Cauliflower and Fennel Salad

It's not raw. It's roasted, and a thousand times better this way. I hope that by spring my love of raw vegetables will return, but until then this or a variant will have to do. 

The secret to great roasted vegetables is to overcook them. I think that once America figured out that boiling vegetables to death was doing them a disservice, the pendulum swung too far in the opposite direction, and now all our cooked vegetables are left with a little too much fight in them. If it crunches or squeaks, put it back in the oven. There is no law against over-roasting vegetables, and once you have oiled, salted, and baked them, they will bear a striking resemblance to the one "vegetable" Americans still can't get enough of, the French fry. When you taste roasted vegetables coming out of the oven you should want to just stand there and eat the whole tray. That's how you know they're done. 

I usually roast vegetables separately so I can take them out as they're ready. After a trip to the market, I roast as much as I can right away, and this inevitably results in it getting eaten just as quickly. Tonight I roasted cauliflower for maqloubeh, sliced fennel for Perrin's fennel salad, and shaved burdock root for a simmering dish on the stove. Somehow I ended up roasting it all instead and the results were fantastic. 

Burdock root, or gobo, is one of those vegetables you have probably never heard of unless you are Japanese or health-obsessed. Here is one article extolling its virtues, and here is another. It's fascinating to read about, but try it for the fun of it instead. It doesn't even look edible, so you're in for a nice surprise. 

Ingredients:
cauliflower, cored and cut into florets
fennel, thinly sliced
gobo, peeled and shaved like a pencil
olive oil
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Toss the cauliflower with olive oil and salt and spread it on a baking sheet. Repeat with the fennel and then with the gobo, roasting each one separately and removing them from the oven when they're done. Toss them all together and season with salt and pepper after you've tasted it. Add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar if you prefer a sweeter flavor, but if you are secretly pining for potato chips and French fries, leave that off and enjoy this as is.