Fire Roasted Vegetables

Why let a good fall fire go to waste? Why not cook some vegetables right in the fire? It seems caveman-like to cook food on the coals, but this project was fun and delicious. You may be surprised to find squash, beets, yams, carrots, and corn deliciously sweet after a few minutes of cooking directly on the coals.

Likely, our ancestors cooked whatever they foraged directly on the coals of a fire. We no longer have to do this to survive. What used to be a necessity is now something special; fire-roasted vegetables are on the luxury list.

Here are the directions for roasting vegetables directly on coals.

Equipment and tools

• • • A wood or charcoal fire that has burned down to six inches or more of coals (15 centimetres)
    • Axe
    • Long stainless-steel barbecue tongs
    • Fireproof gloves
    • Paring knife
    • Container to receive cooked vegetables (I used disposable aluminum baking pans)
    • Serving spoon (for scooping out the cooked vegetables)

Ingredients

A selection of your favourite tubers, roots, corn still in the husks and squash. I used purple yams, russet potatoes, butternut squash, beets, carrots, yellow onions, and corn. You could easily add peppers to this list too. (Peppers will blister and char quickly. Once roasted, cover them to steam. After a few minutes the charred skins can be slipped off and the peppers sliced to be used in whatever dish you desire.)

Method

1. Cut enough wood to fill a fire pit. Most of the logs should be cut to forearm size so they burn quickly to coals.

2. Wash the vegetables, scrubbing their skins with a vegetable brush.
3. Soak the corn in cold water for an hour or so prior to cooking.
4. Poke holes in the squash skin, potatoes, and yams. (I ignored this advice once as a teenager just to see what would happen. My mother made me clean the oven by hand, even though Self-Cleaning was printed below the word Kenmore on the face of the stove. I have poked my vegetables without fail ever since.)
5. Once the wood is burned to an even bed of red coals, add vegetables using tongs and fireproof gloves

6. Turn the vegetables over every 5-6 minutes to char on all sides.

7. Test the vegetables for doneness by removing it from the fire with tongs and gently inserting the tip of a paring knife. When the knife slides in without much resistance, the vegetables are done.
8. The corn took ten minutes, carrots 20 and the larger vegetables and squash took 45.

9. Remove the vegetables to a fire-proof container (I used an aluminum foil baking pan).
10. Cut each vegetable in half lengthwise and serve by scooping out the cooked (uncharred) part with a spoon or trim the char from the vegetables with a paring knife.

Granted, roasting vegetables on live coals takes a certain fearlessness. Live fire is a human-defining attribute we take for granted. Like so many distant early lessons, our urban polished lifestyle and sanitary environment removes us from our historical context. We sometimes forget there was a time that we did all our cooking on the fire. So light up a great fire. And roast up some veggies.