Air Fryer Roast Vegetables with Pecans and Pomegranate

This delicious Air Fryer Roast Vegetables recipe combines Brussels sprouts, butternut squash and parsnips into a 15 minute cooking time side dish the whole family will love. Finished with toasted pecans and juicy sweet pomegranate seeds. Perfect for busy weeknights or Thanksgiving dinner (and it leaves your oven free).

Air fryer vegetable recipes are the best! They don't take as much time as cooking in the oven, delicious and use far less fat to cook (hello calorie savings). It's a great way to keep vegetables on the dinner table without much effort.

This variety of vegetables are favorites in the colder months. They all cook in the same amount of time and produce a colorful mix in a tasty side dish. it's a great option for Thanksgiving and frees up your oven for other cooking.

Jump to:

• What makes this skinny?
• Recipe Ingredient Notes
• How to make Air Fryer Roast Vegetables
• Variations
• Expert Tips
• How to store
• More recipes you'll love!
• Recipe

What makes this skinny?

• This is a delicious combination of favorite vegetables for the cold weather season. We combined three that make the perfect side dish without loading on lots of calories as sweet potatoes or potatoes would.
• As far as air fryer roasted vegetables go butternut squash is a delicious addition with some sweetness but half the calories of sweet potatoes.
• Adding pomegranate seeds gives the dish more nutrition, a pop of color, flavor and texture too. and it's a lower calorie ingredient.
• We used olive oil spray instead of olive oil.
• Using a air fryer which cooks with hot air, makes fully cooked firm vegetables with a beautiful outer crust without the oil or fat of actual pan frying.

Recipe Ingredient Notes

This easy air fryer vegetables recipe uses just fresh simple ingredients: healthy vegetables, fresh herbs and seasonings.

Butternut squash. You'll need 2 cubes cubed squash. Cut the cubes approximately ¾-inch in size. Often grocery stores will have already cubed fresh butternut squash in their produce department which is a time saver!

Brussels sprouts. Two cups are used which is about ¾ pound of raw Brussels sprouts. Trim the ends and remove any blemished outer leaves. Cut the sprouts in half if small or quarter them if large.

Parsnips. These under used veggies look like a white carrot in shape but are usually fatter. They are sweeter in flavor more like a sweet potato. You'll need 2 cups. Peel and cut the parsnips into ½-3/4 inch cubes.

Olive oil spray. This is used to create a coating on the vegetables so the seasonings will coat them. It helps make a nice outer crust too.

Fresh rosemary. The leaves should be removed from the stem and chopped.

Pecan halves. Rough chop these so they are not in tiny pieces but distribute farther then just leaving them as halves. If desired they can be left as halves too.

Pomegranate arils (seeds). These add some wonderful bites of sweetness and texture to the healthy side dish. You can purchase containers of pomegranate arils at the grocery store which take the mess out of harvesting the seeds. Otherwise extract them from a pomegranate directly. You'll use 1 cup.

Garlic powder. We used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic to both better distribute the garlic flavor and to avoid any burning of the fresh garlic.

How to make Air Fryer Roast Vegetables

This recipe was developed using a Cosori 5.8 quart XL Air Fryer which has a larger basket and is a 1700 watt machine (more powerful). See Expert Tips for notes on different air fryers.

STEP 1. Preheat the Air Fryer

Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees F.

STEP 2. Coat vegetables

Combine the prepared butternut squash, Brussels sprouts and parsnips into a large mixing bowl (photo 1). Spritz with olive oil spray, toss and spritz again so there is some olive oil spray on all the vegetables.

In a small bowl combine the seasonings: diced rosemary, garlic powder, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix well.

Sprinkle the seasoning onto the vegetables and toss to coat (photo 2).

STEP 3. Air fry

Add the seasoned vegetables to the air fryer basket. Cook for 6 minutes at 400 degrees F, shake or toss, and cook an additional 6 minutes (photo 3).

Sprinkle in the pecans and cook 2 additional minutes or until the vegetables are cooked (photo 4).

STEP 4. Finish

Add the cooked vegetables to a serving bowl. Sprinkle in the pomegranate seeds, season with additional salt or pepper if needed, toss to combine and serve hot.

Variations

Swapping in other vegetables. The trick with air frying a combination of vegetables is selecting vegetables with similar cooking times.

Other types of vegetables that would work well in this vegetable medley include:

• carrots
• Delicata squash
• Honeynut squash
• turnips
• beets

The key is use a variety of veggies and to cut them into a similar size so they cook in the same amount of time.

Balsamic glaze. This delicious side dish is great as is but for a special touch you can add a balsamic glaze drizzle at the end too.

Use different nuts. Pecans add a warm nutty flavor to these air fry vegetables but you could substitute walnuts or slivered almonds instead.

Change up the seasonings. Try Italian seasoning, herbes de Provence, fresh thyme or other favorite seasonings.

Expert Tips

Air fryer cooking. The cooking process for every brand, size and wattage air fryer is slightly differently. With air fryer recipes it's important to monitor the food for doneness in your air fryer model. Air fryers with smaller basket size may require cooking in multiple batches.

Cut vegetables into similar sizes. These vegetables will cook in the same amount of time if cut into similar sizes. We provided guidelines in the Recipe Ingredient Notes. If cut into different sizes they will not all cook in the same amount of time.

Layering in the air fryer. I cooked this batch in my larger air fryer so the vegetables were in a double layer. Tossing or shaking them halfway through cooking ensures even cooking. With a smaller air fryer or less powerful air fryer you may need to cook the vegetables in a single layer and/or in batches.

How to store

Leftover vegetables can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave or air fryer.

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