Why are a restaurant's vegetables so much better than homemade ones?

so the reason why a

restaurant

's vegetable dishes typically end up way

better

than the

ones

we make at home is pretty simple it's just due to a difference in cooking philosophy okay they also just use a lot of fat no real way around that one so in today's video i'll first cover the difference between these two philosophies then i've got seven tips and five experiments that we're gonna go through so we can all learn how to make

better

roasted

vegetables

at home let's

break it down when a

restaurant

is making a vegetable dish their mission is typically how do i make this taste as good as possible so first they're probably going to start with the highest quality vegetable they can find secondly they have their roasting technique dialed in from start to finish and here's the kicker whether it's butter olive oil or lard they're probably using way more fat than you would ever dream of using at home for example i've absolutely loved the deep

fried brussels sprouts that i've had at

restaurant

s but i've never thought about making these at home so if you're like me when most of us are making a vegetable dish at home our mission is typically hey i'm trying to eat healthy so let's make some

vegetables

this may mean any vegetable that i happen to have on hand is

better

than no vegetable at all the technique becomes whatever gets this on my table as fast as possible and thirdly just a drop or two of oil should be plenty

right so now that we understand the difference between these two philosophies we're going to run through these seven tips which kind of help bridge the gap between them and i think you'll find the experiments pretty interesting as well because i'll kind of show you that you don't have to use like half a bottle of oil just to make your

vegetables

taste good tip number one salt is the seasoning not herbs or spices a lot of people tend to think that adding a bunch of spices or herbs

is what's going to make

vegetables

taste good but unless there is salt in some form along with that spice mix it's not going to and here's a quick experiment you can run take two batches of potatoes or whatever

vegetables

you want to one add salt and an identical amount of oil and then to the other add no salt but whatever spices you want i toss in a bunch of cumin cayenne pepper and turmeric now i'll be the first one to admit that the one with the spices definitely look more

enticing but they're actually nearly tasteless because they don't have any salt whereas the

ones

that are just plain oil and salt i could literally snack on these things all day now this is not to say you shouldn't bother using herbs or spices in fact quite the opposite add all you want what i'm saying with this tip is you need to appreciate the power of salt as noted in salt fat acid heat saminosurat explains that salt is the most powerful flavor enhancer and modifier for

example salt can reduce the perception of bitterness and enhance sweetness there's a reason why we add a sprinkle of salt to a chocolate chip cookie now our goal with roasted

vegetables

is to salt them to enhance their existing flavors and when eating a properly seasoned roasted vegetable you should think these were salted not these taste salty so anytime you cook anything you should be asking yourself these two questions first how am i going to salt this and secondly when am i going to

solve this because both answers are going to have a massive effect on our final dish so when it comes to how to add salt to the

vegetables

most commonly this will just be a big sprinkle of salt but you can consider using things like soy or fish sauce msg or any sauce or spice mix that has some salt content in it to answer the question of when am i going to add salt for most cooks it's typically just going to be right before but if you do have the time toss your

vegetables

with salt a couple

of hours before roasting or boiling them in salty water is going to help the salt internally season the

vegetables

which is really nice now the big mistake here would not be using any salt at all so you can always add it at the end if you have forgotten or undersalted somewhere earlier in the process so just choose the method and timing that works best for your kitchen but now let's talk fats tip number two use fats thoughtfully so before we get to some tips on how to make great roasted

veggies without feeling like you need to deep fry them we need to understand the two primary roles that fat plays when it comes to roasted

vegetables

so first it's a heat distributor and second it's a flavor distributor as well time for another quick experiment to explain separate out some halved brussels sprouts to a bowl along with a big pinch of salt and i'm also going to add equal parts of fresh minced rosemary and grated garlic as well now to one of these bowls i'm going to

add 15 grams or about a tablespoon of olive oil and the other bowl is going to get nothing before i place them on the pan and get them roasting in the oven the brussels sprouts without oil are just going to be cooked through the air in the oven but the

ones

with the oil that oil is actually going to heat up first and then distribute that heat to the brussels sprout and as kenji lopez alt notes in the food lab oil is not only a

better

heat distribution medium than naked air but it also fills in

the microscopic nooks and crannies that are left behind by the evaporating moisture so it's going to keep those roasted

vegetables

from turning shriveled and leathery so once these come out of the oven you can just see all that even browning and crispy edges that we got from the oil but just as important if not more important is the role that fat plays as a flavor distributor because these

ones

with the oil taste miles

better

than those without again as sameen points out in salt fat acid

heat fat coats the tongue allowing various aromatic compounds to stay in contact with our taste buds for longer periods of time this intensifies and prolongs our experience of these various flavors and you can really tell because the garlic and rosemary come through so

much

more in the brussels sprouts that had the oil on them so now that we understand how fats work you can see why

restaurant

s are going to add a fair bit of them to make the dishes taste good but good news for us is you don't

actually have to use as

much

as you think to get a dish that i would say is at least 80 if not 90 percent as good for me i'll typically measure out my oil i find even 15 to 30 grams or one or two tablespoons is plenty for a large sheet pan surely they're not going to be quite as good as the

ones

doused in that oil but remember we're home cooks we have different approaches another thing you could do is add some flavored oil after they come out which is going to give you those intense

flavors right at the end okay so i think we have salt and our fat covered definitely took a little bit more explaining but they are super important when it comes to roasted

vegetables

however the remaining five tips i have also can have a very big impact on how those

vegetables

are gonna come out of the oven tip number three embrace high heat and convection so what makes roasted

vegetables

truly great are those browning crispy bits you get all over that introduce those new roasty flavors now for

vegetables

to get brown and crispy we really need to dehydrate them and to do this you need to embrace the high heat now it depends a bit on what you are roasting but my standard roasting temperature is around 450 to 475 degrees fahrenheit with convection and then i'll often turn on the broiler to crisp them at the end usually 30 to 45 minutes at these temperatures is ideal for a lot of

vegetables

now another tactic that you can use is to add oil to the pan and preheat it with the oven then

you can prep those

vegetables

and toss them onto a hot pan where they will start browning

much

faster and this browning of the

vegetables

is caused by the mayor reaction which really starts happening at temperatures above 350 degrees fahrenheit on the exterior of the

vegetables

now for the second part of this tip if your oven has a convection setting or you have an air fryer definitely use it that hot air circulates around the

vegetables

making them crisp more efficiently there is a reason why

air fryers have become so popular they make killer roasted

vegetables

tip number four give the

vegetables

space and time many potentially great roasted

vegetables

just end up as steamed

ones

because either too many were crammed into the pan or they didn't have enough time to adequately brown and crisp and here's another experiment i've got two batches of identically salted and oiled sweet potatoes and on one side i squish them all together and then on the other side i spread them out

evenly and toss them into the oven to roast and after just 15 minutes we can clearly see the difference between the two pans the side that was spread out is already completely cooked through and is crispy on the edges while the other one is really just steamed sweet potatoes now i understand that you can't make as many if you have to space them out on one pan this is why you've got to get two pans and then just rotate them halfway through the cooking cycle i promise washing this extra

pan will be worth the effort now if you want to cram all the

vegetables

on there you can but don't pull them off early leave them in the oven for longer and especially if you're having trouble with

vegetables

sticking just let them go assuming the temperature is high enough and enough time has passed they should lift right off tip number five try parboiling so this is a technique that i primarily use with root

vegetables

like carrots sweet or regular potatoes and the process is simple

just fill a pot with water and add two large pinches of salt before bringing that to a boil once boiling toss in the

vegetables

and cook for roughly six to eight minutes before straining those off and tossing them onto a sheet tray and adding oil or whatever seasonings you want to then toss that in the oven and broil for about 10 to 15 minutes now the main advantages of this technique are overall faster cooking time yes there is going to be more hands down time but since we can use the broiler

to crisp them up knowing the inside is already cooked we don't have to wait like 30 or 45 minutes for those carrots to be ready and then secondly depending on the vegetable this can actually yield a

better

result as kenji lopez all points out in his book boiled up potatoes actually yield a

better

and crispier and brownie one now another big benefit of parboiling your

vegetables

is that you can actually store them and cook them straight from frozen which brings me to tip number six frozen

vegetables

are your friend now some

restaurant

s might be picking the finest

vegetables

from the morning's farmer's market but at home well if you have access 100 go for it don't be afraid of any

vegetables

that you happen to have lying around and this does include frozen

vegetables

here's a killer recipe that i made with this bag of frozen broccoli all i did was toss the broccoli into a bowl with some salt olive oil and black pepper before mixing that together now i preheated the

pan with oil in the oven then tossed on the five garlic cloves and that broccoli before roasting everything in the oven since it's frozen those ice crystals in the broccoli can actually steam up faster and it still has to go through that same basic dehydration process now this is after about 15 minutes and though we're starting to get some color remember tip number four give them more time so after 35 minutes i'm liking this balance of darkened and crispy bits but you could let them

go even further toss that broccoli into a bowl and a serve add a little grating of cheese and these were quite addictive and also this cheese leads to our seventh and final tip add flavor enhancers acid or sauces after roasting now if your

vegetables

taste great right out of the oven by all means just go and eat them but if you're thinking yourself this isn't that great or it definitely needs something don't give up this is where tip number seven really comes in handy try adding a

spritz of acid like lemon for brightness hit it with some more salt add fresh chopped herbs or combine all of these and make a dipping sauce to serve these roast potatoes i made a sauce with some non-fat plain greek yogurt a dollop of harissa paste some lemon juice cilantro salt and black pepper and mixed everything together i mean that's just one way to make a roasted potato experience even

better

all right everybody so that wraps up my roasted vegetable manifesto if you will so let me know

down in the comments which one of the tips was your favorite and if you like this style of video also the recipes will be up on the website and linked down below for you guys to check out if you want to but it's going to wrap it up for me in this video i'll catch you on the next one peace y'all you