Roasted Caramelized Cauliflower, Squash and Onion

This is a great side dish although, I’ve been known to gobble this up in lieu of a main. I find the flavors quite addictive and the roasting on high heat turns the onions sweet and delectable. In addition, if you wish to make this more of a main, you can add cheese at the last few minutes and melt on top.

This is quick and easy to prepare, it just takes about half an hour to roast in the oven.

Start off with the cauliflower

Break the cauliflower apart into flowerets after chopping off the hard fibrous stem. Wash and clean them well.

Take your onion, peel and halve and then you will cut into medium chunks. Not too small or they will cook too quickly.

You further chunk them and prepare your squash.

Scrub well, no need to peel, chop off heads and tails of the squash and cut into nice sized chunks. Next put all the veggies right on two rimmed baking pans, no parchment paper since you will be using oil and want the veggies to caramelize, so they need to touch the pan.

Divide the veggies so they have room for one layer on each pan, try not to crowd them. Then directly on the baking tray, put the oil, salt, thyme and pepper. I like to use olive oil for this recipe to amp up the flavor but you can use mild oil if you prefer.

Using your hands (or hands in latex type gloves) toss the veggies with the oil and spices.

Heat the oven to 400 F (takes about 15 minutes, wait till oven is properly hot or you won’t get the caramelisation) and put the pans in the oven for 15 minutes, rotating and switching them (moving upper pan to down and turning and vice versa) and roasting an additional 15 minutes till the veggies look browned and delish.

Don’t sweat it if only part of the vegetables are browned, that’s fine.

At this point, if you wish to top with cheese, now’s your moment, sprinkle some grated cheese on top and put back in for a minute or two (shouldn’t take much longer than that) to just melt the cheese.

Either way, serve on a platter and feel righteously healthy but devilishly delicious as well. Lovely served with brown or basmati rice.

Roasted Caramelized Cauliflower, Squash and Onion

2 nice sized heads of cauliflower, broken into florets and washed and cleaned
4-6 medium onions (they shrink so you can be generous), peeled
4 medium squash, scrubbed not peeled
2-3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil, like canola
2 tablespoons thyme, fresh if you can get it, if dried, 1 tablespoon should do it
1-2 teaspoons salt
1 cup grated cheese – cheddar or mozzarella or mild cheese – optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Take the peeled onion and halve and then cut into biggish chunks. Take the squash and cut off their head and tails and chunk. Lastly take the cauliflower florets and put all the veggies together in one layer on two rimmed baking trays directly, no parchment paper. Right on the veggies on the tray, drizzle the oil and sprinkle the spices and using your hands, toss it all together.

Place the trays into the hot oven and roast for 15 minutes, then rotate the trays and switch top to bottom so they get equal heat in the oven and roast an additional 15 minutes. Check close to end of time to make sure it doesn’t burn. If you wish, you can sprinkle the veggies at this point with grated cheese and replace in oven for a minute or two just till it melts. Serve as is on a platter or with or on top of brown rice or basmati rice.