Roasting Vegetables in the Oven
Vegetables are a rich source of nutrients and cover a large variety of some very delicious greens and other produce. These are very vital elements to include in one's diet, and requires that at least some form of it be a part of one's weekly diet routine. Vegetables can be cooked in many ways, with roasting as one of the healthier forms of preparing them. You can always use cooking methods like frying, blanching or steaming, but roasting tops the list in keeping together a flavorsome vegetable dish, and timing it just right.
You'll find out here on how to make some very healthy meals using an oven, and how to gauge and how much time certain vegetables need when you oven cook them. Knowing their different cooking times is important, to help keep nutrients, taste and texture intact. Roasting vegetables couldn't have been more of an experience, if you're willing to try out a healthier option from the comfort of your home.
Densities of Vegetables While Cooking
Different vegetables come with varied densities, meaning that the cooking time varies from one to the next. All veggies can't be cooked using the same time in the oven, and one needs to know how to differentiate the different cooking times between veggies. Vegetables that fall in the medium and high categories, take about 60 minutes to cook in heat conditions of 400F, and low density veggies take 30 minutes in temperatures ranging from 350 - 375F.
Mixing these up together and placing them in a high density temperature oven is fine, if you were to put large chunks of the low-medium density veggies amongst them. Roasting root vegetables in the oven as you can see, takes different times to cook depending on their densities.
| High Density | Medium Density | Low Density |
| Carrots | Peppers | Summer squash |
| Pumpkin | Onions | Tomatoes |
| Potatoes | Winter squash | Eggplant |
| Beets | - | - |
How to Roast Vegetables in the Oven
Roasting vegetables in the oven is a simple procedure and doesn't require any tedious work in the kitchen. All you have to do is make sure you have all your necessary ingredients to get started. To begin with a dish that consists of a well-prepared ensemble of oven roasted vegetables, you first need to buy fresh produce to take advantage flavors and textures in their prime.
Mashed Potatoes With Roasted Garlic and Rosemary
What You'll Need:
- 5 potatoes (medium-sized)
- 2 large bulbs of garlic
- 1 cup of rosemary
- Olive oil ( cup)
- Chili flakes (1 tbsp)
- 100g of unsalted low-fat butter
- 200g of sour cream
- Pepper (2 tsp)
- Grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt to taste
Preheat your oven to 425F then proceed to your garlic bulbs where you first cut off the heads and leave these contained within a foil; pour over these some drops of olive oil. Then wrapping these up securely in the tin foil, slide it into the oven and bake these for about 30 minute, until they turn brown. After removing these from the oven, once they cool down, gently peel away the skin and let it sit.
Then peel and roughly cut up your potatoes, and cover these with the olive oil, pepper and salt. Slide these into the oven and time it for 60 minutes at 400F (preheated). While this happens, get started on your sour cream mix. Using a blender, put in your rosemary, sour cream, baked garlic and butter, slowly letting these blitz together to form a nice creamy finish. Leave this aside and wait for your potatoes to finish cooking. Once they're done, slide these out and plop them into a bowl. Pour in your sour cream and mix all the ingredients together until you have a nice creamy mush finish. Garnish with more rosemary and shower with chili flakes and Parmesan.
Mixed Vegetables With Pasta and Cream Sauce
What You'll Need:
- 2 large onions
- 2 large tomatoes
- 2 large bell peppers (red and yellow)
- 100g of low-fat cream
- 2 tbsp of low-fat unsalted butter
- 3 cups of pasta (bow ties)
- 2 tbsp of chives
- 1 tablespoon of cilantro
- Parmesan cheese
- Salt to taste
- 1 medium-sized garlic bulb
Preheat the oven to 350F and slide in a tray of roughly cut up chunks of the onions, tomatoes and bell peppers; set your timer for 30 minutes. Keep the pasta bow ties on the boil with a drizzle of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of salt. Using a shallow pan, drizzle olive oil and saut your garlic; before it turns brown dump in your cilantro and chives, keeping the flame on low at all times. Once the pasta boils over, take half a cup of the boiling water and pour this into the pan, then quickly add your butter to it and let this emulsify. The trick here is to prepare a creamy thick sauce using the starchy water as a combining agent to give you the perfect creamy sauce.
Once the butter melts through, grate Parmesan cheese into the mix, and dump in your sour cream and let it simmer for two minutes. Remove the vegetables from the oven and let these cool down to one side. Marry all the ingredients together with the sauce and pasta after you've waited for the vegetables to turn warm. Garnish with more chives / cilantro if you'd like.
Roasting vegetables in the oven is a simple task that anyone can pull off, keeping only two things in mind - the cooking density of the vegetables and how to time these right using your recipe as a guide. You'll have a vegetarian dish on your hands which you may think is quite boring, but in truth it doesn't lack in any of its flavorings, since spices and herbs can really bring out a lot of surprising tastes when applied to veggies.
