Oven-roasted winter vegetables

A vibrantly colourful, mouthwatering platter of oven-roasted winter vegetables – a feast for the eyes as well as the tastebuds! Potatoes, red onion, carrots, parsnip, pumpkin, and Brussels sprouts are a great combination of flavours and colours. Delicious, healthy and very easy to make! They are so quick to prepare – you can have them on the table in 30 minutes flat. Tossed in extra virgin olive oil, seasoned with coarse, unrefined sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and then roasted in a hot oven. These oven-roasted vegetables are great as a side dish or for lunch on the go, but the potatoes actually make it filling enough to serve as a weeknight vegan dinner.

I used butternut squash in this recipe. I’ve been eating loads of it recently, “in tutte le salse“, as they say in Italian… Well, let’s just say that I’ve been eating some kind of pumpkin almost every day for the last few months! And because I hate monotony, I’ve had to come up with loads of different ways of cooking it. Luckily I like it. Because this year, there was a bumper harvest – about fifty kilos of different types of pumpkin squash from 5 seeds that we planted in an allotment of 30 m2! We got eight butternuts from one single plant. So watch out for more pumpkin recipes coming soon! The next one up will be a special Spicy pumpkin and red lentil soup – truly delicious!

What vegetables are best for oven roasting?

Root vegetables are hands down the best for oven roasting! They remain firm, they brown nicely, and roasting them is the best way to bring out their naturally sweet, earthy flavours. Add onions and Brussels sprouts, and you have a scrumptious combination! Below you’ll find a list of the ingredients and seasoning I used in this particular batch, although you can use other vegetables instead. See my suggestions below, under the heading Alternative Vegetables.

Oven-roasted winter vegetables – Ingredients

Root vegetables are perfect for oven roasting, and I find this combination with Brussels sprouts and red onions particularly delicious!

• potatoes
• red onions
• carrots
• parsnip
• pumpkin
• brussels sprouts
• extra virgin olive oil
• unrefined coarse sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

How to season oven-roasted vegetables

You could go for a really simple seasoning – coarse sea salt, extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper – which tends to enhance the natural flavours of the vegetables. It’s my absolute favourite for oven-roasted vegetables of any kind. You could also add rosemary or thyme if you want. I sometimes roast vegetables in a seasoning of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. But I find that balsamic vinegar really complements some vegetables, like borettane onions, fennel, or carrots, and not others.

To get the best results, put the chunks of vegetables into a large bowl and drizzle a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over them. Then, using your hands or a spoon, mix the vegetables well until they are lightly coated in oil on all sides. This is much better than drizzling oil over them directly on the oven tray, where some pieces get too much and others don’t get any. Add a couple of pinches of coarse sea salt and a sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper. The salt and pepper stick better to the vegetables if added after the oil. A light coating of oil will result in lighter, crispier vegetables and fewer calories.

How to roast winter vegetables in the oven

Roasting vegetables in the oven couldn’t be easier! A few simple tricks will ensure they come out perfect every time!

• First, choose vegetables that go well together and take a similar length of time to cook.
• Cut them into similar-sized pieces. This will ensure that they all cook evenly (see indications in the recipe card below).
• Keep the seasoning simple: toss them in a little extra virgin olive oil – don’t drown them in it – a light coating is all they need! (See notes below, under the heading How to season oven-roasted vegetables)
• Sprinkle the vegetables with a little freshly ground black pepper and coarse, unrefined sea salt (coarse sea salt makes all the difference).
• Arrange the seasoned vegetables in a single layer on an oven tray lined with a sheet of baking parchment. This will stop them from sticking and breaking up when you turn them or remove them from the tray. If you have more vegetables than will fit on the tray in a single layer, roast them in batches. Otherwise, they won’t roast and brown properly.
• Roasted vegetables need a hot oven! You don’t want to end up with soggy vegetables. Put them on the 2nd or 3rd shelf of the oven and roast them at 230 °C for 20 – 30 minutes, turning them halfway through cooking. They are done when they are cooked through and starting to brown. Every oven is different, so you might need to tweak the temperature and timing, according to the kind of oven you have.

Alternative vegetables

What if you have other vegetables on hand? No problem, use whatever you have! Here are some others that you could add or use instead:

• sweet potato
• celeriac
• beetroot
• yellow onions
• Jerusalem artichokes
• broccoli florets
• cauliflower florets
• turnip
• swede
• other root vegetables
• aubergine
• courgettes
• red or yellow peppers

What to serve with oven-roasted winter vegetables

We often eat a platter of oven-roasted vegetables as a weeknight dinner – the potatoes make it nice and filling. If you want to serve them as a side dish, you could pair them with something like a nut roast, some veggie burgers or a vegan sausage. Otherwise, you could have something like a bowl of soup first and then serve the oven-roasted winter vegetables as a main course afterwards.

What to do with leftover roasted vegetables

When I make these at home, there are never any leftovers, unfortunately. But here are some great ideas to use up any leftover roasted vegetables you may have:

• Make a pie. Put the vegetables onto a disc of shortcrust or puff pastry. Place in a pie tin, put another disc of pastry on top, seal and bake in the oven.
• Make a pasty. Put the vegetables onto one half of a disc of puff pastry. Fold the other half over, seal and bake in the oven.
• Heat them up again and serve them with quinoa or couscous. You could also add a sweet and sour sauce like the one I used in
• Use them as a filling for a wrap or piadina, along with some hummus and/or tahini sauce
• Make a vegetable curry. Put the leftover vegetables in a curry sauce like korma or tikka masala
• Heat them up again and serve them as a side dish.

How to store oven-roasted winter vegetables

Store any leftover vegetables in an airtight container in the fridge, where they will keep for 3 – 4 days. You can also freeze them, although I don’t very often do it because I find freezing changes the texture of the vegetables. To reheat, put them in a hot oven for 5 minutes or heat them up in the microwave. Alternatively, you could heat them up slowly in a non-stick frying pan with a lid on to stop them from drying out.

I hope you like this recipe for oven-roasted winter vegetables! If you do, it would be great if you could give it a star rating and leave a comment below! It helps other readers to find my content and posts and ultimately makes my blog more successful! Thanks so much for your support! Deborah xx

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