12 Healthy Roasted Vegetable Recipes That Practically Cook Themselves
Of all the simple sides to choose from, roasted vegetables are the most reliably crowd-pleasing dishes you can serve. From crispy Brussels sprouts and browned broccoli florets to sheet pan sweet potatoes, slow-roasted eggplant, and caramelized carrots, possibilities are endless. Better yet, roasted vegetable recipes typically require around 15 minutes of hands-on time (or less) and only a few ingredients, like extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs. For an easy extra kick of flavor, add garlic. And to speed up the cooking process even further, preheat your roasting pan before adding the veggies—it's one of our favorite cooking hacks that reliably results in extra browning and even cooking (thanks to the Maillard reaction). For streamlined cleanup, line your baking sheet with aluminum foil.
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Here are 12 of our favorite roasted vegetable recipes you'll want to serve alongside every type of protein—and season—under the sun.
Roasted Carrots With Whipped Ricotta, Farro, and Crispy Cabbage
You'll eat these incredibly delicious Roasted Carrots With Whipped Ricotta, Farro, and Crispy Cabbage with your eyes first. How stunning, right? But here's the thing: just because it looks fancy doesn't mean it can't be super simple to make. With just six ingredients and 20 minutes of prep time, you'll have the perfect festive, fall-flavored side for holidays and dinner parties.
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Roasted Broccoli and White Bean Salad With Dijon-Caper Dressing
The secret to making a top-notch, satisfying salad? A perfectly-balanced mix of varying textures and flavor combinations, plus delicious homemade dressing. This Broccoli and White Bean Salad hits all the right notes: browned-and-caramelized broccoli, crunchy curly spinach, tangy Dijon dressing, salty, briny capers, and creamy cannellini beans.
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Roasted Mushroom Mole Enchiladas
These Roasted Mushroom Mole Enchiladas are a show-stopper, and just the thing to serve your vegetarian or vegan friends or family members when they come for dinner. The traditional enmolada is made with fork-tender chicken and smothered in mole sauce—this recipe swaps in roasted mushrooms for rich, savory, spice-infused flavor sans meat.
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Cheesy Roasted Sweet Potatoes
This recipe for Cheesy Roasted Sweet Potatoes takes all of 10 minutes to prepare and only requires four ingredients (plus salt and pepper) to cook. Consider it the family-friendly side dish you never know you needed. Double up on ingredients and you'll have salty, cheesy sweet potatoes you can slice and dice into salads, tacos, and egg dishes all week.
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Roasted Eggplant With Miso and Sesame Seeds
If you think you don't like eggplant, you need to try this recipe for Roasted Eggplant With Miso and Sesame Seeds. It's the just-right balance of sweet, savory, salty, and umami-rich flavor, thanks to the combination of white miso paste, sesame oil, red chili pasta, honey, and toasted sesame seeds. Serve over jasmine rice or alongside shrimp skewers with mango cucumber salad.
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Crispy Brussels Sprouts With Pancetta and Lemon
We hate to break it to you, but your holiday dinner isn't truly complete without these crispy, caramelized Brussels sprouts. Why? Because once you make them the first time, their presence will be mandatory at every family gathering going forward. They get an extra salty-savory kick from pancetta, which is bacon's thicker, higher-quality cousin.
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Roasted Eggplant and Olive Pasta Salad
This is a majorly flavorful update to a traditional pasta salad recipe, thanks to olive oil-roasted eggplant, briny kalamata olives, oregano, and creamy fresh feta cheese. Use any type of pasta you have on hand, but we recommend a shorter noodle like casarecce or fusilli.
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Herb-Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
We love all types of roasted potatoes, but these herb-scented fingerling potatoes are particularly special. Plus, this simple side only requires five ingredients to make. To make the dish even more of a cinch, line your baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray it with nonstick cooking spray before putting the spuds in the oven. Cleanup = done.
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Roasted Apples and Turnips
Why limit your roasting potential to just vegetables? Here, you'll slow-roast turnips alongside another type of produce: fresh red apple wedges. It cooks into a delicious sweet-tart side dish that's perfect for serving with seared steak or pork loin.
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Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables
This recipe for rosemary-scented roasted vegetables calls for our favorite trifecta of root vegetables: beets, carrots, and onions. You'll simply toss them in olive oil, fresh rosemary, salt, and pepper and bake in the oven for a half hour. Pair with rotisserie chicken or serve atop a salmon salad for the easiest, most satisfying family dinner.
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Roasted Broccoli Pesto Pasta
Stop tossing those broccoli stems and serve them in this crave-worthy pesto pasta instead. Here, you'll roast broccoli with garlic and herbs until crisp, then stir it into healthy whole-grain pasta with plenty of homemade pesto.
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Garlic Roasted Potatoes
These garlic roasted potatoes work as a side dish—serve them alongside halibut, grilled chicken, or a warming soup—but we'd be hard-pressed to find a better homemade (healthier) hashbrown recipe.