This roasted vegetable medley is my go-to veggie side dish for just about any main dish, but it’s an easy main dish for nights when I need something hearty and healthy.

I love roasted vegetables. A friend of mine and I joke that if we didn’t have such enthusiastic eaters in our households, roasted vegetables would be the evening’s entree every night. Maybe not every night, but more frequently than most people would agree to.

Usually, I just toss the veggies in a little bit of olive oil and then roast away. It’s pretty simple, so sometimes I need to adjust things slightly to make it a new meal. That’s what I did with this roasted vegetable medley recipe. It’s not revolutionary, but I add a few ingredients to make it more special that your average roasted veggies.

Vegetables

Just about any root vegetable or cruciferous vegetable works here. Here, I used parsnips, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower, but you could swap out any of those for sweet potatoes, butternut squash or turnips if you want to mix things up. 

I also tossed in some sautéed dandelion greens. They’re quite bitter (not everyone in my house likes them) but they offer a caustic counterpoint to the sweetness of the parsnips and onions. You can leave them off, but it does give the veggies a kick. 

Red onions also add sweetness and crunch. If you want more of that, feel free to throw in some green or red peppers.

Spelt 

Spelt is one of those grains that make you feel like a hippie, but it does offer this dish a chewy texture and a bit of nutty flavor. If it’s too hippie-dippy for you or you want to simplify your dish, sub it with pine nuts—admittedly, it’s probably better with pine nuts but also more expensive. 

Halloumi 

I have to have cheese in all my medleys and for this one, I chose halloumi. Halloumi is a super briny cheese from Cyprus. It’s made from sheep and goat milk and is considered a semi-soft cheese.

This might sound like a weird cheese for roasted vegetables, but it works really well. Halloumi has a high melting point which makes it what some people describe as spongy (I think it’s kind of rubbery). Because of the rubberiness, It’s actually used as a grilling cheese because it doesn’t disintegrate when it touches something hot the way feta would and it doesn’t melt like mozzarella. That means it can stand up against roasted veggies without dissolving or crumbling.

Lemon Juice

Served at room temperature, lemon juice makes this medley melodious—the acid brings out the best flavors in the greens and amplifies the sweetness in the root veggies. If you serve the medley hot, skip the lemon juice. 

Pro tip: I buy a whole bag of lemons and juice them as soon as I get home from the store. When lemons are left whole, they continue to ripen and either rot or dry out if they’re not used right away. However, lemon juice takes a long time to go bad—if ever.

Air Fryer vs. Oven Roasting

The recipe itself is for oven-roasted vegetables with a baking sheet, but an air fryer also works. I love my Ninja Foodi—but I would recommend roasting the different vegetables separately if you’re making this full recipe.

Piling that many vegetables into the air fryer basket will result in steaming rather than roasting. It needs more air circulation to get the roasted flavor. However, if you’re reducing the recipe by half, you should be able to air fry your veggies.