THICK-CUT VEGGIE FRIES

The best way to make fast, easy, thick-cut steak fries out of almost any vegetable is to use an apple slicer. Slice a small bit off of the bottom of the vegetable so it can stand upright on a cutting board. Then press the slicer down and through the vegetable, creating thick steak fries. And don’t throw out the core. Roast it, too!

Test Kitchen Notes

• Like knives, apple slicers go dull over time. Consider replacing an aging tool.

• For this to work, the vegetables can be no wider (at any point) than the diameter of your apple slicer. Standard models are 3½ inches in diameter. Measure yours before you shop, just to make sure.

• These recipes are made in a medium roasting pan. You can also use your oven’s broiler pan (if the oven is old enough to have come with one). Or you can use a medium lipped sheet pan, although the lower sides may cause the tops of the vegetables to darken more quickly—at which point you’ll need to stir and rearrange them more frequently in the pan. Do not use a nonstick baking sheet (too easily nicked) or an insulated one (too much heat diffusion so the vegetables won’t get brown and crunchy).