A good recipe for healthy baked vegetables is so helpful to have. It adds nutrients, fiber, and color to any meal! This recipe has carrots, cauliflower, zucchinis, and red onions. They’re drizzled with a little bit of olive oil and spices and baked in the oven.
baked vegetables are a staple:
Most sensible meals call for some sort of vegetable on the side and these baked ones are a great option. You can add them to dinners, lunches, or holiday meals. They can also be added to salads or enjoyed as a snack.
This recipe was a mixture of vegetables that I had in my fridge and wanted to use up. They worked so well together that now I make them all the time. Choosing vegetables with no carbs was important; this way I could comfortably add them to meals that already had carbs.
baked vegetable Ingredients & Equipment List:
- Cauliflower Florets
- Green Zucchinis
- Carrots
- Purple Onion
- Olive Oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic Powder
When it comes to equipment, all you need for these baked vegetables is a good baking sheet. We use this one and are really happy with it. It’s sturdy, heats everything evenly, and is easy to clean. If you’re in the market for a new one definitely check it out.
You can also use a disposable aluminum foil baking sheet to bake these and it’ll work just fine. Whichever one you use, I would recommend lining it with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
the baked vegetable method:
The thing with vegetables is that they are all different in texture. This can make it tricky when roasting them as they all need a different amount of time in the oven. So you have two options:
- Only roast like-textured vegetables together.
- Roast the harder ones first and halfway through add the softer ones.
As you’ll see in this recipe I used the second method. Cauliflower and carrots have a harder texture than zucchini and purple onions, therefore they take longer to roast. So I roasted them first for around 20 minutes, added the zucchinis and purple onions to the baking sheet, and continued roasting.
is the term healthy vegetable redundant?
You might be wondering why I would use both the word healthy and vegetable one after the other. Good question! Obviously vegetables in their purest form are healthy. But more often than not recipes turn them into high-calorie and even unhealthy dishes.
Don’t get me wrong; I love those crazy flavorful and almost dessert-like vegetable dishes. There’s definitely a time and place for them. Such as when you’re having something like a piece of plain grilled chicken along with simple white rice.
But what if you’re having a heavy and oily protein dish like steak? Or sweet rice as a side dish? That’s when vegetables cooked in a healthy way are so important. They balance out the oil and sweetness. These baked vegetables are light, easy to digest, and refreshing.
prep these baked vegetables in advance:
If you know you will need these vegetables in the next day or two, you can prepare them in advance by peeling and chopping them.
Place the chopped vegetables in a zip-lock bag, add the oil and spices, and place them in the fridge. The next day when you’re ready to roast them just place them on a baking tray and pop them in the oven.
Serving suggestions:
There’s really no limit to the amount of meals you can add these healthy roasted vegetables to. Some ideas that come to mind are:
Leftover options for baked vegetables:
I rarely have leftover baked vegetables because I always have seconds when I make them for dinner! If you do have leftovers however here are some great ways to use them up:
- They can be added to your lunches with some chummus on the side.
- Chop them up into small pieces and add them to a fried rice dish. Just fry some rice, eggs, and the vegetables and you have a meal.
- You can always freeze them if you have no use for them at the moment. They will come in handy later when you’re busy!
Healthy Baked Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1 pound of cauliflower florets
- 4 big carrots
- 2 big zucchinis
- 1 big purple onion
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Wash the carrots, zucchinis and cauliflower well.
- Peel the carrots and slice them into circles.
- Chop the zucchinis and purple onion into bite-sized pieces.
- Place the cauliflower and carrots onto a lined baking sheet and drizzle with half of the oil and spices.
- Bake for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and turn them over using a pair of tongs.
- Add the zucchinis and purple onion and drizzle them with the other half of the olive oil and spices.
- Continue roasting for another 20 minutes or until the vegetables are a little bit charred.
