A dark sheet pan of brick-red roasted cauliflower florets, carrot pieces and red onion wedges with charred edges, a spoonful of harissa and lemon glaze being drizzled over them

Harissa Roasted Vegetables, With the Paste Added Twice

Published 25 Sep 20267 min read

Harissa is a paste of sun-dried chiles ground with salt, garlic and coriander, the Tunisian condiment UNESCO added to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2022. In a hot oven it behaves two ways. The part of it held in oil on the surface of a vegetable cooks down to a deep brick red and turns sweet; the part that drips onto bare metal blackens and goes bitter. Long cooking drives off some flavor, and in testing the bright, fruity smell of the chile faded over a long roast. So this recipe uses it twice. Two spoonfuls go into the roasting oil, where they color and season the vegetables through. A third, loosened with lemon juice and raw olive oil, goes on after the pans come out, so the finished dish tastes of fresh chile as well as roasted chile. The rest is the plain roasting rule from Utah State University Extension: a hot oven, one layer, and enough room on the pan that the vegetables brown instead of steam.

Ingredients, for four

1 medium cauliflower (about 700 g), cut into 1-inch florets
450 g (1 lb) carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch lengths, thick ends halved
1 large red onion, cut into 8 wedges through the root so they hold together
1 can (400 g) chickpeas, drained and patted very dry (optional; it makes the tray a main course)
3 tablespoons harissa, divided: 2 for roasting, 1 for the glaze. A Tunisian paste such as Les Moulins Mahjoub Traditional Harissa (shop Les Moulins Mahjoub Traditional Harissa), or the Brooklyn-made New York Shuk Signature Harissa (shop New York Shuk Signature Harissa)
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided: 4 for roasting, 1 for the glaze, such as Capezzana (shop Capezzana)
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds, such as Burlap & Barrel Wild Mountain Cumin (shop Burlap & Barrel Wild Mountain Cumin)
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, adjusted to the harissa
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup (240 g) whole-milk plain yogurt
A handful of mint and cilantro leaves, torn
Optional: the rind of 1/4 preserved lemon, finely chopped

Method

Heat the oven. 425°F (220°C), racks in the upper and lower thirds, two rimmed sheet pans out. Two pans, not one. This quantity crowded onto a single pan will steam in its own moisture and come out soft and pale.
Toast the cumin. Shake the seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat for about a minute, until they smell toasty and darken a shade, then tip them straight into a large mixing bowl so they stop cooking. The spice toasting guide explains why whole seeds are toasted before they meet the oil.
Make the roasting paste. Add 4 tablespoons of the oil, 2 tablespoons of the harissa and the salt to the bowl and whisk into a loose, pourable red paste. Taste a fingertip of it. Harissas vary from region to region and producer to producer. If yours is salty, cut the salt back, and if it is fierce, hold back half a tablespoon.
Coat everything. Add the cauliflower, carrots, onion and chickpeas and toss with your hands, working the paste into the cracks of the florets, until every surface is red and slick. Loose paste left in the bottom of the bowl stays in the bowl; unattached harissa on the pan is what burns.
Spread it out. Divide between the two pans in a single layer, pieces not touching, cauliflower cut sides down. Heat has to reach every side of each piece for it to roast rather than steam.
Roast, stir, swap. Roast 15 minutes, until the undersides are browned. Stir with a spatula, turning the pieces, and swap the pans between racks. Roast another 10 to 15 minutes, until a knife slides into the carrots and the cauliflower edges are dark and crisp. Dark brown is the goal; black is too far.
Make the glaze. While the second half of the roast runs, stir the last tablespoon of harissa with the last tablespoon of oil and the lemon juice. The lemon goes in here, after the vegetables are tender, and not before.
Glaze and finish. Pile the hot vegetables onto a platter, spoon the glaze over them and toss once, so the raw harissa warms on the hot vegetables without cooking. Scatter the herbs and the preserved lemon rind. Serve with the yogurt alongside, swirled with a little more harissa if the table likes heat.

Why it went wrong

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Bitter black spots on the pan and the vegetables	Loose harissa pooled on bare metal and scorched	Toss until the paste clings to the vegetables and leave the bowl dregs behind. Hold the glaze spoonful back; it never touches the oven
Soft, pale, wet	Pan crowded; the vegetables steamed in their own moisture	Two pans, one layer, pieces not touching. Pat the chickpeas and any washed vegetables dry first
Carrots still hard when the cauliflower is done	Carrot pieces cut too thick	Cut to 1 inch and halve the thick top ends lengthwise so every piece is about the same size
Heat but no chile flavor	All the harissa went into the oven	Use the two-stage method: the raw glaze at the end carries the fresh chile
Shriveled and leathery	Too little oil, or left in too long in dry air	Use the full 4 tablespoons in the roast and start checking at the early end of the time range
Flat, one-note	No acid, or undersalted	The lemon in the glaze, salt to taste at the platter, and the yogurt on the side

Notes and variations

Other vegetables. The method holds for anything that roasts at the same heat in about the same time: butternut squash in 1-inch pieces, Brussels sprouts halved and set cut side down, fennel in wedges, sweet potato in 1-inch cubes. Mix vegetables that finish together, or add the quicker ones to the pan partway through.

The oil. Four tablespoons across two pans keeps the paste on the vegetables and the vegetables from drying out. A fruity everyday extra virgin is the right bottle here, per the olive oil buying guide, and the finishing tablespoon in the glaze is where a greener, more peppery one shows. Why the tray turns sweet. Dry oven heat browns the outsides of the vegetables and brings out their sweetness; the browning guide covers the chemistry.

Choosing a harissa. The Mahjoub paste is sun-dried peppers ground with garlic, coriander, cardamom and salt in extra virgin olive oil, made by a Tunisian family farm.

In Denver, oven temperatures are not affected by elevation, per Colorado State University Extension, so the 425°F here stands. What changes is the air: low humidity makes the moisture in food evaporate more quickly during cooking, so watch for vegetables drying out. Use the full measure of oil, keep the pieces at a true inch, and check at the early end of each time range. The altitude kitchen guide has the rest.

The harissa, the olive oil, the cumin and the preserved lemons are at the shop in Cherry Creek, Denver, and at theambrosianpantry.com. Visitors can ask staff in the shop which jar runs hottest.