potatoes and cauliflower done up in the oven, with garlic of course. Ms ani chose the spices—pretty simple: salt and pepper, Middle Eastern red pepper, and dried mint, all ingredients of our usual salad dressing mix with olive oil and lemon juice. In fact the olive oil also works here. The first rendition was just with yellow potatoes and cauliflower. Really delicious. The second time we expanded the ingredient list to include frozen artichoke hearts, while throwing one sweet potato into the mix. Even better. You can adapt this to your own preferences.

ingredients

1 cauliflower head, separated into small florets
3 medium yellow potatoes, unpeeled but roughly cubed, or the equivalent in cut up fingerlings
1 sweet potato, peeled and roughly cubed
1 bag frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
2 - 3 T extra virgin olive oil for drizzling over the mixed veggies to coat
2 - 3 T dried mint
1 heaping t Middle Eastern red pepper
1 T salt and freshly ground black pepper

instructions

  1. Prepare the veggies.
  2. Pre-steam the cauliflower florets but leaving them still firm. Boil the potatoes till the fork goes in, but not too easily.
  3. Drizzle with olive oil in a nonstick baking pan and toss with the spices until evenly distributed. Use your judgment on how much of these spices and olive oil to include.
  4. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

notes

  1. Frozen artichoke hearts from Trader Joe's.
  2. Middle Eastern red pepper is essentially paprika plus a touch of cayenne.
  3. Sweet potatoes are not only a flavor enhancer here, they are packed with nutritious stuff, upgrading the food quality rating factor.
  4. Illustrations available.
roastedveggies.htm: 24-apr-2011 [what, ME cook? © 1984 dr bob enterprises]