Beuna Balsamic Roasted Veggies

It's amazing to me that omnis think we're somehow dissatisfied and hungry all the time. They couldn't be more wrong. How could one be dissatisfied when all of this...

Beets, onion, red & yellow cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, string beans, eggplant, zucchini, & garlic

...turns into this...





...with just some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and the help of the oven? This is a relatively cheap meal as well, especially if you can shop at a farmer's market and get veggies at a fair price! You could really add almost any vegetable that could withstand roasting to this, we've also added golden beats and yellow squash. One could add any variety of potatoes, squash, portabello mushrooms, parsnips, carrots, herbs..the possibilities are endless.

I call this "Beuna Balsamic Roasted Veggies" because the first time I had this was at the dig house in Beuna, Germany, where we would tromp back after a long day digging in the sun (or thunderstorm, as the case may be), starving and cranky, and two very hardworking folk would cook up dinner for 15-20 people and make us all very very happy. My friends Jess and Nick from Britain were the ones that concocted this, and served it with pasta and an amazing homemade red sauce. I decided to serve it with whole wheat couscous (from Trader Joe's) with sweet plump raisins, as a contrast to the acidic, earthy flavors of the veggies.



Another meal enjoyed on our balcony


I am a lucky lucky girl: the zucchini, beets, onion, and string beans all came from my mother's and grandmother's gardens. :) I <3 being back in California!!