The paradox of choice

and a recipe for sheet pan roasted vegetables with a little bit of everything

Don’t ask me to choose my favourite book.

Or movie, song, artist, pastime. And my favourite dish? How much time do you have?

To my way of thinking, favourites are absolutes. They are borne of a time, place, mood, moment. What I want to eat (read, watch, do) is dependent on so many factors that to choose just one thing overall can be a paralyzing choice. Ask me at 6 pm on Friday night and I’ll want to go to Dotty’s and have a gin & tonic, pimento cheese and a cheeseburger. Ask me what I’d choose for my last meal and I’ll create a banquet in my mind.

“Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard.”
―Barry Schwartz, American psychologist

In theory, having limitless possibilities seems like it should be a good thing. If I want to buy a pair of jeans, there are dozens of styles and brands for me to choose from. If I feel like watching something, the options are seemingly infinite. Yet I can spend as much time scrolling through my choices as I actually do watching a movie or show.

In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz dives deep into what a world full of options does to our sense of happiness, our ability to make decisions and why more choice isn’t better than just having some choice.

If you think about it, it’s clear why this might be so. If the options are many, then there’s an inevitable sense that whatever I choose may not be as good as something else. It sets my expectations high and my satisfaction may well suffer as a result. As Schwartz says, “The existence of multiple alternatives makes it easy for us to imagine alternatives that don’t exist—alternatives that combine the attractive features of the ones that do exist. And to the extent that we engage our imaginations in this way, we will be even less satisfied with the alternative we end up choosing. So, once again, a greater variety of choices actually makes us feel worse.”

Amongst many excellent takeaways, perhaps a key point is that too much choice can undermine our happiness. By focusing on what makes us happy and by doing what gives meaning to our lives, we can stop worrying that there might be something better, somewhere.

That last meal? If you asked me right this second, I’d pick my mother’s gnocchi. And I’d be perfectly satisfied with that.

Martha’s roasted vegetables

Susan Spungen, Open Kitchen

serves 4 to 6

Last week I wrote about the beauty of simplicity, inspired by a conversation I heard with Chef Eric Ripert and food writer Chris Nuttal-Smith. While simplicity can mean just a single ingredient or two, it can also be about preparation that is a few simple steps.

If you want something that satisfies your taste buds with a melange of autumn flavours, this one bowl, one sheet pan dish of roasted vegetables will do nicely. Yes, it takes some time to prep the ingredients, but while you’re chopping, slicing and combining, you can be thinking about what you want to do after dinner. But don’t think too long and hard about a wide array of choices. As Schwartz says, “by restricting our options, we will be able to choose less and feel better.”

Ingredients

2 delicata squash, cut in half crosswise, seeds scooped out, and squash and cut into rings

1 fennel bulb, cut into thin wedges

2 to 3 shallots, peeled and cut into thick lengthwise wedges

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves

1 cup raw almonds

8 to 10 dried figs

Handful of fresh sage leaves

Whole rosemary sprigs

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ inch thick slice of pancetta cubed, about 4 ounces

2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Heat oven to 425°F.

2. Combine the squash, fennel, shallots, rosemary leaves, almonds, figs, sage leaves, rosemary sprigs, salt, pepper, pancetta, and olive oil in a large bowl and toss to combine.

3. Spread the vegetables out on a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes. Stir and toss then continue to roast until everything is nicely caramelized another 25 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately.