A chef from Santorini, Greece showed me a very simple way to prepare vegetables, leveraging the local produce he had bought from the farmer’s market that day. I can’t wait to do this at home with my own vegetables.
He took a metal pan with sides about 4″ tall and added sliced and chopped vegetables into the pan. In this particular dish, he added red onions, local red tomatoes, carrots, purple eggplant, white eggplant and zucchini. Notice that he made the eggplant and zucchini pieces relatively larger than the carrots because they cook faster. He sprinkled some Himalayan salt and freshly minced thyme over the top, finishing it with generous amounts of virgin olive oil with white balsamic vinegar. (He combined the oil and vinegar together before putting it on the vegetables, but it’s not necessary).
I had never heard of white balsamic vinegar before but according to the chef, choosing it over red balsamic is mainly an aesthetic choice. If you have light colored food, adding it does not distract you from the colors of your food.
He then took a sheet of parchment paper, soaked it in water, squeezed out the excess water and placed it on top of the vegetables, completely covering them.
In a 200 degree oven, he baked the vegetables for about 30 minutes and then they were done. So easy! They were absolutely delicious and fresh, as is much of the traditional Greek diet. This dish just has be healthy for you.
