How to Roast Veggies

It has been (very nicely) brought to my attention by an undisclosed reader that there are times during my blog posts when I make assumptions about my reader's *ahem* cooking competency. Specifically, I often tell you to "eat roasted veggies with that", but don't actually say how to roast veggies. I apologize for making this demand without an explanation about how to do it. Being a therapist, I would never tell a client to use a mindfulness skill without practicing it with them first. Likewise, I wish I could practice cooking with all of my readers, but I thought maybe this "how to" will make up for it :-)

How to Roast Veggies:

What you will need:

• Raw veggies 
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Baking sheet
• Oven

How to choose veggies: I like to roast two or more veggies at a time.  Good combinations are: Asparagus and cauliflower, zucchini and red pepper, carrots and squash. You can add large slices of onion to any of these combinations to bulk up the dish. I would recommend chopping your vegetables and putting them in a big bowl to mix in the olive oil and spices so everything gets covered evenly.

Amount of olive oil: I've learned that the amount of olive oil is going to increase as the hardness of the vegetable increases. I use approximately 2 tablespoons of olive oil per baking sheet of vegetables. For cauliflower I might use a little more, and zucchini and squash a little less.

Salt and pepper: Don't skimp... but don't put so much on that you're going to be retaining water from eating vegetables.  I grind my little Trader Joes salt and pepper grinders all over the vegetables. I would guess that I use 1/2-1 teaspoon of each per baking sheet. When you look at your veggies spread out on the baking sheet, you should be able to see salt and pepper on each piece.

Oven temperature: I usually roast at 400-420 degrees because I like my veggies crispy. Zucchini and squash sometimes do better on a little lower temp (maybe 375). The cooking time is going to depend on the vegetable. I highly recommend roasting each vegetable on a separate baking sheet and keeping an eye on it until you know how you like them.

Other spices: Honestly salt and pepper are the only spices you need, but paprika and rosemary are also awesome additions if you start to get bored!