• They are one pot so much less effort.
• The starchier sweetness improves your baking adding a ton more cozy feeling.
• When I bake my kitchen is warm at the same time.
• It is a recipe that you can do as a big batch with minimal prep and have all week long in the fridge.
• It pairs well with pasta, rice or any grains,can be rolled as wraps or made into a salad.

Ingredients for baked root vegetables.

The vegetables: the baked vegetable tray is one recipe that allows you so much flexibility in terms of what you can have. You can make it as colourful as you like or as monochrome as you prefer. Here is a list of vegetables I like to throw into the tray.

• Sweet potatoes
• Carrot
• Turnip
• Potato
• Radish
• Swedes
• Beetroot

For roasting: Olive oil, salt and herbs are the ones that work. The herbs I have chosen is rosemary and oregano. You can use thyme or basil as well. 

Lets make baked root vegetables

The baked vegetables is the best use of a roasting tray.

Prep the vegetables: choose starchy tough vegetables to start with. Wash thoroughly. Cut them into big chunks or dices as you prefer. Keep the beets separately. The carrots, potato sweet potato, radish, parsnip, swedes, turnip can all go together.

Coat them in flavours. Since the vegetables are going to be soft and bland, it is best to coat them with flavours. Sprinkle salt, pepper abd drizzle oil and toss them well. For flavours I prefer to add fresh study herbs that just dont burn away. Rosemary, oregano and thyme are my first choice. Go with what feels natural to you. You can replace the pepper with chilli flakes if you like the heat. Lets the vegetable mix sit while you preheat the oven
Ensure that the beets are coated and kept separate.

Bake: preheat the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Place the vegetables on a roasting tray. Spread them out evenly. Poke in pieces of beets into the gaps so they cook along. Roast the vegetables for 35 to 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius on heat both from up and down. Half way through the time, flip the vegetables over to ensure even roasting. After about 35 minutes the vegetables will be ready and fork tender. Remove from heat and direct to the table. Or cool and proceed for storage.

Meal prep and storage

The baked root vegetables are wonderful to add bulk to any meal or in the lunch box.

Is this a vegan recipe?

Baked root vegetable is an excellent vegan platter. It is filling, a mix of good healthy fibre and carbs and perfect for any vegan meal.

How to make baked root vegetables into a salad?

Once you have the baked veggies in meal prep you can have a hearty salad with it. For the dressing I prepare a generous mix of lemon and lime juice with some pepper and salt. Then you need some freshness. Chop up some tomatoes, a cucumber and handful of oregano, mint and parsley. Add all this into the mixing bowl with double the quantity of baked vegetables. Pour the dressing over it. Toss well and serve immediately. They are great sides to meals and double up as salads. You can add a bunch to your breakfasts to as hash.

How do you ensure the beets don’t leech the colour all over?

There are a couple of ways you can achieve this. If you peel chop and place the beets separately, then place them on the tray to bake it will have zero leaching.
Another method is to ensure you add the beets right at the end, a quick toss in the oil and salt and straight into the oven.

Other baked recipes from us that make a good mealprep

Baked whole cauliflower

Dried peas nuggets

Baked veggie sheek kebabs

Paneer puffs

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Hope you enjoy making this batch of low effort baked root vegetables. When you make your batch using this recipe, do share your thoughts and improvements in the comments below.
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Enjoy sipping this warm broth with pumpkin and soft tofu through winter months or as you recover.

Ever since her braces the tooth sensitivities are high and my daughter looks for something filling  yet soothing. That’s when we devised this soft tofu and pumpkin broth soup that has been a winner.
Served warm, the soup has a lot of liquid and soft cooked pumpkin pieces. The soft tofu can be added chunky or broken down to form more of an egg drop soup consistency. This is a bowl of pure comfort and nourishment at the same time. It is a beginner recipe that is needs a chopping board, knife and a cooking pot only. It is,

• low calorie
• gluten free
• devoid of nuts
• dairy free.

Ingredients for the pumpkin soft tofu soup

Pumpkin: the chunks of pumpkin give the body to this soup. Any variety is fine as long as they soften when cooked. I like the Japanese variety somehow as it has a smoother mouth feel. It is perfectly OK to swap this to butternut squash as well .

Soft tofu : this is the softness and the uniqueness of this soup. When cooked,the soft tofu assumes a soft jelly like texture. It cannot be swapped for firm tofu as it feels clunky. So no swaps please on the soft tofu.

Seasonings: Salt and pepper is plenty to right make this soup good. Yet I have a secret ingredient you should try.

Dried mushroom powder: This brings forth a soothing umami flavours to the dish. I choose the powder as at the moment my daughter finds it difficult to chew. If not you can add a few chopped pieces of shitake or brown Swiss. I would totally avoid enoki as it will make the soup a bit slimy and with the soft tofu it us not a great mouthfeel.

Broth : to be clear,  I cook the soup in water. However you will get a much more depth of flavour if you use a vegetable broth. If using the broth be mindful not to add salt till you have tested the salt levels.

Herbs: you can finish off this soup with herbs if you like. You can add chopped coriander leaves, chives or scallions.

Let’s make pumpkin soft tofu soup

This will be one of the easiest ways you will make a soup.

Prep the pumpkin: this is probably the most time consuming process in this whole recipe. Peel and chop the pumpkin into chunks. You can dice smaller if you like. Frozen pumpkin cubes work well too.

Cook the pumpkin in broth: into a cooking pot add the broth (or water) and the pumpkin cubes. Cover and cook till the pumpkin is soft and mashable.

Add the soft tofu: remove the block of tofu from the packaging. Cut them into cubes. once the pumpkin is cooked add the tofu into the soup. Simmer and cook for 5 minutes till the tofu steams well. Instead of cubes you can crush the tofu and add. This soup will resemble the egg drop soup.

Season and serve: adjust the salt and sprinkle some pepper into the soup and remove from heat. The soup is ready to be served. Serve warm.

Variations to the soup.

At times we like to spice it up a bit with this soup, so a teaspoon of sambal chilli paste or Thai curry paste into the broth adds a ton of flavour and a variation from the regular.

Likewise, along with the pumpkin, you can add any vegetable you choose. This adds a bit more variety to this broth. You could try zucchini, broccoli, cabbage or winter melon will be good in the recipe.

Meal prep and lunch boxes

The soup broth definitely tastes the best when warm. However, it can be prepared ahead. It stays good for up to 3 days. I wont recommend freezing the soup as it is nit worth that effort.

Other soup recipes that are handy when having braces.

Broccoli and peas soup
Cherry tomato soup
Avocado cold soup
Carrot and celery soup

Stay connected

The pumpkin and soft tofu broth is a simple recipe. It is a perfect winter comfort or a bowl when you are just under the weather. Let me know if you like this version of a simple soup in the discussion below.
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