Roasting Vegetables Like a Pro

We blinked, and Summer vanished away. Now, it’s time for fabulous Fall recipes that you wait all year to enjoy. While salads tend to dominate the Summer scene, cooked vegetables bring us more comfort in the Fall.

One of the best ways to enjoy your veggies as the temperatures cool down is to crank up your oven and roast them. It gives them a fantastic texture and flavor that tastes more decadent than any other cooking method, in my opinion. They're just delicious! Plus, they pair well with any main dish.

If you’ve ever tried and failed at roasting vegetables – perhaps they were overdone, or some pieces were still raw – keep reading to make the best roasted vegetables to go with every meal. Even those big holiday meals shine more with a presentation of perfectly-roasted vegetables.

You can roast any vegetable out there, though you should choose ones that have similar cook times to ensure they all finish at the same time. Aside from that, follow these tips!

1. Use high heat

For roasted vegetables to turn out just right, you should preheat to 400 to 450F to cook.

2. Cut them right

Roasted vegetables will cook more evenly and taste their best if you cut them down to 1-inch sizes. Green beans and asparagus should always be left whole, though.

3. Coat them and season well

Your vegetables need a light coating of olive oil or Italian dressing to help them cook up right. Plus, it adds plenty of flavor, too. If you use olive oil, you’re freer to experiment with spices and herbs from your cabinet, like curry powder or Cajun seasoning.

4. Never overcrowd the pan

If you’re making roasted vegetables 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.

5. 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.

Vegetables to Roast

Because different vegetables will require different cook times, it’s wise to pair them with similar vegetables. Root vegetables, like potatoes and carrots, will always take longer. If you’d like to serve them with softer vegetables, you should put the root vegetables in first and then add your others part way through. Potatoes and carrots will take about 45 minutes.

Things with shorter cook times, around 20 to 25 minutes, are asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli, halved Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, yellow squash, green beans, and zucchini. Cabbage does best when sliced into thick 1-inch chunks at 30 minutes. Carrots, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes are all suitable for 30 minutes, too.

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.