Veggies Have Their Own Oil

I added too much oil here. Oops!

Vegetables have natural oil we strangle with butter, margarine or olive oil. I don’t understand recipes that call for smothering corn with butter. What are you eating then, corn or butter?

What is cooking? Somehow, we think it is a pot on the stove. This summer, some kids will go to fishing camps. They’ll catch fish and grill it on an open fire. Kids in the Caribbean catch it in the ocean and grill it on higher ground.

Boys that tend cattle in Africa grill corn and eat it while on duty. In a scene in the movie Buck and the Preacher, the preacher (Harry Belafonte) roasted a rabbit. Buck (Sidney Poitier) stole it.

Carrots, which are not my favorite die after boiling, but they crack open with glee when grilled. Crunchy is the word. Plantain, which is a sister to bananas is common in West Africa. They grill it. It has natural oil that sticks to a roasting pan, so I line it with foil. Nature has its way, that’s why even hard vegetables like sweet potatoes have oil. In countries lucky enough not to have Wi-Fi, they dig them from the ground, wash and grill them.

Your local supermarket probably calls them Japanese yam, purple in colour with white flesh inside. California sends a lot of sweet potatoes to Canada. Most are pink outside and inside. This summer, wash off the soil and put them on the grill, whole.

How about butternut? Cut it in half, remove seeds and grill. The point is, cooking does not necessarily mean four tablespoons of olive oil, butter, salt and pepper. Vegetables have natural oil, so does meat and fish.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.