Roast Your Tomatoes!!!

The first time I learned about throwing a bunch of beautiful cherry tomatoes on a sheet pan and roasting them, I was flabbergasted. I thought that sounded like such a waste of beautiful tomatoes. That was before I tried roasting my tomatoes. While there is very little better than a fresh, juicy, sweet tomato, roasted tomatoes are a revelation. Yes, I still love a raw tomato plain or in a nice salad, but this is a great recipe for when you want to change things up, and an even better recipe when you have tomatoes that are maybe just a little past their prime and not as good raw. The end result is salty, sweet, jammy, caramelized perfection.

Ingredients: Keep it Simple

This can be as simple or as complex as you want, but if you’re new to this, stick with salt and pepper. I’ll list an intermediate recipe, which is a slightly elevated salt and pepper variation—

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Himalayan pink salt
• Nutritional yeast
• Black Pepper
• Chipotle pepper powder (just a touch so as not to overpower)

All you have to do is toss all your ingredients together. Get your tomatoes nicely coated in olive oil and then sprinkle in your salt and pepper (and other accoutrements).

Roast ‘em on High

Throw your glistening tomatoes onto a baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees until they flatten out and develop some dark, brown coloring.

You can roast tomatoes in combination with other vegetables and the yummy tomato juice that seeps out in the roasting process will provide delicious flavor to all your other veg.

During COVID, it’s nice to have ways to use veggies that you maybe bought in a big grocery run at the beginning of the week and have since become a bit wilty or soft. Roasting with a healthy amount of olive and seasoning makes everything delicious. Trust me, your veggies will thank you.