Take It Cheesy with a Weeknight Celebration of Feta and Vegetables

My love of dairy runs deep. The sentence “I just want cheese for dinner” gets ample rotation in my kitchen conversations. So, to me, a meal where a block of creamy, tangy, melty feta takes center stage sounds like the perfect antidote for a midweek slump. Fortunately, the recipe also provides ample vegetables to keep me from going too far into a lactic haze.

This dish borrows a technique from the culinary wizards at ChefSteps.com with the employment of parchment paper in a skillet to create a nonstick surface. Those clever folks use the parchment as a medium to achieve crispy fish skin; this nifty trick also works well for burnishing an entire block of feta. A welcome bonus comes in the form of a super-easy cleanup.

The recipe lends itself easily to interpretation: Swap out the green vegetables for any roast-worthy root veggies, adjust the seeds and spices, even try a different cheese. The technique will work with halloumi, paneer, Narragansett Creamery Grilling Cheese, or even a log of chèvre. Just keep an eye on the bottom edge of the cheese, as different cheeses will cook at different rates, especially softer cheeses.

Jamie Samons wouldn’t eat a vegetable until she was 18 but has spent decades making up for lost time. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the flavors created by the admirable growers and producers who make Rhode Island delicious.