Inviting any group of friends or family to eat the food you prepare can be an anxiety-provoking experience, but it can be made less so. Ina Garten is all about hosting stress-free dinner parties, so when she shares tips on ways we can cook with efficiency and get great results, we are ready to listen. Whether serving herb-roasted root vegetables in the winter or sprucing up summer veggies like roasted asparagus and green beans to spoon next to a grilled fish fillet, Garten recommends a hands-on approach.
She suggests tossing vegetables with olive oil and spices directly with your own fingertips. This technique puts the power of mixing right into your palms so that you can ensure — by the power of touch — that each morsel is perfectly coated with oil and seasoning. In addition to an even coat of every cut carrot, ensuring more even cooking, mixing up ingredients with your hands is a softer approach when compared to the shoveling of potatoes and broccoli florets with utensils. The result is a better-looking dish with all of the pieces intact. This is just one of Garten’s 7 top tips for perfecting roasted veggies.
Garten gives you permission to play with food
If Garten can dig her hands into bowls of raw vegetables to produce a delicious dinner, you can too. Flavorful roasted vegetables are a crowd-pleasing side and a reliable companion to many dishes, and with your careful preparation, will contribute to the kind of meal that ends up on the ‘Gram. Be sure to wash your hands before diving into your dish of cut and seasoned vegetables, and give those human mitts a good second rinse after you’ve finished your dirty work and oiled up the veggie pieces to satisfaction.
Once the vegetables are roasted and cooked, the risk of damaging more fragile pieces with sturdy utensils prior to plating is lower. While you may not want to plate the cooked pieces with your hands, scooping the now evenly roasted and seasoned vegetables onto clean serving dishes will fill you with the kind of pride Garten would surely approve of.
