Vegetables can be incredibly boring to eat sometimes, especially if you’re used to boiling them. However if you’re struggling to get flavour out of your vegetables in the colder months, one food expert shared a simple step you can add to the cooking process to completely transform dull veggies.
The foodie brains at Simply Recipes described this tip as one that requires “zero effort”. Molly wrote: “This genius trick is so easy and genuinely life-changing. You only have to worry about trying not to eat all of the roasted veggies before dinner is served!”
To give the vegetables a simple but flavoursome upgrade, you don’t even need to add any extra ingredients. Instead, when it comes to roasting veggies, preheat your oven tray along with the oven.
Yes, all you need to do is heat up the tray you plan on using. Molly instructed to place the tray in the cold oven and turn the temperature up to 200℃/400℉.
When the oven comes to temperature, heat the tray for an extra five to ten minutes. Add your prepared vegetables to the hot tray – be careful not to burn yourself.
Molly wrote: “Then I add the veggies to the hot sheet pan (be careful, it’ll be very hot!). They begin to crisp up immediately, creating a beautiful golden, crunchy exterior.”
So why does this simple cooking tip work well for veggies? The hot oven will help to caramelise the sugars in the vegetables, enriching their natural flavour.
By preheating the tray beforehand, this process will happen faster and “better”, giving them even more flavour. Molly wrote: “Second, the extra heat on the sheet pan helps to crisp the vegetables even more. For example, take broccoli.
“Have you ever roasted broccoli and found it steamed, not browned? That’s because the sheet pan and the oven never got hot enough. But add the florets to a hot sheet pan, and the edges crisp up beautifully, adding a lovely texture.”
She also shared a few tips to make sure you’re getting the most flavour out of your veggies. Ensure that you’ve got a tray that won’t bend or buckle under the heat.
You can also add a thin layer of oil before you preheat the tray. This will help the veggies to crisp up even more.
Molly also recommended to space the vegetables apart on the tray, making sure not to overcrowd the space. She explained: “Crowding will cause the vegetables to steam instead of crisp. Once the veggies hit the oven, I stir them once or twice to ensure maximum crispiness all around.”