Roasted Vegetables Recipe

For our money, vegetables are much, much tastier when they're roasted. There's something about a charred, salty hunk of broccoli that feels so superior to trying to gnaw your way through a raw stalk. As a result, we're always on the lookout for easy-peasy roasted vegetable recipes, the kind you can just throw together on one sheet pan (lined with foil or parchment for easy clean-up) and stick in the oven. This roasted vegetable recipe was conjured up by Melissa Olivieri, the savory food-lovin' brains behind The Olive Blogger.

These roasted vegetables are a perfect side dish to fish, chicken, or steak, but they also hold up well on their own, maybe over a bed of brown rice or quinoa? The sky's the limit. This batch will whip up about four to six servings, so serve it for family dinner night, or meal prep it to eat with your lunch throughout the week. 

Before you do any peeling, chopping, cutting, slicing, dicing, or seasoning for this roasted vegetables recipe, you need to wash all the vegetables (except the onion). If you've ever wondered how important it is to thoroughly dry the produce before you cook it (salad spinners do exist, after all), Olivieri ensures us that for this roasted vegetable recipe, extreme drying isn't necessary. She says, "The produce is fine to use wet — no need to dry it off at all! I wash the produce and put it on a paper towel as I am washing the rest and find that just helps soak up the majority of the water." 

The drying always seems like a pain-in-our-side extra step with cooking, so it's a relief to know you can just wash and go. But definitely wash: Food borne-illness can come through produce if it's not properly scrubbed prior to eating. Thankfully, the onion has its own protective layer guarding it.

After you've washed the produce, go ahead and preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

You'll prepare the veggies one item at a time. Sure, carrots are cute and orange, but they are also a little high maintenance. This roasted vegetables recipe calls for two carrots, and they both have to be peeled before you slice them. Peel the carrots and slice them into half-inch thick rounds. 

By the way, you don't have to use carrots if you've got a strong aversion. Just be mindful about what vegetables you do use as your alternative. Olivieri suggests, "If you're looking to sub veggies, I would just suggest cutting to a similar size as the vegetables on the tray to ensure cooking time is still good and you don't end up with one type of veggie burnt, i.e., you can use parsnips in place of the carrots."

Now, on to the broccoli. This roasted vegetables recipe calls for you to chop a head of broccoli into medium-sized florets, while making sure to keep some of the stem intact. Are you perhaps looking for a broccoli replacement, since you are traumatized by forced broccoli feedings in your childhood? Relax, you don't have to include the broccoli. Maybe you lived in an alternate universe childhood where somehow Brussels sprouts were a preferable green option? You can sub those instead. "As for the greens. you can do Brussels for sure, just make sure to halve them so they cook in that amount of time," instructs Olivieri.

Also, we won't judge you if you want to buy the bagged broccoli that's already been chopped for you. 

This roasted vegetables recipe involves two bell peppers. They can be the color of your choice, but the yellow and red kind tend to be more flavorful (which is a cruel joke since the green ones always seem to be cheaper). Regardless of the color, you do need to deseed and slice the peppers. The recipe specifies that you should cut the pepper, remove the seeds and stems from them, and then slice them into one-inch wedges. 

The proper slice size is important if you want an even baking situation. And not for nothing, bite-sizing your vegetables is key for successful delivery from plate to mouth, too. 

Also, you can technically eat the seeds of a bell pepper, but they're slightly bitter-tasting. It's already heard enough to make yourself consistently eat vegetables, so why add bitter seeds to the mix?

It's time to bust out one whole yellow onion and half of a red onion for these roasted vegetables. We asked Olivieri about these specific onion requirements, and she explained, "For the onion, I prefer the combination of the two rather than just doing one whole yellow, so I always chop up some red as well. You could easily use a Spanish or Vidalia onion if that's what's on hand." Calm down, you've got onion options here.

Peel the onions (by slicing into the first layer) and then cut them into one-inch wedges.

To avoid crying profusely while chopping onions, we're recommend using a mandolin slicer with a safety handle (this creates barriers between you and the raw onion hunks) or the salt trick. The salt trick involves rubbing salt all over the onion (after it's been peeled) and all over your palms prior to cutting into it. No more tears!

Okay, all your vegetables for this roasted vegetable recipe should be ready to go at this point. Next, you will add all of the peeled/chopped/sliced vegetables to a large bowl and coat them with the two tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of kosher salt, a teaspoon of ground pepper, and half a teaspoon of garlic powder. You can use hands or a wooden spoon — just make sure you mix and coat the vegetables evenly.

What happens if you are all out of olive oil? It happens to the best of us. "If you don't have olive oil on hand, you can use vegetable oil — it will work just as well," advises Olivieri. "Being an Italian household, we always have the olive oil on hand (ha!)" This makes complete sense, and we should all probably try to mimic the habits of an Italian household and just order olive oil by the case.

The hard part is pretty much done at this point in the roasted vegetable recipe. All you have to do now is spread the bowl of coated, seasoned, cut vegetables into a single layer on your prepared baking sheet and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes. Perhaps work on getting other parts of the meal ready during this time? Up to you, we definitely don't want to micromanage.

In case there is any doubt, it's almost always a sound idea to line your baking sheet with something (especially if you're making cookies), or it could be a cleaning nightmare. It also preserves the quality of your cookware over time. Having said that, if you don't have parchment paper, aluminum foil will work just as well. We'd recommend the middle rack of your oven if you're aiming to bake these as evenly as possible.

The roasted vegetables are ready to go right out the oven. Serve them alongside a protein and a starchy carb, or eat them all on their own if you are maintain a straight-up veggies-only policy at certain mealtimes. If you're looking for meat pairing suggestions (is that a thing?), we've got a pork loin recipe as well as a baked chicken wing recipe that would both go well with these veggies.

In terms of storage and how long the roasted vegetables will stay fresh, while technically they can last for a few days in an airtight container in your fridge, you will take a bit of a gamble with the texture the more days they sit in there. Olivieri warns, "I like to use the vegetables up within a day — they are fine reheated in the microwave. Beyond a day, I find they are more mushy just from sitting in their cooked juices." It's something to keep in mind unless you're a huge fan of mushy vegetables, in which case, congrats!