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large batch roasted veggies?

2K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  mike9 
#1 ·
I'm looking for advice on making a large amount of roasted veggies for Thanksgiving, enough for about 10 people. Given how few you can get on a sheet pan it seems like it will take forever to roast batch after batch even putting two sheet pans in at once. Would it work with two layers of veggies in each pan instead of one flat layer? How early can you roast veggies before they end up limp and wilted?
 
#2 ·
The answer to this depends entirely on what veggies you want to roast. What do you have in mind? Some roasted veggies do very well being served cold or room temperature so this is not a difficult problem to solve, but it does depend on what you’re roasting.
 
#4 ·
I might be in the minority on this but I always do my each of my vegetables separately so I always have to do a number of batches. I do this because they don't all cook at the same time, especially if you have some larger, older vegetables and some smaller younger ones. The good news is I find they reheat really well, IMHO. I will roast them off a day or 2 before, store them each separately then give them a quick toss in a saute pan to reheat. The upside to doing it this way, besides saving oven room the day of, is that it makes it really easy to glaze them, if you want, when reheating.
 
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#5 ·
I'm looking for advice on making a large amount of roasted veggies for Thanksgiving, enough for about 10 people. Given how few you can get on a sheet pan it seems like it will take forever to roast batch after batch even putting two sheet pans in at once. Would it work with two layers of veggies in each pan instead of one flat layer? How early can you roast veggies before they end up limp and wilted?
It will take forever to roast them properly. Or you could start piling them up to speed up the process but they won't roast properly as the bottom layer of veggies will release their steam into the top layer while the top layer creates a "lid" preventing the steam from the bottom layer to escape properly. So basically neither layer will roast properly and you'll end up with something that is halfway between roasted and steamed veggies.

Even when I am extremely careful to separate the pieces of veggies so the steam can escape from each piece's sides, I get much better results from the pieces that are positioned on the outer sides vs the ones in the center of the sheet pan.

Having said that I regularly make big dishes of "roasted" veggies in a gratin dish, haphazardly piled 2 or 3 layers deep. That's fine and they come out very good but they're not truly roasted per se... I mean they definitely get a lot of steam treatment and don't develop the same type of caramelization that they do when I carefully place them on a sheet pan.

It all depends on the result you're looking for.
 
#6 ·
I agree with a lot of the posts here, some more information is required to make more detailed suggestions. That being said in response to your original post yes it can technically be done that way and cooking times will vary based on type, size, cooking temperature, ect. If you are going to have any other hot vegetable dishes maybe you could grill the vegetables ahead of time and make a cold salad out of them?
 
#7 ·
Food Plant Ingredient Recipe Salad


Pic of roasted veggies I made a few weeks ago.
I used all firm vegetables, tossed in vegetable oil, salt and pepper. One layer deep on a roasting pan at 325F for about 30 minutes before checking on them. I think they took about an hour total. I let them cool then put them in storage bags and in the fridge. They reheat very well.
Good luck!
 
#8 ·
View attachment 67101

Pic of roasted veggies I made a few weeks ago.
I used all firm vegetables, tossed in vegetable oil, salt and pepper. One layer deep on a roasting pan at 325F for about 30 minutes before checking on them. I think they took about an hour total. I let them cool then put them in storage bags and in the fridge. They reheat very well.
Good luck!
Looks good. I can't tell, are those radishes, candy beets or really pale red b potatoes?
 
#10 ·
I like to roast in a single layer. Toss my veggies in evoo and season then spread on the pan(s). If you want to keep 'em separated get some foil pans. I don't know how big your oven is, but if you have two racks you can put multiple pans in. 10 people don't require a ton of veg either unless they're the main course.
 
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