There is very little I like more than roasted vegetables, especially slightly charred. And they are so easy to make! I’ve learned a few tricks to make them extra perfect. Here’s the breakdown.

Ingredients:

Any vegetables you want. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, zucchini, you name it.

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 425.

Lightly oil a large baking sheet.

Wash your veggies. If they are root vegetables, be sure and scrub, scrub scrub. You can peel them or leave the peels on, like I do.

Chunk the veggies. Try to keep them all about the same size if you can.

Depending on the vegetable you use, your cooking time will vary. I cook all of mine either 20 minutes or 40 minutes because I’m super low-maintenance and these times have never let me down. But feel free to experiment up or down with cooking times in 5 minute increments.

Start with your densest, most hardy vegetables. These will be things like potatoes, carrots, yams, etc. Lay them out on your baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Use your fingers to toss and coat. Make sure the cut side is facing your baking sheet to get the most of that crunchy crust that forms on the bottom. Sides with the peel don’t form that texture as well. Put these veggies on the edges and sides of your pan since that is where things cook the quickest. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put these in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes.

When the timer goes off, pull out your baking sheet and add the rest of your veggies. This will be for vegetables with a greater water content like peppers, zucchini, and broccoli. Go through the same process as we did with the dense vegetables but be careful not to burn your fingers on your hot baking sheet.

You might be tempted to stir the partially-cooked dense vegetables but don’t. Leave them where they are so a crust will form on the bottom.

Baking sheet goes back into the oven and the time is set for another 20 minutes.

At this point, your vegetables are probably done and dang delicious. They’ll look something like this:

But if you are like me and love just a little bit of char on top, there’s an extra step. Put the baking sheet under the broiler (on high for electric ovens) for 3-5 minutes. You’ll want to check it every couple of minutes on this step. You don’t want to burn them. Peppers will turn black on the thin top layer of their skin, broccoli florets will brown, and potato skins will crackle.

This step makes potatoes crunchy, broccoli nutty, and peppers taste like everything is right in the world.

I hope you’ll give them a try! You can also toss chicken breast on the pan (it needs around 40 minutes, check with thermometer for doneness) or fish (it will need at least 20 minutes, again check with a thermometer).