Last Week I interviewed Ted Leo for this week’s paper (you can read the resulting story here). It was great to chat with Leo about his band, the new record, and the future of his career, but my favorite part of the conversation was when I got him talking about Bravo’s reality/competition television shows (he’s pro Project Runway and Top Chef and anti Top Design) and vegan cooking. I asked him for a favorite recipe, so he told me how to make great roasted beets.

And last night I did just that.

The ingredients:
3–4 decent-size beets, washed
2–3 cloves of garlic, whole & peeled
Olive oil
Fresh herbs (I went with thyme and rosemary)

Lay out some tinfoil and lay some parchment paper on top of that. Put cleaned, unpeeled beets in a vertical line across the middle of the parchment paper and drizzle some olive oil on them. Peel a couple of whole cloves of garlic and place them around, and lay out some herbs like thyme.

Then fold up the tinfoil and cinch it up at the top like you’re rolling up the top of a paper bag. Put it in the oven and bake it pretty high, around 400 degrees, for about 30 to 35 minutes. Pull ’em out. The skin pops right off and the beets get infused with the garlic and the herbs and taste great.

You can’t really tell in the end photo, but they looked really good. And smelled even better. And, as promised, they did taste great. Next time, though, I’ll probably splash some balsamic vinegar on them as well to give ‘em a little something extra.