tips for roasting vegetables

One of the delightful dishes of winter months is roasted vegetables. Pair them with a plant-based roast (such as Vegie Roast or Field Roast) or add them to your Buddha bowls and salads. Whatever you do with them, they’ll be wonderfully satisfying. I put together some tips on how to have your veggies roasted perfectly every time. Enjoy!

Use high heat
Preheat the oven to 200 – 220°C/400 – 450°F and then cook.⁠

Cut them right
Roasted vegetables will cook more evenly and taste their best if you cut them down to 2.5 cm (1-inch) sizes. Leave green beans & asparagus whole.⁠

Coat them and season well
Your veggies need a light coating of olive oil or any other vegetable oil to help them cook upright. What I find is that olive oil makes your veggies crispy while butter makes them soft. A mixture of the two might give you what you need. So, think about it. You could also add some dried herbs or spices for flavour. Don’t limit yourself to salt & pepper only; be creative.

Never overcrowd the pan
If you’re making roasted veggies for a crowd, use 2 or more pans and roast in batches. It might seem like more work, but your vegetables won’t cook evenly if you shove them all in one pan. If you’re using sheet pans, though, you could have 2 trays going at the same time.

Toss them halfway
Don’t just pop them in the oven and forget it. Halfway through the cooking time, stir them around. The edges of the baking sheet tend to get hotter than the middle. Doing this assures even cooking.⁠

⁠⁠Veggies to Roast
⁠Because different vegetables will require different cooking times, it’s wise to pair them with similar vegetables. Root vegetables like potatoes will always take longer. If you’d like to serve them with softer vegetables, you should put the potatoes in first and then add your other veggies to the tray.⁠

⁠Things with shorter cook times around 20 to 25 minutes are asparagus, capsicums (bell peppers), broccoli, halved Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, yellow squash, green beans and zucchini. Cabbage does best when sliced into thick 2,5 cm (1-inch) chunks at 30 minutes. Carrots, butternut pumpkin (squash) and sweet potatoes (kumera) are all suitable for 30 minutes, too.⁠
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Potatoes take about 45 minutes. If you want to roast grape or cherry tomatoes, it will only take 15 minutes. Kale also takes just 15 minutes but there’s no need to keep it in a single layer unless you want to make kale chips.⁠

Happy Roasting, Peoples!