The secret to perfect roasted vegetables

Dig yourself out of your veggie rut with these tips.

Many people turn to salads or steamer bags when trying to increase their vegetable intake. If you feel like you are stuck in a vegetable rut and want to try something new and easy consider roasting vegetables. Roasting vegetables is an easy way to warm up your kitchen and add rich flavors to your favorite vegetables. Follow these tips to roast your favorite vegetables to perfection.

1. Season before roasting. Cut up your desired vegetable and transfer to a bowl. Season lightly with oil, salt, pepper, herbs and spices and toss to evenly distribute seasonings.
2. Don’t overload your pan. Keep the vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet. This helps the vegetables brown and gives them a sweeter and richer flavor. If you overload the pan you will end up steaming the vegetables instead of roasting.
3. Stir halfway through. As the vegetables roast they will start to brown on the side that is touching the pan. To get a nicely browned product without burning it, stir the vegetables halfway through cooking.
4. Adjust cooking time depending on the vegetable. The cooking temperature will not change very much. Most vegetables do well when roasted at about 400⁰F. The cooking time will vary widely between 15 minutes to an hour.
   • Dense starchy vegetable such as potatoes and squash take longer to cook and usually require 45 minutes to 1 hour.
   • Vegetables with more water such as broccoli, asparagus and peppers usually only take about 15-20 minutes to roast.

If you want to mix vegetables with different cooking times cut them into different sizes. For example, if you want to roast potatoes and peppers on the same pan cut the potatoes into small pieces and the peppers into large pieces.