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
I often bake/broast root veggies and was looking for a twist – and this is it. I add Brussel Sprouts. (cut the end off and halve the long way. They come out succulent and nutty while providing various shades of green for the artist within and somehow unifying the plate.
Thanks so much for this recipe …
I found you, thanks to duckduckgo – so now I will look around 🙂
Simple, sweet, and delicious!! This will be a new staple.
My husband and I absolutely love this recipe. We are part of a CSA and had many root vegetables that we weren’t very fond of by themselves. Mixed together in this recipe with all the spices (I only used dried) it was delicious. I used whatever we had, never exactly what was listed
Great recipe! Just a note – the video that accompanies this recipe shows the garlic cloves being coarsely chopped… But the recipe indicates that they should be whole. (?)
Thanks Mandy. If the cloves are very large you can roughly chop them. The important point is to make all of the vegetables roughly the same size.
It is so simple and extremely delicious… o added broccoli and cauliflower and it was super hi!!
This was so tasty even though I did not have parsnips. Thanks for the beet tip! I waited to put them in until after the other veggies, oil and seasonings were well tossed. Only the onions became pink. Thanks, Tori!
The cumin complemented the other flavors very nicely! I added radishes and Japanese turnips I had on hand. This dish went very nicely with some leftover pork shoulder roast. I will be making this again!
Wonderful dish. Easy to make, delicious and visually appealing!
This recipe is great! I was a little worried about the cumin but I loved it. I couldn’t get parsnips (they were out of stock), so I used a small turnip. I skipped the red potatoes and added Brussels sprouts (I know, not a root vegetable). I also added some toasted, chopped pecans for a nice, sweet crunch, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. My teen son loved it! Me too!
I loved this recipe, it had never occurred to me to roast beetroot like this, nor to add cumin, and it was gorgeous – sweet and beautiful to look at. And the leftovers were great too, especially on toast for breakfast. I am making this again tonight, with a different combo of veggies. Thanks!
Divine, thank you very much. Loved it
I had some vegetables left over from making a chicken soup and I had bought a few beets to roast, so I added some onion. It was great!
Love, love , love this recipe!! Made it this evening and enjoyed it immensely. The flavors popped!
Thank you!
Glad to hear that!
Love this roasted root vegetable recipe. The garlic, thyme and rosemary are so wonderfully delicious together with the vegetables. I wonder if you think it would be a good side for a roasted pomegranate chicken. Or will the flavours compete?
Karin
I actually think it would be wonderful with pomegranate chicken! Glad you’re enjoying it. 🙂
Made this one evening and it was very good then. The next morning I pan fried a serving up as a sort of breakfast scramble and it was delicious. Definitely will make again, and am especially pleased with its ability to be reheated.
When do you add the garlic? and onion?
They should be added in step 2 with all the rest of the vegetables.
Do you peel the beets before roasting?
No need, just scrub them really well until they’re clean. Some skin will come off while you’re scrubbing.
Do you think I can add crispy bacon pieces to this, and oven roast it in the bacon fat instead of olive oil?
Never tried it… I don’t cook with bacon fat so not sure about smoke point for roasting. If you try it please report back and let us know how it was, this will be helpful for other readers!
I am making this tonight, gold beets, turnips, purple carrots, parsnips and broccoli.
Made this great side dish for an early Thanksgiving and we have been snacking on the leftovers all week!