The Roasted Vegetable

January 21, 2002
How best to highlight the flavors of vegetables in traditional dishes? Chesman, author of the James Beard Award–nominated The Vegetarian Grill, advocates roasting. She elaborates the secrets of the art in this cookbook-cum-reference volume. Some of the most useful material is not in the form of recipes, but in a thorough chart listing vegetables and their roasting times, as well as any special methods required (e.g., wrapping beets in foil). Side dishes are exceedingly simple: World's Best Green Beans are tossed with olive oil and salt, then roasted; Quick Roasted Corn receives much the same treatment. More complicated recipes combine various roasted components, such as an Indian Summer Pepper Relish with scallions and basil, and Cranberry-Nut Wild Rice Salad with a sherry vinegar and Dijon mustard vinaigrette. These dishes are not particularly labor-intensive, but they often split up what is traditionally a one-pot recipe, making preparation more involved. Lemon Risotto with Roasted Summer Vegetables, for example, requires roasting zucchini, summer squash, green beans and bell peppers while cooking the risotto on the stovetop. The book is mostly vegetarian, but not aggressively so—recipes such as Saffron Pasta with Roasted Peppers give the option of using chicken broth.

February 15, 2002
Chesman is the prolific author of more than a dozen cookbooks, including The Vegetarian Grill. Her recipes tend to be fresh, easy, and flavorful, and here she offers a delicious array of roasted vegetable dishes, from the World's Best Green Beans (when she started writing the book, she says, she never imagined that her kids would eat green beans as a snack!) to Roasted Potato Salad with Herbs and Parmesan Dressing to Linguine with Roasted Ratatouille. For most collections.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2002
Roasting vegetables adds rich, new flavor dimensions and makes eating them an exciting part of a meal rather than simply a nutritional obligation to be endured. "The Roasted Vegetable," by Andrea Chesman, is a purely vegetarian cookbook, but the book's appeal ought to extend far beyond those limited confines. Roasted Potatoes and Celery Root can pair with chicken, and a burger would be honored to accompany Chesman's snappy Blue Cheese, Roasted Beet, and Endive Salad. For those who want to stick to a vegetarian regime, Chesman includes recipes for tofu and tempeh enhanced with roasted vegetables.

(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)