Sweet & Sour Sheet Pan Dinner

I haven't done a sheet pan in a while, possibly because it's kind of warm to turn on the oven.  But, it was bread-baking week and it was going to be on half the day anyway, so I decided to throw in some roasting veggies at the end.

I do miss when I used to go grocery shopping twice a week, on cooking days.  Ultimately, I spend less and plan more this way, but it means I have to strategize my fresh produce usage.  I used the cucumber and ripe tomatoes at the start of the week and the root vegetables and brassicas at the end.  It's all about what stores best.  For the mushrooms, I bought whole instead of sliced and crossed my fingers they wouldn't go bad.

As I continue to decide what I want to try pressure canning, I'm looking for ways to open and use store-bought canned goods.  Up this week was kidney beans.  I thought they would make a nice, meat-like addition to a vegan meal.  Some of the Brussels sprouts I bought were kind of icky by the time I got to this, so I emptied the rest of a bag of edamame beans from the freezer to green it up.  When I pulled the pan out of the oven, the wonderful colors and contrasts convinced me it was the right choice.

I opened a jar of home-canned sweet and sour sauce to complete this dish.  You can make your own with my recipe or buy your favorite brand.

1 lb carrots
1 lb Brussels sprouts
8 oz whole or sliced mushrooms
1 small onion (red or white) or *1 bunch green onions
1 Tb olive oil
*1 15 oz can kidney beans
*1 C shelled edamame
1 to 1-1/2 C sweet and sour sauce
rice for serving

1.  Preheat oven to 375º.  Line a baking sheet with parchment for easy cleaning.

2.  Wash and peel carrots.  Cut into desired shapes.  I went for round and about 1/2" thick.  Place in a medium bowl.  Wash and trim bottoms off sprouts and add to bowl.  If whole, remove stems from mushrooms, wash, and cut into bite-sized pieces, like halves or quarters.  Wash onion, peel, and slice into 2" pieces.  For a red or white, that's sliced and cut in quarters.  For green, just 2" lengths.

3.  Once all the veggies are in the bowl, toss with olive oil.  If your sauce is on the bland side for you, toss in a bit of chili flakes.  Spread evenly on the baking sheet.

4.  Roast veggies for 20 minutes.  This is a good time to make your rice.  Drain and rinse kidney beans and edamame.  My edamame were from frozen, so I just rinsed them with the kidneys to defrost.  Add them to the baking sheet and continue to roast until the veggies are as done as you like them, about 10 more minutes.

5.  Serve veggies with rice and spoon over the sauce.

Difficulty rating  π