How to Turn Any Vegetable Into a Delicious Smoky Sauce
The saddest food of the year is always the one you eat right after visiting your family for the holidays. Mine is usually more like cleaning a free-range fridge than real food, and I always have a lot of questions: Is this leftover curry too old to eat, or am I just a coward? Who ate all my cheese? Why didn’t I fill my suitcase with cookies?
I returned from a four day trip earlier this week and was greeted with a real scene. The cats were productive: they turned over the bowls of food and water that the nanny had only filled this morning, redistributed hats and gloves around the apartment, pushed my salt straight into the bin, and left exactly one feces on the stairs. After getting rid of all their hard work, the last thing I wanted to do was cook. Unfortunately it was lunchtime and the leftover ham sandwiches we packed were gone for a long time. I desperately wanted a tub of French onion sauce and some frills, but this time I did the big deal: I burned the vegetables and made the sauce for us.
Here are some facts: This is the time of year when a lot of people suddenly feel pressured to give a damn about ” clean food ” – or what fresh hell the Diet-Industrial Complex is preparing for 2019 – but no one is going to eat a healthy snack that tastes disgusting. This sauce elegantly permeates the igloo: it’s just charred vegetables mixed with tahini, water, and lemon juice, but like mutabbal or baba ganuj , it’s much more luxurious than the list of ingredients suggests. It’s incredibly simple and always tastes delicious no matter what vegetables you add, so even the darkest after-holiday fridge probably has all the ingredients you need. You deserve it.
Sauteed vegetables and tahini sauce
It couldn’t be easier: sauté the vegetable bejesus, stir in the lemon tahini sauce and inhale. Eggplant will always be my favorite food, but I’ve made it with great success with carrots, cauliflower, parsnips, beets, a platter of peppers and onions, sweet potatoes, cabbage and even red cabbage. If you know how to fry this dish it will work, so use whatever treasures you find in the back of the fresher vegetable drawer. I had a fennel head and two pitiful bunches of green onions and they made a delicious sauce.
Ingredients:
- At least 1 pound of vegetables, peeled and / or trimmed as needed (for highly shrinkable ingredients such as cabbage or mushrooms, use more than a pound)
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, more if needed
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- Juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
- 3/4 cup tahini or your favorite nut / seed oil
- 3/4 cup ice water, plus more if needed
- A handful of parsley, cilantro, mint, dill, basil, or a mixture (optional)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450ºF. Chop, tear, or cut the vegetables into slices about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in size. Grease a baking sheet with two or three tablespoons of oil, put the vegetables on it in an even layer and season with plenty of salt. Stir to coat the butter evenly, adding a little more if it feels too dry.
Roast vegetables for 30 minutes to an hour, turning once or twice to achieve an even browning. The exact time depends on your ingredients, but you want them to be dark brown and very soft. Don’t be afraid to set them on fire a little – charring makes the finished dish more difficult. Roast the vegetables as a final step, if desired, to make the outer surface even blacker.
While the vegetables are cooking, place the garlic, lemon juice, cumin (if using), and a large pinch of salt in the working bowl of a food processor. Whisk the mixture several times, then let the mixture sit for 15-20 minutes to combine all the flavors with the aroma. Measure 3/4 cup water into an easy-to-pour container and place ice cubes on top. Set aside.
To make the tahini sauce, pour the tahini into the lemon and garlic mixture in a food processor and stir until thick and thick , about 30 seconds to a minute. With the engine running, pour in about 3/4 cup ice cold water, a few tablespoons at a time, until the tahini sauce is creamy and a few shades lighter. (Different brands of tahini will require different amounts of water; proceed slowly and use what you need.) Try and season with more lemon juice, salt, and cumin if necessary.
Refrigerate fried vegetables until you can touch them with bare fingers. Transfer to a food processor and whisk to combine with the tahini sauce, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add any fresh herbs you like (I used two large handfuls of flat parsley), chop until smooth and taste. When you’re happy, transfer the sauce to a bowl, cover with plastic, and refrigerate until ready to eat.
Serve with crackers and crunch as part of a pasta for an appetizer, spread over sandwiches, use instead of mayonnaise in chicken or egg salad, add a spoonful to grilled meats, or pour potato chips directly into your mouth. Everyone loves to dip and there is nothing wrong with eating such a delicious dish.