Blanched or boiled. In what recipe or context were you told this?

I never have done this but once my mom had a health problem where she couldn't eat fresh veggies. At that time she was immunosuppressed. Only that or preparing for freezing would make sense to me.

Amylou And Agmss,

thank you for the replies. ok, then I will just put in a 400 oven with oil and salt and pepper and keep in till done. I am thinking 45 min. Or longer.

k

I love roasted vegetables. I cut the onion in wedges and that way it doesn't burn to a crisp. I've never had to cook anything beforehand. Carrots, onions, potatoes are go-tos, and we also love roasted asparagus, cauliflower, brussels sprouts. Fennel, too when I have it on hand.

If you're finding tbat some vegetables are overcooked or under cooked in comparison to others that you are roasting at the same time try starting those that need the most cooking time first and addng the others as the time left dictates instead of starting them all at the same time. Longest cooking first to shortest time needed last, as you would when cooking in a skillet.

Thinking 45 minutes is too long for sweet peppers....?

Thanks Veda,

ok, so if I wanted to do red peppers, onions, Brussels sprouts and carrots, which would Be the longest, please give me the order to put in oven.

onions in quarters

sprouts cut in half

carrots in half lenghtwise

peppers in quarters cut again in half

thanks

There are a lot of variables, including how much water is in the vegetables vs. how dense they are, how much sugar content, convection or not, etc., and even how cold they are to start. It's probably carrots > onions > sprouts > peppers. But it might not be. And it depends on how charred and how soft you want them. Whenever you open the oven door, it just loses a bunch of heat, so if there's enough time, I'd do each one separately, early, until it's just barely done the way I want it, then put them all in to finish and get a final heating together.

I roast a bunch of veggies at once....my favorites are zucchini cut into 2 inch chunks, sweet onions chunked, colored sweet peppers ( red, yellow, green, orange, cut into about 1 1/2 inch square pieces, roma tomatoes, cut into quarters, mushrooms, whole or halved or sliced if you have big porto bellos...drizzle all with olive oil and toss to coat, add a couple of cloves of garlic put through a press....or more!...sprinkle with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, perhaps some fresh or dry herbs...basil, oregano thyme, parsley...toss to coat and put into a 375 to 400 oven...what ever works for whatever else you are cooking....toss after 10 minutes and again after another 10....they are done when they are showing browned spots and are soft but not mushy.
I don't mess with everything separately....the tomatoes are a bit mushy, the peppers and onions are just right It's all good!....when you take out of the oven drizzle with a bit of balsamic vinegar....delicious!

The onions, sprouts, carrots will cook in roughly the same amount of time. Might not be perfect, but good enough. I don't roast peppers but I suspect they will need less time, so throw them in after the others have roasted for 20 min. 350F. Toss in olive oil and salt before roasting.

One veg I do sometimes parboil before roasting is beets. Just speeds things up.

To time roasted veggies, you can simply microwave some first.

dcarch

Thank you all,

i am going to make this as a side for Easter dinner. Sounds easy enough. i will take all this advice into consideration and experiment with the times.

I think that the veggies that take about the same time to cook are the ones that taste best together. I am sure i would not like asparagus roasted with butternut squash....but butter nut and parsnips and winter onions and rutabega are all wonderful together. I also like the night shades....tomatoes, peppers and egg plant together...and they all cook in about the same time. I also like cauliflower and broccoli together....but brussel's sprouts belong with the fall and winter group.

Would the boiling maybe be to help with peeling?? I know a brief swim in simmering water makes peels come off pearl onions easier and off tomatoes they almost come off themselves... we'', that's a bit of an exaggeration, huh!?! Would that blanch make peels come off peppers, too??

Not really....the skin on peppers is perfectly edible ...cooked peppers fall apart without the skin.

Tomato skins slide off with a quick dip in simmering water. Not peppers. Peppers i most often char on my gas burner flame, turning with tongs, then into a paper bag to steam 5min, or into a pyrex bowl w/lid on. These will be a bit on the soft side for pizza, all sorts of salads...

When i do a veggie roast in the oven, i often just cut the peppers into 2-3inch pieces and don't bother with the skins....they are edible.

A mixed root veg dish that goes so well with holiday meals, i prep in two separate bowls and easily prepped ahead even the day before. I'll just store in zip-locks in the fridge.

A lot of the timing is the size of certain things...some that cook quicker can just be a bit larger cut. That comes with experience and just knowing...

I would definitely do a trial run or two and enjoy your test for a meal. Basically your list of veggies can be put in two categories...one mixed bowl that cooks longer goes in first on a sheet pan for a head start, say 15-20 min. Then the next mix is spread around on top. Important to be in a single layer on the sheet pan. I prefer asparagus quickly pan seared, but i have had success with too much going on by laying them on top of my roasties the last 5 min of roasting...

If your grocery sells a-la-cart, even better. Then you can pick up more varieties like one parsnip, one golden beet, pick out brussels that are tiny and all the same size, and/or a few large ones, then cut in half. I like a few varieties of potato, some small new potatoes whole and some a bit larger cut in half.

My dad loves sweet potatoes so i'll get different varieties, one of each, and cut them a bit differently so they are not mistaken for regular potatoes...and they cook faster than reg potatoes so they go into the second bag.

If you list your choices we could walk you through the cooking times.

This is getting to long and wordy...but for example, i put a tbsp of olive oil in a bowl with some herbs like rosemary, pepper and salt and toss. Then onto a parchment lined sheet pan at 400 with my whole head of garlic, quartered golden beet and my larger potatoes for 15 min head start, then turn down the heat to 350 and add the next veg...quicker cookers 15 min later...

This pic is not a holiday meal...just a roast chicken dinner...looks about 20 min from being nice and roasted without being soft at all. And not crisp raw. And cut a bit smaller this time to cook faster.

Beautiful photo Sleevendog... looks delicious. I can just imagine dipping a large spoon in.

I just want to add -- we never roasted anything but potatoes when I was growing up. For ages and ages I PLANNED to try roasting vegetables and made such a big deal out of it that I never did it, afraid of doing it wrong! Finally, one night I had some sweet potatoes and peppers and thought -- what's the big deal. I'll eat them if it doesn't work. It was all so silly! What can you get wrong? Just check that nothing is burned -- I'd say put the oven at least at 400 and check after 30 minutes and by that you'll decide when to check again. They will be tasty. I once did cauliflower with cayenne pepper and salt. Delicious. Don't make a big deal. Only bad thing you can do is burn them and that's easy to see!

Aye men....just DO it!!

I've taken to keeping blanched veggies in the fridge- makes it easy to throw them into sautees/ what have you- seems to help everything cook uniformly and cuts down on time. Green beans, especially, seem to benefit- they keep their pretty green color and don't take so darn long to cook. One thing I would never blanch, though, is brussels sprouts. It interferes too much with caramelization and can bring out the sulfurous smells. I prefer to cut my brussels sprouts in half, though if I do choose to leave them whole I cut an x through the top.

I agree to just go for it. When i started roasting whole garlic, slices of cauliflower, sweet potato fries...endless things to try. I just cut stuff up, even the odd veg we had not had in some time...i just put them on a sheet pan and went for it...single layer with lots of room after a toss in a tiny bit of evoo and dried rosemary...i still had a ton of un-cut veg if something was not right.

My no-no to roast is broccoli. Not friendly to the other veggies. Much better steamed alone. We don't care much for it anyway but do love broccoli rabe....though it can be awfully bitter 2 out of ten times depending on the grower. In my garden i can get one early cutting then it goes to a bitter bolting.