Roasted Vegetables - Notes 

We eat far more veggies if I roast a big batch and freeze or just keep in the refrigerator in ziplock bags. Always available for eggs or pasta or soup!

Cut your veggies into even pieces, medium sized to small for even roasting.

Often right on the baking sheet, work plenty of olive oil into or onto them with your hands. Enjoy the tactile experience. If you don't get enough oil your veggies will just steam and not brown and are likely to just be soggy.

Salt enough to really bring out their tastes but not so much that you taste salt when you eat them. Start with about 1 t for a full 18x13 baking sheet. The more dense veggies like more salt than the leafy kale.

Cool on the baking sheet. They reabsorb the extra oil making them really packed with flavor. They are delicate and will break apart when they are hot, but become very durable when they are cool.

~Roasting squash for mashed.
You can just roast it whole. But if you decide to cut it let it warm up about 10 minutes to soften before cutting - it's much easier!

Whenever you get around to cutting it in half salt generously, maybe 1 t per medium squash. Leave seeds in and continue roasting until it is all dried out. Roast it cut side up because you want the steam to escape.

When it is very soft pick the seeds out and any obvious strings. Let any final steam escape to leave fluffy starchy sweet squash.

*Salting your veggies enough encourages their own natural starches to change to sugar leaving sweet flavorful veggies. Even your squashes should NEVER need sugar, but they will need plenty of butter or olive oil.

~Portioning for a crowd:
For the teenagers use 1 deep bowl spoonful which is 1.5 oz. This is a small serving. For those who may not think they love your veggies!

I roasted 20 lb raw carrots and they became 8.75 lb when finished. This is a 56% weight loss in cooking.

For 60 servings I am taking 7.5 lb cooked weight. This would be about 17 lb raw.
Roast on an aluminum baking sheet at roughly 400* CONVECTION. If you have a convection feature which you've never used, USE it NOW!

Tend your veggies. Start with 15 minutes and check maybe every 10 minutes. Be sure to bring the oven back to temp if you've opened it way too much.

Never overcrowd them. They need space for their moisture to evaporate leaving sweet goodness in its place.

Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower turn an unappetizing color and off taste if you roast them too long.

However, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, onions like a long and somewhat slow roast. They just get sweeter.

Kale is right in between. If you roast it too much you'll have kale powder which still tastes so good! Also, Kale doesn't mind a little squishing in the beginning because it shrinks so fast. Start hot but be ready to lower the oven temp so you get evenly roasted kale pieces without the bitterness of over browning. You can even finish it as low as roast 170*.

Massage a LITTLE BIT of salt into your kale to break down the minerals which can make your kale bitter. You will see it change from pale green to bright green.

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