Roasted Vegetables - Spanish Style

Canapé De Escalivada

This is a traditional Spanish canapé. A canapé is just vegetables cook with a touch of fine olive oil. They are healthy, low in calories, and easy to make.

First, I cut up a bunch of green bell peppers, onion, and zucchini. I arranged them in a large baking pan and roasted them for about 20 minutes. I then took the vegetables out of the tray and drizzled some grapeseed oil over them. After tossing the oil, the vegetables were ready to serve. The recipe calls for olive oil, but I used grapeseed oil because it tastes the same and is healthier. I also left out some of the vegetables because my family doesn't like them.

the vegetables before they were roasted

Here's the recipe so you can try it yourself!

                                        1 small eggplant                   1 tablespoon minced parsley

                                        1 red bell pepper                   1 tablespoon thyme leaves

                                        1 green bell pepper                kosher or sea salt

                                        1 medium onion, peeled        freshly ground pepper  

                                        1 tablespoon virgin                1 large zucchini, skin on

                                           olive oil  

                                         Freshly squeezed lemon juice   

Arrange the eggplant, red and green peppers, and onion in a roasting pan. Roast in a 500￮ F oven for about 20 minutes, turning the eggplant and peppers once. Cool. Skin, core, and seed the peppers. Peel the eggplant, cut in half lengthwise, and scrape out most of the seeds. Cut the peppers, eggplant, and onion roughly into julienne strips about 1 inch long. Place in a bowl and gently mix in the olive oil, a few squeezes of lemon juice, the parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Lightly sprinkle the zucchini rounds with salt and let sit a few minutes. Top the zucchini rounds with the vegetable mixture. Serve at room temperature.     

    the finished vegetables

What's your favorite vegetable, and how do you like it prepared?

Casas, Penelope. New York: Knopf Doubleday Group, 1996. Print.