This isn't really a recipe so much as a method we use most nights between June and October, whenever the garden is producing faster than we can keep up with. Whatever's ready gets pulled, washed at the outside tap, and ends up in one big pan. The version below is the late-summer one — courgette, beans, and the first of the tomatoes — but the method holds for almost any combination of what's actually growing.
We started cooking this way at Four Trees, out of necessity more than any grand philosophy — you cook with what's in front of you when you're feeding a household from the garden. It's stuck with us because it's honestly better than anything we'd plan in advance. The vegetables get to be the point of the meal instead of a side to something else.
Ingredients
- 1 medium courgette, sliced into half-moons
- A large handful of green beans, topped and tailed
- 2 handfuls cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 red onion, cut into wedges
- 3 cloves garlic, skin on, lightly crushed
- A few sprigs each of thyme and rosemary
- Olive oil, salt, black pepper
- A block of feta or similar salty cheese (optional)
- Crusty bread, to serve
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Toss the courgette, beans, and onion with a generous glug of olive oil, salt, and pepper directly on a large roasting tray.
- Tuck the garlic cloves and herb sprigs among the vegetables. Roast for 20 minutes.
- Pull the tray out, scatter the tomatoes over the top — no need to stir them in, they'll blister where they sit — and if you're using feta, nestle the block right into the middle of the tray.
- Return to the oven for another 12–15 minutes, until the courgette is tender at the edges and the tomatoes have started to collapse.
- Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins and stir it through everything on the tray. Taste and adjust the salt.
- Serve straight from the tray with crusty bread for mopping up the juices.
The measurements here are honestly a guide. If the garden gave you more beans than courgette that week, use more beans.
Notes
This works just as well with whatever you've got instead — aubergine, peppers, the last of the spring peas. The one rule we've kept is roasting the harder vegetables first and adding anything delicate, like tomatoes or leafy greens, in the final stretch so they don't turn to mush.