I can’t think of a more perfect fast food dish that’s homemade and healthy. Roasted vegetables warm up the house in the winter while warming up our plates, too. They add such great color, nutrition and taste to other dishes served alongside main courses. Additionally, roasted vegetables can be puréed and blended into soups or used an incredible flavor base for soups, stews and braised meat dishes.
The great thing about roasted vegetables is that just about any type of vegetable tastes wonderful when roasted, especially when dried herbs, salt and pepper are added. To me, it seems like you can hardly go wrong- take your pick.
Here’s how I generally do the roasting:
Wash and dry your choice of vegetables. Wthout drying them well, they will steam instead of roast and you won’t get that nice caramelization that is so appealing in roasted foods.
These are a few that roast really well:
Peppers (of all kinds)
Onions (especially white and yellow onions) & shallots
Tomatoes
Zucchini
Carrots
Pumpkin and other types of squash
Additonally, things like garlic, olives and capers roast surprisingly well, but should generally be added later in the roasting to prevent them from burning and tasting bitter.
Roughly chop large vegetables so that they are in semi-large pieces. If they’re too small, they’ll curl up and cook faster than those that are larger, leaving you with uneven cooking times for those veggies in the same pan.
Place the veggies on a parchment-paper lined baking/cookie sheet. The parchment paper will help to save some precious oil when you’re done cooking because it’s easy to roll up and pour into something else so that it isn’t wasted (much harder to do with a large, square roasting pan).
Salt the veggies, then add your choice of dried herbs (my favorite mixture is dried basil, parsley, and thyme but I also love to add marjoram and mint when I have them).
Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil and place in a hot oven (around 350º F). Depending on the thickness of the vegetables, I usually roast them for about 35-50 minutes, keeping an eye on them and watching for that nice browning I want to see throughout.
Allow them to cool once removed from the oven. If you want to blend them down into soups, or add them to any other dishes, you can do that; alternatively, they’ll keep in the fridge for several days until you determine how many different ways you want to or can serve them up to your family.
Enjoy!
What are your favorite vegetables to roast and how do you serve them?
