These Oven Roasted Root Vegetables are an easy, healthy and colorful vegetable side dish. Roasted caramelized veggies are perfect for holidays, buffets, or even a weeknight dinner. The flavor that comes from roasting the vegetables with garlic and aromatic herbs makes them irresistible. I’ve been known to make a meal out of these veggies!
Root vegetables have a sweet, earthy flavor that seems tailor-made for roasting. This recipe for oven roasted root vegetables has been a favorite on the site for years. With yams, carrots, parsnip, and potatoes, this hearty mix of vegetables is sure to satisfy. Red onions and garlic cloves are added to pump up the aromatic flavor. With rosemary, thyme and a touch of cumin, these vegetables are utterly addicting. They are the perfect side dish for holiday celebrations like Thanksgiving, Passover, and Rosh Hashanah. This is truly one of my favorite side dishes!
Cooking Tips for Oven Roasted Root Vegetables
- This recipe is great for a crowd; you can easily double the quantity on two baking sheets and roast two batches at once. This dish is perfect for a buffet, it’s equally tasty warm or at room temperature. It’s also super easy to make ahead and reheat.
- Use any combination of root veggies you like. Not a fan of yams? Substitute plain potatoes. Trouble finding parsnip at the market? Use more carrots instead. Other root vegetables like turnips, daikon, rutabaga and yuca will work too. Butternut squash also works well here. No matter which veggies you use, the key to even roasting is cutting them all the same size. This way they’ll roast evenly. It’s a great way to clear out your produce drawer, and the process could not be easier.
- If you use red beets in this recipe, keep in mind that the roasting will release a pinkish juice that will color the other vegetables. The color doesn’t bother me– in fact, I think it’s kind of pretty. If you’d rather not have pinkish veggies, use golden beets or omit the beets completely.
- I like to keep my seasonings simple here. Salt, pepper, cumin, rosemary and thyme are all you need to bring out the earthy, wonderful flavors of the root veggies. For more flavor, you could sprinkle them with oregano, turmeric, or chili flakes to spice things up. Use your culinary imagination!
Can You Make Roasted Root Vegetables Ahead?
Prepare these roasted root vegetables ahead by doing all of the chopping, peeling, and measuring up to two days ahead. Place all of the ingredients into a sealed refrigerator bag, seal and toss ingredients to coat, then refrigerate until ready to cook. Pop them in the oven when you’re ready to roast.
You can also roast the vegetables and cook them up to two days ahead. When you roast, cook them until almost (but not quite) fully tender. Refrigerate the cooked vegetables in a sealed bag. Just before your meal, reheat in a 400 degree F oven for just a few minutes. By the time they’re heated through, they’ll be perfectly cooked. So easy, so healthy, so delicious!
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Food Photography and Styling by Kelly Jaggers
Oven Roasted Root Vegetables
Equipment
- large rimmed baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1 pound yams (orange sweet potatoes) – 2 small or one large, peeled
- 3/4 pound red potatoes scrubbed clean, peel on
- 1/2 pound beets (red or golden), trimmed and scrubbed clean
- 1/2 pound large carrots peeled and halved lengthwise
- 1 parsnip medium sized (4-5 oz), peeled and halved lengthwise
- 1/2 red onion peeled
- 6 whole garlic cloves large sized
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil divided
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (or 2 tsp dried thyme)
- 5 sprigs fresh rosemary (or 3 tsp dried rosemary)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin (can be omitted for Ashkenazi Passover)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt or more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper or more to taste
NOTES
Instructions
- Place a rack in the bottom of your oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Slice all vegetables into chunks roughly 1 1/2 inches wide. The more similar the size of the vegetable pieces, the more evenly they will roast.Place cut vegetables and garlic cloves into a large mixing bowl. Add 3 tbsp olive oil, fresh thyme leaves, ground cumin, kosher salt, and black pepper. Stir until all vegetables are evenly coated with oil, spice and herbs.
- Brush large rimmed baking sheet with remaining 1 tbsp olive oil. Spread the vegetables out evenly on the baking sheet. Place the rosemary sprigs on top of the vegetables, evenly spaces across the sheet.Roast the vegetables in the oven for 15 minutes. Stir the vegetables, bringing the chunks from the outside towards the center and the chunks in the center out towards the edges. Return baking sheet to oven and continue to roast until the largest chunks are tender and the edges are starting to turn golden/dark, another 15-25 minutes.
- Remove the roasted rosemary sprigs and stir the vegetables (some leaves of rosemary will remain, this is good). Season with additional salt and pepper to taste, if desired. Vegetables can be served warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition
Plan on making this today for Christmas. I will be using sweet potato instead of yams (there is a difference) wish I could get parsnips here in Brazil but I’ll have to opt for extra carrots. Thanks for sharing!
This recipe looks great but I’m confused where I’m suppose to add the garlic cloves in? I don’t seem to see any directions for them in the recipe. Thanks!
Hi Michelle, the garlic cloves are meant to be added with the vegetables. I just clarified that in the instructions, thank you for asking!
Outstanding+++. A little bit of work, but the result is stunningly delicious! I made a full recipe (with yellow beets), but it only served 4… Oh well, we were 3 around the table and there is a cup of left-over veggies. They will disappear today. Thank you Tori. B.
This turned out absolutely delicious! All of the spices complemented the vegetables so well, it’s the most scrumptious vegetable dish I’ve had in a long time. The earthy, fresh taste of the root vegetables come through so well once it baked. I’ll be making this one again for sure! Thank you for sharing!
These were really tasty! My husband loved them and he’s not huge on vegetables so that’s saying a lot. Thanks for the recipe!
Used two kinds of carrots, sweet potaties/yams and parsnips… health dose of thyme and some nice oil, maybe too high at 425…
Delicious. Absolutely terrific. I used beets, yams, rainbow carrots, white onion and garlic. Didn’t have fresh herbs so I used dry. I also used olive oil infused with butternut squash. I’ll be making this again!
We love this dish! I can prepare it a bit ahead also. I made it twice the first week and now I am making it again the second week.
This is my new favorite recipe! We wanted to try a different, healthier side for Thanksgiving. I was concerned about not liking the cumin flavor, but the ratings were so good that I thought it’d probably be OK. It was fabulous! My 10 & 13 year olds even raved about it! The only thing I did differently was to add sliced fennel bulb, turnip, and butternut squash – and due to all of the extra veggies I had to double the herbs, spices, and EVOO. Eating fennel, parsnips, turnips, and golden beets for the first time was a hit. Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! Can’t wait to experiment with more vegetables in the future.
Looking forward to making this recipe! Do the vegetables need to be peeled or can they just be rinsed but leave the skins on? Thanks!
If you scrub them really well while cleaning, most of the vegetables can remain unpeeled. I still suggest peeling the parsnip and yams for best texture in this dish.
This was delicious. I doubled the recipe and took to a gathering. It was a hit.
I can’t seem to find where it says at what temperature the oven should be?
Hi Dee! Tori’s assistant Ashley here. The first step in the instructions reads “Place a rack in the bottom of your oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F” 🙂