By Week 314. Spring in Baton Rouge. The azaleas blooming, the crawfish running, the pit smoking. Rémy's cooking club at school expanding to 10 students, shrimp remoulade. The ordinary week that is not ordinary because no week is ordinary when you\'re paying attention. Every Tuesday has a flavor. Every Wednesday has a color. Every Thursday has a roux that turns a shade darker than the Thursday before, and the darkening is the living, and the living is the cooking, and the cooking is everything.
Made a dish that the family loved and that I\'ll add to the rotation: the kind of food that doesn\'t need a story because the food IS the story, told in butter and cayenne and the particular love that goes into a meal made by a man who has been making meals for seven years and who still, STILL, finds something new in the old techniques. The new is in the old. The old is in the new. The roux turns. The week ends. The food remains.
That second paragraph wrote itself in the kitchen on Thursday — the one about food that doesn’t need a story because it is the story. This colorful vegetable medley was exactly that: nothing flashy, nothing that needs explaining, just good seasonal produce treated with care and cooked the way you cook when you’ve been doing this long enough to trust your instincts. With Rémy’s cooking club growing and the whole house buzzing with spring energy, I wanted a side that matched the season — bright, alive, and worth adding to the permanent rotation.
Colorful Vegetable Medley Side Dish
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
- 1 medium yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced into half-moons
- 1 medium yellow squash, sliced into half-moons
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Instructions
- Heat the pan. Heat olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat until shimmering.
- Start the hard vegetables. Add the bell peppers and broccoli florets to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4–5 minutes until they begin to soften and pick up some color.
- Add the squash. Add the zucchini and yellow squash. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. Stir and cook another 5–6 minutes until the squash is tender but not mushy.
- Add garlic and tomatoes. Push the vegetables to the edges of the pan and add the garlic to the center. Cook for 30 seconds until fragrant, then stir everything together. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook 2–3 minutes more until they just begin to burst.
- Finish with butter and herbs. Remove the pan from heat. Add the butter and stir until melted and glossy. Toss in the fresh parsley and thyme and give everything a final stir.
- Serve immediately. Transfer to a serving dish and serve hot as a side alongside your main course.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 95 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 9g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 180mg