If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my stories about adventuring through the new Trader Joes in New Orleans. I’m so excited to finally have a Trader Joes near by because they have so many “fun” foods and a decent amount of International ingredients at good prices. One ingredient that I spotted and had to try was harissa. I’ve seen harissa in recipes a lot lately and have been super curious about it because, well, you know how I love spicy chile sauces! So, I grabbed a jar, mixed up a super simple marinade with lemon, honey, and olive oil, and made a big batch of crispy Harissa Roasted Vegetables.
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How to Serve Harissa Roasted Vegetables
You can serve these smoky and spicy roasted vegetables as a side next to grilled meat or fish, or slap an egg on top (as I always do) and make a meal out of it. I also served my Harissa Roasted Vegetables with Cumin Rice, which made a nice earthy base for all those harissa flavors to pop! Love it!
Harissa Roasted Vegetables
Servings 6 1 cup eachIngredients
HARISSA MARINADE
- 1/4 cup harissa (paste) ($1.20)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.22)
- 1/2 Tbsp honey ($0.14)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice ($0.07)
VEGETABLE MEDLEY
- 6 small red potatoes (1-1.5 lbs.) ($1.17)
- 1 broccoli crown ( $1.30)
- 3 carrots ($0.40)
- 1 small red onion ($1.07)
- Handful chopped fresh cilantro ( $0.20)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Prepare a large baking sheet by lightly spritzing with non-stick spray or covering with foil.
- In a small dish, stir together the harissa, olive oil, honey, salt, and lemon juice. Set the marinade aside.
- Wash the potatoes well and cut into one-inch cubes. Wash and peel the carrots, then slice into one-inch sections. Cut the broccoli into florets, and chop the onion into large sections. Place the potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and onion on the prepared baking sheet.
- Pour the harissa marinade over the vegetables and use your hands to toss the vegetables until they are evenly coated in the marinade.
- Roast the vegetables in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, stir, and then continue roasting for another 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the edges have achieved a nice deep brown color. Top with chopped cilantro just before serving.
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Shown with Cumin Rice
How to Make Harissa Roasted Vegetables – Step by Step Photos
This is the harissa that I used. It comes in a small jar, but is pretty strong so you don’t need to use a lot at once.
And this is what it looks like inside, close up. You can see it’s a very thick, slightly oil chile paste. Too thick to really use as a marinade, so I mixed in a few extra ingredients.
To make the marinade, I combined 1/4 cup of harissa with 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 Tbsp honey, and 1/2 tsp salt. The oil helps thin it out and the lemon and honey help dampen the heat just slightly. The honey also helps caramelize the vegetables and, which gives them a really nice deep flavor.
Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Prepare a large baking sheet with a light coating of non-stick spray, or cover it with foil. Wash and cube 6 small red potatoes (about 1-1.5 lbs.). Wash and peel 3 carrots, then slice into one-inch segments. Cut one crown of broccoli into florets, and cut one small red onion into large chunks. Place all the prepared vegetables on the baking sheet.
Pour the harissa marinade over the vegetables, then use your hands to toss the vegetables until they are all evenly coated. Make sure the broccoli florets get well coated, as those tend to dry out before the other vegetables.
Roast the vegetables in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, give them a good stir, and then roast for an additional 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and are nicely browned on the edges. Top with a handful of chopped cilantro and eat!
The subtle sweetness that the vegetables acquire through roasting is the perfect balance for the heat of the harissa. I couldn’t stop eating these right off the baking sheet!
Haven’t made this but wanted to suggest trying toasted sweet potatoes with Harrissa powder. Put in a pita with dill marinated cucumbers, avocado and taziki (sp) sauce. Was surprisingly delicious. Even hubby liked.
Happy to hear it Linda!
OMG! This is hot! I like spicy food. I love Beth’s Szechuan pork and green beans with chili paste, and Dragon Noodles, so I thought this would be awesome. But, its way up the Scoville scale for me. I’ll use more honey and less harissa next time. I dont usually have beer in the house, but fortunately I had a chocolate stout in the fridge to quench the fire in my mouth. Also, it was a bitterly cold day and I was quite warm after eating my veggies.
I couldn’t find harrissa paste so I used an Indian curry sauce. I would like to try this with harrissa paste and see how it goes. It was alright. I thought it was a little bland but my husband loved it. In the future I might tweak it a little bit to fit my liking. My broccoli browned nicely but the other vegetables not so much.
I’m trying to incorporate more meatless meals into my diet to cut down on costs (as well as curb my environmental impact a little), so I was looking forward to trying this one, since it looks quite hearty. (IT WAS.)
I wasn’t expecting the heat of the harissa paste to be as strong as it was, though admittedly I’m a little sensitive to spicy food (I don’t go above a 2 or 3 at Thai restaurants).
However, this is delicious! I made it with the yellow jasmine rice, and tonight I ate it for dinner with mango Noosa. Eating it with yogurt helped with the heat, obviously, and the mango went surprisingly well with the meal.
Tasty!! Fyi, Whole Foods also has harissa. I bought this jar: http://www.igourmet.com/images/topics/harissa.jpg, but there were others as well.
This is colorful and looks so delicious and healthy! I will be making these veggies over the weekend, I’m really excited! Thank you for sharing Beth :)
Too hot for our family! I could only find a tube of harissa paste from France and I’m guessing it was somewhat different than TJ’s. I used about 1/6 cup and would cut it back significantly next time.
I was disappointed by these. For harissa veggies, these were way blander than what I was expecting. I think it’s more of a matter of personal taste than anything, but I was expecting more of a flavor punch. The marinade itself tasted good, but it was stretched thin trying to cover so many veggies. I’ll be sure to make harissa roasted vegetables again, just with fewer vegetables.
Ooooh! This looks like it will make an excellent freezer bowl, too!
What a timely post- I just picked up a TJ jar of harissa on my last grocery trip. So far I’ve been just using it to top my hard boiled eggs and as a dipping sauce for raw veggies. I’m definitely incorporating this recipe into my menu next week!
I’ve been loving the TJ’s Harissa, excited to make this and share it with my readers :)
What other carbs would go well with this?
I ate it with Cumin Rice, but my Yellow Jasmine Rice would also be awesome. Or you could do some nice crusty bread or rolls. Yum!
Just tried these and WOW! I could eat them everyday. I already have a second batch prepped for tomorrow. So glad you have a Trader Joe’s now. Hoping to see more recipes using their products. Thank you!
Referring back to “Dressed in Yella”s comment – what would be an appropriate amount of powder Harissa to use? I’m in Canada and Trader Joe is not nearby.
Unfortunately I’ve never worked with harissa powder, so I’m not sure. :(
Oh Beth!!! You can now experience the joys and wonders of Trader Joe’s! I flippin’ love that place! I never want to live somewhere if a TJ’s isn’t nearby.
Tell me more about harissa! Does it just taste like a standard chile sauce? And how spicy is it? Like on a scale of 1-10. My husband and I love spicy foods but we have three little ones (4 and under) so I have to keep the spice factor under a 5 or so until their taste buds get acclimated to spicy-ness ;)
Also, yay for Trader Joe’s!! Their coffee is the best! My stock up items when I go there are their rainbow carrots, tri-color potatoes, and frozen riced cauliflower! They’ve got awesome prices on frozen fruits and veggies too :)
Also, TJ’s should totally get you to do some product reviews for them!! I get all my food ideas from you so it’d totally be a win-win….you’d get paid to play around with some great products and I’d get some more dinner ideas from my favorite grocery store! ;)
Right? I’m not opposed to the idea. :D
It’s pretty spicy! Once mixed into the marinade and on the vegetables, I’d say it’s still a 7 on the spicy scale. On it’s own, it’s a 10. It does remind me a lot of sambal oelek, just a slightly different flavor.
I didn’t think that this dish was too spicy, but it definitely had kick. This isn’t one of those recipes that has the heat overpowering the flavor, but it is a dish with some heat.
I could see some people adding a little less harissa and a little more oil to cover the veggies, but honestly I think you just for for it as is and build some tolerance because the flavor is great.
I haven’t seen that TJ’s has Harissa *Happy Dance* I know what I am making for date night, Harissa chicken wings and these roasted veggies Mmmmmmm
Oh yum! I bet it’s great on chicken wings!
Trader Joes is the best! I’m excited for you to try their fun products – I introduced my mom to cookie butter this weekend and she kept going back for ‘one more spoonful’ :D
So excited to try this! Fair warning, though. Harissa also is widely available as a powder. If someone ignores your lovely photos and tries a 1/4 cup of powder, it may knock their socks off (or make them very happy, depending on their spice tolerance level)! Loving your blog as always!
Ahh, good point. I’ll change the ingredient list to say harissa PASTE. Thank you!
First Beth, you offer so many wonderful recipes – simple, inexpensive and interesting – thank you for sharing. I love the look of this recipe and as I roast veges to have for breakfast, I welcome the flavor change with the Harissa Marinade which will be a nice spicy way to start the day. I also buy the Normandy frozen veges from Costco and will test it out on those.
I’m so excited you’ve got a Trader Joe’s. I really love a lot of their foods and look forward to seeing recipes with TJs items. I would especially like low effort, semi-prepared recipes. One of my favorite combinations is their Masala Simmer Sauce with frozen lentils.
I’ve recently seen lots of recipes with roasted cruciferous veggies. I have to say that my single experiment with brussels sprouts was less than wonderful, leading to a bitter product that sort of satisfied by expectations. Don’t get me wrong–I love roasted veggies, I love the cabbage family–I’m just unsure about timing a pan that includes root veggies and brocolli
Janet have you tried roasting the brussels sprounts with olive oil, salt pepper and garlic? My husband used to hate these veges until I made them this way. And a 350 deg. oven works well. Got to keep an eye on them so they don’t get overdone.
I actually kind of enjoy the slight char that the delicate broccoli gets on the edges. :) Cutting the potatoes small, while leaving the broccoli a little bit larger helps them cook at a more similar rate, too. I also kind of like bitter flavors, but everyone likes something different, so this is probably just not the right mix for you.
The color that these vegetables took on is just beautiful! This looks super tasty. Trader Joe;s has some really great finds, for sure.
I’ll definitely be trying this, maybe with maple syrup or agave in place of the honey.
Thank you for sharing!
Looks absolutely delicious!!! I was able to find Trader Joe’s in Las Vegas, Nevada so I can definitely stop by to see if they have harissa!!!! :-)