Roast or Grilled Vegetables

This is a good way of using up a mix of vegetables in your fridge. They look wonderful served on a big oval vintage platter. If you prefer to make your own hollandaise sauce follow this link for an easy foolproof technique.
Recipe for Roast or Grilled Vegetables
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 3 peppers (any colour)
- 3 courgettes
- 3 aubergines (the Japanese type are less bitter)
- 16 shitake mushrooms
- 2 sticks of celery
- 500g (just under a pound) baby asparagus
- 4 large plum tomatoes
- 80 ml/⅓ cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 4 or 5 garlic cloves, squashed, still in their skin
- generous amount, chopped, of whatever fresh herbs you have to hand
- smoked salt and Indonesian long black pepper
- 400g/14 oz fresh ready-made hollandaise sauce (or you can make it – follow this link)
Method
- Preheat the oven if you are roasting to 210°C, or get your grill going. You can also do this on a ribbed griddle pan over the hob, or, of course on a barbeque.
- Slice the peppers having deseeded them, brushed them with olive oil and seasoned them and get them cooking.
- Slice the courgettes and the aubergines, clean and trim the mushrooms, de-string and chop the celery, oil and season the lot and add them to the cooking tray, remembering to turn the vegetables already cooking.
- Break off the asparagus (it ‘snaps’ at just the right place on the stem in the most miraculous way), de-core and quarter the tomatoes lengthways, oil and season and add to the rest.
- Throw in the garlic cloves and the herbs and continue to cook for about seven minutes.
- Serve with the gently warmed hollandaise sauce.

Vegetable Attack, by the Tofu Love Frogs