When eating vegetables one of the challenges I find is giving the recipe a more complex taste and an easy way you can achieve this is by toasting and grinding spices. It makes the spice come alive and can truly bring the dish to the next flavorful level.
My favorite is toasted cumin and I like to have about a week's worth on hand to use in almost any savory vegetarian dish. I have found that when I use purchased ground cumin it adds a lot more heat to the dish, but when I toast cumin seed and grind it, the heat is a lot milder but the flavor BIGGER.
There are boatloads of seeds and spices you can toast to bring out the oils and flavor. Experiment for yourself and make your recipes come alive.
Start with a couple tablespoons cumin seed in a dry small skillet at medium heat. Stir the seeds and watch them closely as the seeds can char and burn rather quickly. When you see the seeds turn brown and you can smell the seeds toasting it is time to take the pan off the heat. Let the seeds cool slightly and grind in a spice grinder.
The following is an informative link on how to get the most out of your spices.
Spice 101
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