Roasted

When I waste food I get a case of the guilties. It's most likely generational since I grew up being constantly reminded of the "starving children in China" and my mom was often referred to as "thrifty". As you can imagine, I'm a proud member of the clean plate club and a sympathetic cooker of anything in my fridge that looks like it's on it's last legs. That was the case last week when I noticed my once crisp eggplant and zucchini had almost surpassed their shelf life, and half a Spanish onion was suffocating in the saran wrap it was covered in. I had to put these babies out of their (or my) misery and decided to roast them. Roasted veggies are a great snack and make an interesting accompaniment with sandwiches or AS sandwiches.


Roasted Eggplant, Zucchini and Onion


Pre heat oven to 400 degrees
Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil


Peel and slice medium size eggplant into 1/4 inch rounds
Slice zucchini into 1/4 inch rounds
Slice 1/2 of a large sweet onion into 1/4 inch half moons


Prep baking sheets with cooking spray and lay vegetables in a single layer on top. I used one sheet for the eggplant and one for the onions and zucchini. Spritz the top of the vegetables with additional cooking spray and season liberally with kosher salt and lemon pepper. Place in the pre heated oven for 20 minutes. At this point the zucchini and onions should be done. Remove to a dish to cool. The eggplant will need another 10 minutes to finish cooking. Turn eggplant rounds over, to ensure browness on both sides. No need to season the eggplant again. When they are soft, yet browned, remove them to the dish with the zucchini and onion to cool.





The next morning when I was putting together my feed bag for work (that line's for you Carol) I decided to make a sandwich with these good looking vegetables. I took half a slice of lavash (I told you you'd be hearing a lot about this bread), and spread about 1 T of Alouette Light garlic and herb cheese on the bread. Then I layered the vegetables to cover about 2/3 of the bread. When you're making roll ups, you don't want to cover the entire surface with your filling, because as you roll it up, the filling rolls out the back end.





Roll the lavash up, and the creamy cheese acts as a glue on the edges. Now doesn't this look yummy? It was a delicious little snack for me and could easily become a meal with a bowl of soup or a crunchy salad.





And speaking of crunchy, that was the one thing that was missing on this lovely little roll up. Not that it wasn't fabulous as is, but a little crunch would have been nice. So next time I'll try some fresh red pepper slices or a few crisp lettuce leaves. If you have any crunchy ideas, please pass them along.


After tasting and enjoying the flavors of the 3 veggies and the garlic cheese, the next thing to morph out of this combo might to be a roasted vegetable cheese dip or spread. I'll keep you posted.