Roasted Vegetables

Asked by Unknown. Answered on 28th August 2015

Full question

Hi there, I was just wondering, after following Nigella's gorgeous roast potato recipe with semolina, whether you would follow this same process for other veggies such as parsnip, pumpkin and carrot etc. I.E. precooking, breaking up the edges and coating with the semolina etc. Or is this best left for the potatoes? Many thanks.

Our answer

Nigella's Perfect Roast Potatoes recipe (from Christmas and on the Nigella website) does involve parboiling the potatoes then draining and tossing them in a pan with some semolina. The purpose of this is to give a crisp exterior to the potato as tossing them in the pan will slightly roughen up the surface, giving flakes of potato that become very crisp during roasting. The slightly firm grains of semolina on the surface of the potato also add extra crunch.

Potatoes are usually parboiled as they turn soft and starchy when cooked and this helps with the crisp outside but also means that the inside is soft and fluffy. Ubfortunately for most other vegetables they do not have the same texture so parboiling does not help enormoulsy and most other vegetables are best roasted from raw. However many root vegetables become very sweet when roasted so have a different, but extremely delicious advantage. We would encourage you to try Nigella's Maple-Roast Parsnips (also from Christmas and on the Nigella website) or Butternut Squash With Pecans And Blue Cheese (from Nigella Express and also on the Nigella website).