Roasted Veggies

This may sound super simple... I mean... who doesn't know how to roast veggies in the oven? Well, I didn't. And while I am still trying to perfect my technique, I did want to post some batches I have made recently and what I have learned. At our house, we often have tossed salad, Caesar salad, corn, or peas (and carrots). So, finding more ways to get some veggies into the rotation is a must!

This was an "Italian Bend".

This was mostly root veggies with mozzarella cheese balls melted inbetween.

Roasted Veggies

Ingredients:

• Veggies of choice, cut into sizes that will cook evenly in the oven (see note)
• Oil of choice
• Seasoning blend of choice
• Cheese, optional

Directions:

1. Wash and cut your veggies into the right sizes. Place into a large bowl.
2. Coat the veggies in the little bit of oil, sprinkle with seasonings and toss to coat.
3. Bake in a 350-400 degree oven for about an hour, or until all the veggies are tender.

Marsha's Notes:

Root veggies, like carrots and potatoes, take longer to cook than zucchini, squash, or tomatoes. (Carrots really seem to take a long time, but I tried doing this once with matchstick "shredded" carrots, and while they did cook faster, they had an off-putting crunch stick-like texture.) Therefore, I will cut my potatoes and carrots pretty small, but I will do my zucchini and squash in much larger chunks. 

Some people will even cook some veggies part way, then add the quicker cooking veggies later in the cooking process... but for me, part of the appeal of this kind of cooking is the ability to shove everything into the oven all at the same time and then walk away.

If you look closely at this picture, you will see that my zucchini pieces are MUCH larger than my carrot chunks.

Depending on what veggies you pick, you can try to choose a seasoning blend that you think matches the flavors. For this image below, I just used Italian seasoning blend and a little parmesan cheese. For the above image, I used a "buttery steakhouse blend" from Kinder.

You don't want to over crowd your pan, so I have using multiple racks in the oven and cooked two pans at the same time. I just rotate the pans from one level to the other halfway through cooking.