Vegetable Medley

Serves 4 as side dish

Prep time: approximately 30 minutes ( 5 minutes active preparation).

It’s finally starting to feel like fall here, and I’m deep into thinking about holiday meals. I feel strongly about holiday meal vegetables (1) not adding to the “heaviness” of the meal and (2) being some people actually want to eat, rather than being obligatory. This side fits the bill, combining jalapeño garlic lemon oil with asparagus, bell peppers and corn.

2 red bell peppers, sliced

2 ears of corn, removed from the cob

1 lb asparagus, with woody ends removed

4 cloves garlic

1 jalapeño pepper

1 lemon, cut in half

2T olive oil

Salt and pepper

Photo credit Ken Kaushansky

Begin by roasting the vegetables. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, and arrange the bell peppers and asparagus on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 1T of olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until just shy of tender, or approximately 12 minutes.

While the vegetables are baking, make the flavored oil. Over medium low heat, ideally in a cast iron pan, add the remainder of the olive oil, the jalapeño, lemon (flesh-side down) and the garlic. Allow to fry in the oil until the garlic begins to brown, or about 1 minute. remove from oil.

Once the asparagus and bell peppers are out of the oven, finish cooking each on the stovetop by adding to the flavored oil for about 1 minute. I like to keep the asparagus and pepper separate at this point so I can arrange it the way I want on the platter. Once cooked, remove the asparagus and bell pepper, Then add the corn kernels to the oil for 30 seconds, sprinkling with salt and pepper. Sprinkle over top of the bell pepper asparagus and serve warm.