Roasted Vegetables

(All Recipes have Gluten-Free Options)

Roast Pumpkin Masak Lemak (Serves 3-4)

This is a recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks of 2025, Agak Agak by Shu Han Lee. The pumpkin is cooked in coconut milk with a spice paste; the result is a mildly spiced, subtly sweet, delicious dish. Simply serve with rice.

1kg pumpkin or winter squash

2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil

¾ teaspoon and a pinch of sea salt

200ml coconut milk

200ml water

For the spice paste:

100g shallots, roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled, roughly chopped

Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

3 large red chillies, roughly chopped

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

To finish:

Juice of ½ lime

Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1 red chilli, thinly sliced

  1. Cut the squash into 2-3 cm wedges, removing any seeds and fibrous bits and leaving the skin on. Toss with the oil  and a big pinch of salt and spread out on a large, deep roasting tray. Roast in a preheated oven, 190’c fan, for 20 minutes.
  2. In the meantime, pound all the spice paste ingredients together either in a small blender or with a pestle and mortar, until you get a fine paste. Fry the paste in a saucepan over a medium heat until very fragrant, about 10 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk and water and bring to a simmer. Season with ¾ teaspoon of salt.
  3. Pour the sauce over the squash in the roasting tin, cover with foil, and continue to roast in the oven for another 20-25 minutes until tender.
  4. To serve, with a squeeze of lime, the chopped coriander and some chopped chilli.

Roasted Tomato Salad (Serves 4)

This is a perfect summer salad. Make sure you serve it with lots of bread to mop up the wonderful sweet juices. It’s one of those recipes which is so simple but Oh so good!…

12 large tomatoes

12 large fresh basil leaves

2 large or 4 small cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

To garnish:

Fresh basil leaves

24 black olives

  1. Skin the tomatoes by pouring boiling water over them and leaving for 1 minute, then drain and slip off the skins. Cut each tomato in half and place the halves in a shallow roasting tin, cut side uppermost.
  2. Season each tomato and sprinkle over with the chopped garlic. Finally, pour a few droplets of olive oil over each one and top each one with half a basil leaf, turning each piece of leaf over to get a coating of oil.
  3. Place the roasting tin in a preheated oven, 200’c fan, and roast for 50mins-1hour or until the edges are slightly blackened.
  4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Transfer to a serving plate.
  5. To serve, whisk the olive oil and balsamic vinegar together, and drizzle over the tomatoes. Finally, top each one with an olive and garnish with the basil leaves.

Roasted Red Peppers (Serves 4)

A wonderful classic Mediterranean recipe from Delia Smith’s ‘Summer Collection’ Cookbook. These peppers are incredibly good, they’re sweet yet with a salty edge; I’ve been cooking them for more years than I wish to admit!

4 large red peppers

4 medium tomatoes

8 tinned anchovy fillets, drained

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

8 dessertspoons olive oil

Freshly milled black pepper

A small bunch of basil

  1. Half the peppers, removing the seeds but leaving the stalks intact. Lay the pepper halves on a lightly oiled roasting tray.
  2. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and pour over boiling water, leave for 1 minute, then drain them and slip off the skins. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place two quarters in each pepper half.
  3. Snip one anchovy fillet per pepper half into rough pieces and add to the tomatoes. Divide the garlic slices equally among the tomatoes and anchovies and finally add a dessertspoon of olive oil to each pepper. And season with black pepper (not with salt as you have the anchovies!).
  4. Place the tray in a preheated oven, 180’c, for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
  5. Transfer the cooked peppers to a serving plate with all the precious juices poured over, garnish with the basil leaves and serve warm.

Turlu Turlu with Yoghurt & Cumin Sauce (Serves 4)

Taken from the cookbook ‘Moro’, Turlu Turlu has Turkish origins and is rather like a spiced and exotically herbed ratatouille. The vegetables are roasted so are super sweet; it makes a delicious vegetarian main course served with a yoghurt & cumin sauce and a simple rocket salad.

500-600g courgettes, trimmed and cut into 2cm discs

1 aubergine, halved lengthways and each half cut into 4 wedges lengthways

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, thickly sliced

2 green peppers, halved, seeded and thickly sliced

3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthways and each half cut into 3 lengthways

200g kohlrabi or turnips, cut into wedges about 2cm thick

2 medium potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon ground allspice

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

60g tinned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

150ml tomato passata

1 small bunch parsley, roughly chopped

1 small bunch coriander, roughly chopped

Sea salt and black pepper

Yoghurt & Cumin Sauce:

200g Greek yoghurt

½ – 1 garlic clove

A good pinch of sea salt

1½ teaspoons cumin seeds, roughly ground

  1. For the yoghurt sauce: use a pestle and mortar to crush the garlic with the salt to form a paste, then stir in the yoghurt and roughly ground cumin, and season with salt and pepper. Put to one side.
  2. In a large bowl toss the aubergine, onion, garlic, peppers, carrots, kohlrabi (or turnips) and potatoes with the olive oil, allspice, coriander seeds and a little salt and pepper.
  3. Spread out the vegetable mixture in a large roasting tray, no more than a layer deep and place in a preheated oven, 220’c fan, for 45 minutes turning every 15 minutes to encourage them to colour and caramelise all over. Now gently stir in the courgettes and cook for a further 15 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile heat up the chickpeas with the passata and check for seasoning. Finally, add to the vegetables along with the chopped herbs and stir well. Serve with the yoghurt sauce and a rocket salad.

Roasted Squash, Crispy Lentils, Pomegranate & Dukkah (Serves 4)

This is a fantastic vegetarian recipe from Rukmini Iyer’s cookbook ‘A Roasting Tin Around The World’. Not only does it taste wonderful, but it looks beautiful with its jewel-like colours!

600g butternut squash, cut into 1.5cm slices

1 red onion, cut into eighths

250g cherry tomatoes

1 x 400g tin brown lentils, drained and rinsed

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

½ – 1 teaspoon chilli flakes (to taste)

2 tablespoons dukkah

A handful of pomegranate seeds

A handful of fresh mint, roughly chopped

Dressing:

100ml plain yogurt

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

  1. Tip the squash, onion and tomatoes into a roasting tin large enough to hold everything in one layer, then mix through the lentils, salt, pomegranate molasses, oil, garlic and chilli flakes. Transfer to a preheated oven, 180’c fan, roast for 45-50 minutes, until the squash is cooked through.
  2. Meanwhile, mix the yogurt and pomegranate molasses together, taste and season with a little salt as needed.
  3. Drizzle the yogurt over the roasted veg, scatter over the dukkah, pomegranate seeds and mint and serve hot.

Roast Indian-Spiced Vegetables with Lime-Coriander Butter (Serves 4)

This recipe is from the cookbook ‘From Oven to Table’ by Diana Henry, and as she says herself, ‘it is the simplest, loveliest dish; beautiful’. It’s the lime-coriander butter, with its zingy, chilli-infused flavour, that really brings this dish of subtly spiced, roasted vegetables to life. It doesn’t need anything else on the side except a spoonful of natural yoghurt and, perhaps, a dollop of your favourite Indian chutney…

For the Vegetables:

300g small, waxy potatoes (such as Charlotte), scrubbed and quartered

3 medium-small ready-cooked beetroot, halved

6 long slim carrots, halved (or 3 large carrots, quartered)

1 medium-large cauliflower, about 1kg broken into florets, with the leaves

3 parsnips, halved lengthways

3 cloves garlic, finely grated

5 tablespoons groundnut oil

Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

¾ teaspoon ground turmeric

Natural yoghurt and chutney to serve

For the Butter:

75g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 red chilli, chopped (or ½ teaspoon chilli flakes)

2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves

Finely grated zest of 1 lime, plus a squeeze of lime juice

  1. First of all, get out your largest roasting tin, about 38-36cm (or use a couple of smaller tins). Place in a preheated oven, 210’c fan, to heat up.
  2. Put all the vegetables in a very large bowl, add the garlic, oil and seasoning.
  3. Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry frying pan for about a minute or two, until you can smell the spices. Put these spices in a mortar with the turmeric and pound together. Add the spices to the vegetables, turning everything over in the oil.
  4. Take the hot tins out of the oven and add the vegetables to them. Roast for 25 minutes tossing the vegetables halfway through.
  5. Meanwhile, mash the butter with the chilli, coriander, lime zest and juice.
  6. When the vegetables are ready put knobs of the butter all over the top and allow it to melt. Serve with the natural yoghurt and chutney on the side.