11/11/2025
Hey there School Food Pro, Lunch Lady, Chef, or whichever lovely title you’d prefer! Regardless, YOU freak’n Rock!!
Fun Tutorial ahead, so hang in for some inspo!!
To my amazement, it’s been two-years since I posted this, one of my most popular posts on Facebook
A quick tutorial on Veg Roasting. Well it’s worthy of a repost.
😍🫑🌽🌶️🫑🧄🥰
Seriously, if you do this at your school kids will be blown away! And as a side bonus, your staff will get lots of love back in the form of Thank You’s, and Wow’s, and Please do this everyday’s, from them!!
Who doesn’t love that, right?! 🥰
So I’m throwing down a challenge!
It’s easy:
1. Read the post!
2. Do it!
3. Feel the love!
3. Post a pic! Come on, show-off a little!
4. Do it every day, a different veg, me medley every day!
Boom!
Here it is!
Steaming is snazzy but Roasting Really Rocks!
Veggies love to be Roasted! Wanna see kids flip out for veggies? Roast’m!
Don’t roast them just any old way, though. If you want the tastiest and most eye-appealing veggies then these few simple tips, and a little practice, will Roast your World!
1. Cut veg in big pieces - ¾-1” chunks.
2. Place them in a very large bowl.
3. Coat with the oil of your choice. Just enough to make them shiny. Toss and stir to coat evenly.
4. Season with salt and pepper. Salt is an important culinary ingredient and is necessary when cooking with whole foods. Use carefully but use it! Otherwise, bland veggies will result. Test me on this. Taste test them both ways with kids. I bet I know what they will like better! 😉 If you want kids to eat more fresh, whole veggies, then make them taste better than the manufactured foods. By the way, manufacturers use salt in all the products you’re currently buying.
5. Toss and stir, Toss and stir! Please don’t just dump and drizzle. You have likely seen videos or recipes of people putting raw vegetables on a sheet tray and drizzling with oil and sprinkling with flavorings and seasonings. This method produces wildly inconsistent results. Some veg is un-oiled and seasoned, and some is over seasoned. …don’t do it, man. Toss and stir, Toss and stir for best results!
6. After all that tossing and stirring, then dump it on a sheet pan. Shallow layer. Don’t heap them or they will just steam in the middle. A shallow layer allows and ensures a beautifully caramelized result! Caramelization = depth of flavor (and allows for minimal salt use)!
7. Roast’m really HOT! Don’t be tempted to just throw them into a 350 oven. No bueno! A fully preheated, 425-450 oven is necessary for the magic to occur!
Did I say roast them HOT? … Oh yah, great, I did!
9. Then just Roast them till they’re done! Different veggies and different ovens will result in different cook times. Also, how full you stuff the oven makes a difference, too. If you have the luxury, don’t pack the oven full. Spread out up to three pans in a couple of ovens whenever possible with an empty rack between pans. And, batch cook whenever possible! Turn the oven, even hotter if you have to stuff it full. Rotate for even browning as necessary and Always try to get in and out of the oven as quickly as possible to keep the heat in there.
10. You will know they are done when they have a nice caramelization!
To get good at this, just roast a lot of veggies! Serve roasted veggies on your menus every! Practice makes perfect! 😎👍🏽
11. When they’re ready, serve them as soon as possible! No food ever benefited from camping out in the hot cart.
12. Here are a few pics to inspire and few written recipe ideas to get you started! First time you make them write down the quantities you use and then you’ll have the beginnings of your own custom standardized recipe. Remember practice makes perfect. 😎👍🏽
Remember! Cook from scratch more and more everyday!
Post a pic!
