Colorful Roasted Vegetables Recipe – Cookie and Kate

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Do you love roasted vegetables? Or are you trying to love vegetables? Either way, this recipe is for you. Broccoli, bell pepper, red onion and carrots roast to golden perfection on one sheet pan. This roasted vegetable recipe is the perfect side dish for everyday dinners. It’s plenty festive for holidays, too.

You could call this recipe a roasted vegetable medley. Or a mélange (one of my favorite words!). Or just your everyday roasted vegetables recipe. The range of colors make this simple roasted side dish quite enticing. Just wait until you try my simple seasonings—they really take these veggies to the next level.

I’m obsessed with roasting vegetables because the high heat of the oven transforms standard veggies into something so much better. Roasted vegetables offer deep, complex flavor. They’re tender and irresistible, hearty and just wonderful.

You’ll find a full collection of perfected roasted vegetable recipes on this website, and this one wins the award for most colorful! It’s also perhaps the most versatile. Please give it a try.

How to Roast Vegetables

This vegetable mix works well because these veggies, prepared as directed, all cook at about the same rate. Here’s my general roasted vegetable method, which directly applies to this recipe:

1) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Four-hundred-twenty-five degrees is generally the perfect temperature for roasted vegetables. It’s hot enough to achieve those delicious golden edges, thanks to the Maillard reaction. It’s not so hot that the vegetables burn before they’re done. It’s just right.

2) Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Emphasis on large so you can bake a lot of vegetables on one sheet without crowding them, and rimmed so your vegetables don’t fall over the edge. Here are my go-to half-sheet pans (affiliate link)—they are the sheet pans that nearly every professional recipe developer uses!

The parchment paper prevents the vegetables from sticking to the pan, because we don’t want to lose any of those glorious golden edges. It also makes for easy clean-up, which is great because those big baking sheets are a pain to wash. Lastly, the paper also prevents the food from coming into contact with aluminum while baking, which is something that I personally avoid when possible. Here’s my favorite parchment paper.

3) Slice your vegetables evenly.

No need to obsess about this, but aim to cut your vegetables into even pieces so they roast at about the same rate. Vegetables are oddly shaped and I love how they vary in roasty-ness from one piece to another and from one edge of the pan to the other.

4) Roast the vegetables for long enough, stirring halfway.

For how long, exactly? In my recipes, you’ll always find a time range for when your vegetables are done cooking. Ovens vary, and vegetables vary in size and moisture content, from one head of broccoli to another. Approximately halfway through baking, remove the pan from the oven and stir the veggies around. Distribute them evenly across the pan once again, and put them back into the oven.

Pay the most attention to the visual cues provided in the recipe, like, “Until the edges are golden and the vegetables are easily pierced through by a fork.” Remove them too soon, and the flavors will never be as deep and complex as they could be. Roast for too long, and they’ll burn.

An important quantity/timing note: Every roasted vegetable recipe on this website offers a suggested quantity of vegetable to roast, which is designed to fit evenly across your large, rimmed baking sheet. If you’re baking a lesser amount than stated in the recipe, your vegetables are going to bake more quickly. For example, florets from one crown of broccoli will roast more quickly than the florets from a whole bundle of broccoli.

If you are baking more than suggested, don’t overcrowd your vegetables or they’ll essentially steam one another. Instead, go ahead and double the recipe and use two pans (see the section below for details).

5) Optional: Season hot vegetables with vinegar and butter.

This is one of my newest tricks. Holy cow, it’s such an easy way to liven up those roasted vegetables and make them taste extra special! While the vegetables are hot out of the oven, add one tablespoon butter to the pan (it’ll melt on contact) and drizzle one tablespoon of your vinegar of choice on top. Stir until the vegetables are evenly coated. The vinegar offers some irresistible, subtle acidity and flavor and the creamy butter helps balance the vinegar while making the vegetables glossy and extra delicious.

How to Make Extra Roasted Vegetables

If you’re serving a crowd, double the ingredients and split them between two sheet pans. Bake both on racks near the middle of the oven. After you stir the vegetables halfway through baking, rotate one pan to the other rack and vice versa for the remaining baking time.

Bake until the edges are turning nicely golden. There’s a chance that one or both pans might need a few more minutes in the oven, given the extra moisture content.

Uses for Roasted Vegetables

This roasted vegetable recipe is the perfect side dish. Have extra? Want to change it up? Try roasted vegetables as a component in the following meals:

More Roasted Vegetable Recipes to Try

Roasted vegetables are my favorite. Browse a few more options below, or find all roasted vegetable recipes here.

Please let me know how your roasted veggies turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you.

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