Baked Autumn Vegetables

Today's recipe is one of those very useful ones for any time of the day. It can be served alone as a vegetarian or luncheon dish, or it can accompany pan-fried salmon or firm white fish, a fillet steak or a grilled chicken breast.

It's simplicity itself to put together and makes a nice mix of colours and textures. You can also add vegetables such as beans or broccoli, but it pays to blanch them in boiling water for a couple of minutes first (or microwave them).

1 each red, green, yellow and orange peppers
3 medium red onions, roots trimmed, quartered lengthwise
3 zucchini, topped, tailed and sliced thickly diagonally
200g button mushrooms (brown and white) quartered
1 medium eggplant cut into 1cm chunks
10 cloves garlic, peeled
4 or more tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
6 baby leeks, sliced diagonally

Place all the vegetables in a large roasting pan and sprinkle with some olive oil (I used basil-infused oil) and the juice of one lemon. Add some fresh herbs, chopped - basil, tarragon, thyme, marjoram, parsley or whatever you have available. Add salt and freshly ground pepper.

Pre-heat the oven to 210C. Cook the vegetables, shaking the pan once or twice, for 12 minutes. Sprinkle with a little balsamic vinegar and some fresh basil and serve immediately.

This dish is nice with some toasted ciabatta bread to mop up the juices.