Roasting Recipes

Roasting concentrates flavors through high dry heat, caramelizing natural sugars and creating textures that no other cooking method can match. It is also inherently gluten free. Vegetables, nuts, and proteins go into the oven with nothing more than oil, salt, and seasoning, and come out transformed. These 8 recipes showcase what high heat can do.

The Brussels sprouts are the recipe that converts people who think they hate Brussels sprouts. High heat roasting turns the edges dark and crispy while the interior becomes tender and slightly sweet. It is an entirely different vegetable from the boiled or steamed versions that gave Brussels sprouts their bad reputation.

Roasted pumpkin with black pepper and thyme, mustard roasted cauliflower, and the fire-roasted breakfast hash demonstrate the range of this technique. Each relies on the Maillard reaction, the same chemical process that browns bread crust and sears steak, to develop complex flavors from simple ingredients. The key is not overcrowding the pan (sound familiar?) and using temperatures of 400 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

The agave-glazed pecans show that roasting works for snacks too, and the red lentil pizza cooked over open fire takes roasting to its most elemental form. For gluten free cooks, roasting requires zero adaptation from conventional recipes. If a recipe tells you to roast vegetables, it works exactly the same with or without gluten in your diet.