Roast Vegetable Lunch

I like to serve this warm with houmous in pitta bread, or add black olives and feta cheese for a lovely salad. Any vegetables in your fridge that are getting a bit soft would work well in this recipe. Especially good are tomatoes, peppers, onions and mushrooms.

Jo Lazzari, Manchester

Ingredients

Serves 4

450g mixed vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms
garlic
1 lemon, quartered

A good drizzle of Olive oil
Olive oil

Usually the darker green the oil, the richer the flavour.
- Extra virgin olive oil is good for drizzling on salads and should never be heated as this destroys the fine properties
- Lighter olive oil is good for adding to bread, or to flavour a salad or marinade for chicken, meat, fish or vegetables. Lighter olive oil can be gently heated and added to marinades and baking.
Ground Black peppercorns
Black peppercorns

Best used as a condiment.
They can be lightly crushed and used to spice up a creamy sauce or to coat fillet steak or chicken breasts.
- Although it might seem odd, grinding black pepper over a bowl of strawberries enhances the flavour of the fruit.
- Pepper that is pre-ground is not fresh tasting and often has other ingredients mixed in.
- Choose the type of mill that suits you, and if you want coarser pepper you can loosen the screw on the top of the mill or crush the seeds in a pestle and mortar
160g Feta Cheese
Cheese

Add to eggs for omelettes, grate onto soups or salads.
- Parmesan often goes rock hard or becomes horribly sweaty. Ideally, all cheese should be stored in a cool, airy place at a temperature of 46-50F/8-10C. However, most of us put it straight into the fridge. This is fine providing the cheese is kept loosely wrapped in its own airtight container so it isn’t tainted by other foods.
- Store it in the salad drawer, which is not quite as cold as the rest of the fridge and use a micro plane for grating.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200° (400°F) mark 6.
Prepare the vegetables and cut into chunks. Put them into a roasting dish with the quartered lemons and garlic. Season well and drizzle liberally with olive oil. Cook in the oven under the vegetables are tender about 30-35 minutes.
Crumble the cheese and sprinkle amongst the vegetables. Serve warm with fresh bread.

Health Note

As well as being delicious in salads, tomatoes are extremely good for you. Many children prefer them cooked in sauces, as they can be quite acidic and bitter for some young tastes. The riper they are the sweeter they will be, kids love little baby or cherry tomatoes as little snacks Tomatoes are a great source of both potassium, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E.

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