Fluffy seasoned rice and oven roasted vegetables, all baked in one pan? YES YOU CAN! The veggie juices drip down into the rice while it’s baking so it absorbs all that extra flavour. It’s like free vegetable broth. While this Oven Baked Rice and Vegetables is great as a side, I usually have it as a meal!
And the next free eCookbook is….. drumroll please….. ASIAN TAKEOUT AT HOME!!! I’m trying to ramp up the excitement, but it won by quite a margin and everyone could see the results of the poll at anytime. So rather than a drumroll, a more appropriate sound effect was probably pfffffffff ( <– The sound of a deflating balloon, totally obvious, no? 😉)
It will largely be a collation of recipes already on my site, but I’ll add some extras that I haven’t published. And for everyone on my mail list, this new eCookbook will be emailed to you once it’s done! (And if you’re not yet on my email list, you can join at anytime. It is 100% free, always will be, no strings attached, and I pay a premium service provider too much money to protect the email details of everyone on my list so no one can ever use it. Except me – to send you recipes. And free e-Cookbooks. ❤️)
I probably should be sharing an Asian recipe to be on theme, but I’m so overdue on this Oven Baked Rice and Vegetables, I must share it today! This is a reader request – well, I should say readerS. After sharing my Oven Baked Chicken and Rice earlier this year, I had an astonishing number of people requesting a vegetable version. So here it is!
When it comes to this Oven Baked Rice and Vegetables, there is only one rule – you have to use LOTS of veggies. And I’m not just saying that to sound cheeky, I’m being serious. Because you need enough to cover the rice entirely while it’s baking. This serves 2 purposes:
Acts as a cover for the rice, allowing it to essentially “steam” like it does when cooked on the stove; and
The juices that drip from the veggies while they are roasting on top adds flavour to the rice. It’s like free vegetable broth that is all sucked up by the rice.
I used carrots, zucchinis, corn, capsicum/bell peppers, onion and cauliflower, all of which are standard for my weekly shop. I’m sure you can make yours much more exciting than mine. 😉
When you bake the rice and roasted vegetables in one pan, the reality is that there is only so much veggies that get the benefit of the beautiful oven roasting char. So when you are spreading the veggies across the top of the rice, make sure to be fair! Get a bit of each type of veggies on the surface so you get some char.
And for those veggies that can live without being roasted, like carrots, broccoli and peas, cook them IN the rice, rather than on the surface, or shove them down under the other veggies. Leave the surface for veggies that really benefit from being browned in the oven – in my world, that includes: onions, zucchinis, cauliflower, capsicum / bell peppers.
As for the rice?
It’s seasoned. It’s fluffy. It’s sucked up all those vegetable juices.
Frankly, it’s the best part of this recipe. 😉 But we must eat our veggies! – Nagi x
PS I expect many people may think of this as a side dish to pair with a protein, but in all honesty, I have it as a meal. I don’t think I’ve ever made it as a side.
PPS You won’t need a sauce with this if you serve it fresh. The roasted veggies are juicy and the rice is flavoured. But if you want a sauce, a simple yoghurt + lemon one would pair great with this. Recipe in the notes.
PPPS Those who are fans of the Oven Baked Chicken and Rice may notice that this recipe doesn’t call for the step to “oven saute” onions before adding the rice. The reason is because this recipe gets extra flavour from the veggie juices that drip into the rice while baking. 🙂
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Oven Baked Rice and Vegetables
Ingredients
Rice:
- 1 1/2 cups basmati or jasmine rice , uncooked (Note 1 for other rice types)
- 1 1/2 cups (375ml) chicken or vegetable broth (I use chicken)
- 1 1/4 cups (315ml) water
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 2 medium carrots , cut into 1 cm thick slices, larger pieces halved
- 30g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter (optional)
Roasting Vegetables (Note 2):
- 1 red onion , halved and cut into wedges
- 1 capsicum / bell pepper , cut into 2.5cm / 1″ pieces
- 1/2 small cauliflower , broken into florets
- 2 zucchini , cut into 2cm / 4/5″ chunks
- 2 corn cobs , each cut into 3 (6 small cobs)
- 1/4 cup olive oil , plus more for drizzling
Spice Mix:
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 1/2 tsp thyme or other dried herb of choice
- 1 tsp garlic powder (or onion powder)
- 1 tsp salt (Note 3 for low sodium)
- 1 tsp pepper , plus extra
Garnish (optional):
- Finely chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C/390F (standard) / 180C/350F (fan / convection).
- Mix Spice Mix in a small bowl.
- Place Rice ingredients in a baking dish (including the carrots), about 23 x 30 cm / 9 x 13″. Add 1 1/2 tsp Spice Mix. Stir, cover with foil, bake for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place Roasting Vegetable ingredients in a large bowl, drizzle with 1/4 cup olive oil. Sprinkle over remaining Spice Mix. Mix well – hands are best for this.
- Remove rice from oven.
- Turn oven UP to 220C/430F (standard) / 200C/390F (fan / convection).
- Take off foil. Spread the Roasting Vegetables on top of the rice. Make sure there’s a bit of each type of vegetable on the surface. Push corn mostly under.
- Drizzle with more oil (optional), sprinkle with more pepper.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, rest for 5 – 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle with parsley if desired. Push vegetables aside, fluff rice and toss it through the vegetables a bit (rice gets more flavour). Serve!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
His current favourite toy. I bet this doesn’t surprise anyone.
I made your chicken and rice tonight……delicious! Rice was absolutely perfect!
Now I want to try the vegetable and rice recipe. Just wondering, would eggplant work in this?
Thank you—- I have you in my favorites.
Hi Sharon! Eggplant should work great! Make sure the cut surface is rubbed with oil, salt and pepper and that it is on the surface. You don’t want steamed eggplant 🙂 N x
Would love to make this for tea tonight. Could i add some lamb chops on top of the rice with the veggies?
Absolutely! Just put them in for as long as the chops will take to cook, depends how thick they are 🙂
I’ve made this recipe once and it was so delicious! So flavourful and hearty.
I was wondering if you can use brown rice and how it would affect the cooking times?
So glad you enjoy this May! The brown rice instructions are in the notes 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, we love this recipe and had made it many times. Would you know if I could use quinoa instead of the rice and if so, would the cooking times or liquid ratio differ? Thanks heaps, Jen.
HI Jen! I haven’t tried it for this actual recipe but I have baked quinoa and the ratio is 1:2, being 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of liquid. So if you increase the liquid by 1/4 cup then you can just switch the rice for quinoa and the cook time should be about the same (in anywise, quinoa is more forgiving that rice so even if it goes over, it won’t go mushy 🙂 ) Hope that helps! N x
That’s brilliant thanks, I will try it next time as we love this recipe.
Hi Nagi, can I cooked this in rice cooker?
Hi Delza, I’m afraid that’s a different recipe 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, this was sensational. So easy and tasty. The rice came out perfect and those veggies-wow! You are right that it is a meal in itself. Thanks heaps.
Thank you so much for sharing your feedback Jen, I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed this! N x ❤️
Simple & delicious! I added black beans, grated cheese & tomatoes with green chilies to the leftovers & used it as filling for stuffed poblano peppers the next night. YUM!
I’m pleased you enjoyed it Fiona, thanks for letting me know! N x
This recipe is AMAZING!! It’s really quite simple but I made it for dinner the day you posted it and I’ve made it at least twice a week since then. It’s so good that I’m now making a small container full of the spice blend so that I don’t have to mix it every time. 🙂 I’ve made it with white rice, brown rice, no rice. I even roasted the veggies on a pan with chicken pieces on a rack over top so the chicken juices dripped onto the veggies. Thank you for this recipe! 🙂 🙂 🙂
That’s great to hear Nancy!! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it! N xx ❤️
I am so excited that you’re putting out another cookbook – I love that all of them are free, but if you ever put one out that you have to pay for – I will buy at least three!
I was just wondering if you would recommend a different vegetable to use instead of corn in this recipe? I can’t wait to make it, but neither my husband are big fans of corn. Would you adjust the bake time if you made it without the corn?
Hi Kat! No adjustment to bake time needed! 🙂 Feel free to increase the amount of the other vegetables in this, or instead of putting the carrots IN the rice, put it on top so it gets some browning! N xx
Made this tonight. So good! Even my big manly, meat-needing husband was happy with this as the main dish!
WOAH, what a compliment! 😂
I love your recipes!!! This one will be a go to recipe, heathly and delicious. I made one slight change that I think took it to another level…smoked paprika. The leftovers were better every day, did not need a sauce. On of the things I really appreciate about your recipes aside from the fact that they work as written, is that you offer many substitutions and tell us how to incorporate them. I don’t like salty rice, no problem. I followed the low sodium version.
OOOH! Smoked Paprika, fabulous! So glad you enjoyed this Lori! N x
Hi Nagi,
I live in England and came across your website one day while browsing. I now cook one of your recipes at least twice a week and have loved every one. The majority of the recipes have the ingredients in cups and grammes, which makes it much easier for me as, in England, everything is measured by weight. I noticed that this recipe only has cups, and as this is newly posted wondered if you would only be giving cup measurements now?
I also wondered with the baked rice recipes whether there is a specific ratio of rice to liquid that could be applied as a base for adapting to use any meats or vegetables? I hope that makes sense!
Many thanks,
Helen
PS Do you do rice by weight too?? If so, I will update all my old recipes too! N x
Just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the rice and vegetables, Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin tonight.
Thanks for all the recipes, just not enough days in the week!
Helen
That’s fantastic to hear Helen! Thanks for leaving a review! N x ❤️
Yes, everything is done in grammes, or millilitres for liquids. Thank you so much for your prompt reply and updating the recipe. I am making this tonight and know it will be delicious! Did you understand my question about the rice/liquid ratio?
Helen
Not at all Helen! I will update this recipe now for cups and ML! N x
A sensational way to combine roasted vegetables and rice and all in the one oven pan. We had it first with roast chicken then used the leftover on open sandwiches with a Greek yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce. Very tasty and really fragrant during the cooking.
Regards to Dozer from Lurline Bay.
Lyn and David
It’s so great to hear you enjoyed this Lyn & David! Thanks for leaving a review 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi
I want to try this but we only have brown rice. Would the measurements be the same? Do you think it will still work?
Thanks : )
Hi Emma! The brown rice directions are in the recipe notes 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi,
Just about to start this but a quick question…although we would not eat the cooked red onion, do u think it’s worth keeping in the receipe for flavour?
Thks!
Hi Jo! Nope, leave it out of the recipe 🙂
Hi do you use boiling water or cold water???
Hi Will! Just cold water for this 🙂 I specify if it needs to be boiling!
Nagi,
I have been looking for this recipe for weeks. Good idea to use the vegetables as something of a ‘steaming lid’
Thanks Dean! And a much better way to describe the veggies as a steaming lid than my clunky attempt! 😂
I made this today, and it is the most cheerful vegetable dish I’ve ever made. It is impossible not to smile at all that color, and it was delicious! Thank you for sharing these wonderful recipes, Nagi! I actually owe you a few more reviews because I have tried out a couple more recently…! Keep up the good work, your food are works of art!
I’m so pleased you enjoyed this Einzel, thanks for letting me know! N x ❤️
Hi Nagi,
We had this for dinner last night. It was delicious!
My usually meat-loving teens enjoyed this meatless meal. I have also tried your broccoli cheese ball and they love it!
Thank you for sharing your recipes 👍
Wow that’s a high praise, meat loving teen approved? 😳
Hi Nagi,
I accidentally came across your website (while at work 😉 ) and I’m amazed and grateful that I did. I checked out few recipes and just love them. Specially this oven baked rice and vegetables one. I’ll definitely try it over the weekend. Hoping to see more vegetarian recipes. Thank you.
I do hope you try and love it Shani! So pleased you see recipes you like the look of here 🙂 N xx