Making perfectly roasted vegetables in your oven is a simple way to prepare healthy dinners without much fuss. Using a rimmed baking sheet, you’ll be able to perfectly roast the best vegetables in under 30 minutes. We love to make up batches on Sundays, making sure to have lots for easy weekday leftovers. Here is a few tips to help you make the perfect roasted vegetables:
Don’t Crowd
Make sure not to overfill your sheet pan. Crowded vegetables will steam making it hard to get the nice crispy edges. Your vegetables shouldn’t be layered, or even touching too much. More space = more crispy
Heat Up
Most recipes for roasting usually call for a minimum heat of 375*, but I like to roast most vegetables around 400-425*. Pre-heating is a must, if the oven is too cool, you risk over cooking the vegetables and never developing that roasted crispy goodness.
Metal Pans are Best
Metal conducts heat better than glass, which will help cook your vegetables and not let them get mushy. The color of your metal sheet pan also matters, darker pans will conduct more heat and have a higher risk of burning the bottom of the vegetables. While light colored pans like aluminum will often not crisp up the bottom enough. Look for a golden colored pan, or if using a dark pan, flip your vegetables half way through roasting to prevent scorching on the bottom.
Fat Pairings
Olive oil, coconut oil, ghee or grapeseed? There are many different oils and fats that you can use when roasting vegetables. Always be sure to use a high smoke point oil when roasting. Check here: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/cooking-oils-and-smoke-points-what-to-know-and-how-to-choose#why-is-oil-smoke-point-important)
You’ll also want to consider what type of spices or seasonings you are using when selecting your fat. If you’re cooking sweet potatoes to go with a Indian curry, use ghee, or if you’re doing parsnips for a French dish you might want to use something rich like rendered duck fat. Extra virgin olive oil is always a safe bet if you are unsure.
Knife Skills
It doesn’t matter too much what size or style you’re chopping your vegetables when roasting, but what does matter is that they are all approximately the same size. We like to chop most vegetables no larger than 2 inches, and no smaller than a half inch when roasting. No matter what size you go with, make sure you stick to one size to ensure even roasting for all vegetables.
