Roast vegetables in foil
Roasting is the oldest culinary process known to mankind for thousands of years. Modern culinary specialists willingly use it in the hope of preserving in their dish the maximum of the beneficial properties bestowed by nature. Vegetables baked in foil are a great side dish, in addition, they can become the basis of one of the most vitamin salads - vinaigrette. They are also suitable as an independent dish for lovers of a healthy separate diet.
Why foil?
The use of aluminum foil in cooking successfully combined tradition with the achievements of technical thought. The foil reflects more than 95% of thermal energy, creates a layer that protects products from the direct effects of fire. Any vegetables are suitable for roasting. It is important that their size is approximately the same, otherwise small specimens will burn, and large ones will remain raw. The selected ingredients must be thoroughly washed and dried so that there is no excess water during baking.
Benefits of baking in foil:
- lack of exposure not only to fire, but also to oil;
- preservation of all trace elements and vitamins contained in the products;
- unlimited field for culinary experiments with spices;
- preservation of the shape of baked vegetables.
When using foil for baking vegetables, you need to follow a few rules.
- Cooking time is no more than 20 minutes, provided that the temperature is kept at around 180 degrees. At lower rates, you need to remember to increase the time.
- Wrap products with the shiny side of the foil in and the matte side out.This will fully reveal the taste of the product and protect it from burning.
- Wrap the vegetables loosely so that air remains, this will reduce the risk of burning and create conditions for them to evenly process the resulting steam.
- The bundle should be as airtight as possible.
- It is better to wrap not in one, but in two or three layers of foil. This will protect against gusts that can cause the vegetables to burn.
Subtleties of cooking
At the stake
A roll of foil weighing up to 200 g will easily fit in a backpack, it is easy to take it on a hike, hunting, fishing or family picnic. There should be plenty of charcoal for roasting vegetables. You can buy a bag of charcoal in advance at the store, but it is not always convenient to drag it along with other luggage on yourself. It is best to kindle a fire in a shallow hole, it will gradually fill with hot coals, it is in them that you need to bury bundles of foil with vegetables.
There are several ways to roast vegetables in foil on the coals of a fire.
- Packages with vegetables are carefully buried in coals so as not to damage the layers of foil. If there are few coals, then you will have to use the methods described below.
- Charcoal grilling. In this case, the bundles are not buried under a layer of hot coals, but laid out on top of them. The bundles will heat up unevenly and will need to be rotated from time to time.
Hot coals with firewood burning on top of them, as it were, are surrounded by bundles with vegetables around the perimeter. They also need to be turned from time to time with the colder side to the fire.
In the oven
Prepared vegetables are laid out on square pieces of foil. The edges of the foil are wrapped up and curled. The resulting bags are placed on the oven grate so that the twists are on top.This will prevent the juice from leaking, which, if it gets on the bottom surface of the oven, will cause an unpleasant odor.
The result will be no worse if you spread the bags on a baking sheet. It must be located at the top of the oven, away from heating elements or an open flame, otherwise the side of the vegetables that will lie on the surface of the baking sheet may burn. The temperature in the preheated oven should be set between 180-210 degrees. Cooking time - 15-30 minutes, depending on the size of the bags and the set temperature. Readiness can be checked by piercing the vegetable together with the foil with a toothpick or knife: ready-made vegetables are pierced without effort.
If you decide to make a vinaigrette, then oven-baked vegetables are the perfect solution for this dish. It is from these ingredients that it will be both tastier and healthier. Potatoes are baked a little faster than beets, this should be remembered when choosing root vegetables for vinaigrette.
After baking, finely chop the prepared ingredients. We fill in accordance with the recipe with vegetable oil, add the necessary spices. Vitamin, tasty and unusually fragrant vinaigrette is ready!
in a frying pan
The basic rule of this method: the vegetables in the pan should be placed freely, without touching each other. In the process of baking, moisture from vegetables will begin to actively evaporate. If they lie too tightly, then the prepared foods will simply boil soft. Well, in this case, do not forget about the oil, they still need to grease the pan.
It is not necessary to wrap the ingredients in foil in the presence of a frying pan: it is used to cover pre-cut vegetables on top, like a lid. Bake vegetables in a pan for at least 30 minutes.The enchanting aromas filling the apartment will tell you about their readiness.
See below for how to bake vegetables in foil for a picnic.