How's your January cooking going? Reader lasiciliana said that she is trying to eat more vegetables and grains this month, and we are with her wholeheartedly. Our affinity for vegetables reaches past health factors, though, and into those of convenience. There are a few vegetables that, when treated right, can make a quick, easy meal all by themselves. Here are five ways to make a quick, tasty (and, incidentally, rather healthy) meal out of single vegetables.
These are mostly recipes for roasted vegetables, which is one of the quickest ways to cook a dense vegetable and also to add satisfyingly full and rich flavor without meat or a lot of oil.
• 1 A head of roasted cabbage - When we posted this we didn't realize that the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living had an almost identical recipe this month! Roasted cabbage is in the air, and it smells great! Chop up a head of cabbage, roast it with a little bacon, and you really don't need anything else to eat. It's so satisfying and filling!
• 2 One roasted beet, with goat cheese sandwiched between slices - We love this idea for making a meal for one out of a single beet. Beets are dense and satisfying, and we think this would make a great weeknight supper. (Here's how to roast beets.)
• 3 Sweet and spicy roasted acorn squash - One acorn squash is a great meal for one person. I like to sprinkle half of the squash with spicy curry powder, and then the other half with brown sugar and cinnamon. Then it's like a sweet and spicy dessert and dinner combo!
• 4 Brussel sprouts braised in cream - My current favorite winter dish. A bowl of these and you won't need any bread, rice, or side dishes at all.
• 5 Roasted cauliflower - Like cabbage and beets, cauliflower gets this lovely rich flavor when roasted, and it doesn't take much to make a meal out of it. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Parmesan, and add in a few cloves of garlic. A meal!
Do you have other ways that you make a meal out of just one vegetable?
Related: Beets to Cabbage: 20 Recipes for Roasted Vegetables
(Images: See linked posts for full image credits)
How to Bake a Potato: Three Easy Methods
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
10 No-Fail Decor Tricks & Tips for Small Spaces
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Hey, with the cream braised brussels, you want bread to sop up the lovely sauce! You're not hungry for it, of course but it just tastes SO good!
love shredded cabbage in chow mein, pan fried cauliflower with just little oil and salt
I am really fond of celery root salad -- you can eat it warm or cold. Here is an easy recipe: http://bit.ly/6m4Krp
A shout out to me? yea!!!
tonight's dinner consisted of steamed cabbage that I then sauted in a little olive oil with some garlic and onion until it was caramalized and yummy....I then tossed it with some cooked whole grain spaghetti. Served it with a little chopped parsley, fresh cracked pepper and some grated romano cheese.
YUM
We often have these brussels (or other brussels.. but these are the current favorite) as a 1-veggie meal:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/12/balsamic-braised-brussels-with-pancetta/
1. Shredded carrot salad with a very light vinaigrette, toasted nuts and/or seeds, raisins, avocado, citrus . . .
2. A really good roasted sweet potato is the most satisfying thing ever.
3. Pile of sauteed kale w/ garlic.
Gotta second the roasted sweet potato. A little butter, some maple syrup...perfection.
lasiciliana, your recipe sounds similar to my nana's halushki (cabbage and noodles).
Parboiled cabbage sauteed with onions in butter and mixed with egg noodles. Cheap, simple, and so very filling.
Honestly, I'm not sure any of those would satisfy me alone for a dinner. I'd be hungry an hour later! As side dishes they sound great, though.
I often have cabbage and bacon - very traditional in England, and especially in Ireland - but I fry up very small pieces of bacon, then put in finely chopped cabbage - serve run through with a bit of cream, little bit of salt, lots of pepper - and away you go! Perfect with roast chicken - but I have been known to make this last thing at night as a snack. I'll have to try it roasted to see how it compares.
Love a simple baked potato with all the fixins for dinner.
Eggplant. Cut in half lengthwise. Poke a few slits in the cut sides and insert bits of garlic (is that a second vegetable?). Put cut-side down on a baking tray coated with a bit of olive oil and roast at 350 F till the halves collapse. Scoop out, add salt and pepper, a few golden raisins, a bit of garam masala and a drizzle of olive oil. Lovely.
Oh my gosh, the roasted cabbage recipe and Emeril's roasted cauliflower recipe are both so incredibly good! I've definitely made a meal out of the cauliflower before on a bed of greens!
I think a pot of beans is also a wonderfully filling dinner. OR portabella mushroom heads stuffed with a mixture of the mushroom stem, bread crumbs, bacon crumbles, parmesan, herbs, etc. Yum!
I want to throw my vote in with sweet potato, though I prefer salt, pepper, and a bit of butter on mine.
I love green beans but never have them alone, they usually get a dish with pasta or something else. But they freeze so very well.
Does broccoli soup count?
I second the recommendation for SKs brussels and pancetta. It's not high on the convenience factor, but totally makes up for it in deliciousness and heartiness. I would serve this to a guy as a meal and not be concerned about it not being enough to keep him full.
We had roasted sweet potatoes with butter salt and pepper, mixed with brown rice and lettuce on the side, with some Goddess dressing. My favorite orange comfort food--although I'm going to try the pumpkin risotto tonight I saw on design*sponge!
Verily - my cabbage and pasta recipe is a knockoff of a cabbage and noodle dish I saw prepared at a dinner on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and I do believe the woman making it at the diner was using her grandmother's recipe as well.
i thought I would use the whole grain pasta instead of eggnoddles to make it a little more hearty.
i might add in some pancetta, or some cooked crumbled proscuitto in it next time if I have any on hand.
a large baked potato with salsa and sour cream has been my lunch or dinner many times. YUM
Just one vegetable is a grand thing. Some of my favorites are not exactly whole meals, but they make good side dishes:
Radishes with cream cheese, salt, and pepper (idea from Apartment Therapy, of course).
In the summer, when I need a quick side dish with a meal, I poke holes in a zucchini and microwave it, covered, for 5-10 minutes, then chop it into rounds and eat it with salt and pepper, or sometimes with salad dressing. One really big zucchini is good stuffed with rice and salsa, too.
Orangette's braised cabbage is also an amaaaaazing vegetable dish that has you wanting to eat it alone, nothing more. (Although it is tasty with a sausage.)
http://orangette.blogspot.com/2006/01/tender-is-cabbage.html
Baked endive! yummmmmm....