A Couple Cooks

Easy Sheet Pan Dinner

January 07, 2020

This easy sheet pan dinner is filled with healthy vegetables and fresh flavor! Throw it all in the oven while you cook rice or quinoa. Dinnertime win!

Easy sheet pan dinner

In the mood for a sheet pan dinner? Roasting your dinner on a baking sheet makes for an easy meal concept! Here’s the thing: this concept works best with a meat or seafood, where you can have a filling protein and a side cooked all at once. But for this one, Alex and I wanted to create a whole food plant based sheet pan dinner to load on the veggies. This recipe has 4 of our best vegetables to eat all at one time: and it’s seriously tasty, too. It’s perfect to meal prep for healthy dinners or lunches throughout the week. Let’s get started!

Another tasty sheet pan meal? Try our Sheet Pan Shrimp Boil.

Bowl of vegetables

What’s in this sheet pan dinner?

This sheet pan dinner is all about loading on the healthy vegetables! Did you know that per the New York Times, 40% of Americans now want to eat more plant based foods? This makes Alex and me thrilled, because that’s why we started this website. Our philosophy: eating lots of vegetables can be seriously delicious. So, it’s not like you’re giving anything up or having will power: they just taste good.

Here’s what we’ve packed into this easy sheet pan dinner:

  • Broccoli is high in fiber, relatively high in protein for a green veggie.
  • Red onion packs in the vitamins!
  • Sweet potatoes are high in beta-carotene, Vitamin A, and fiber.
  • Red pepper high in vitamin C: double your daily need!
  • Chickpeas load it with plant-based protein to make it a filling meal!
  • Olive oil
  • Spices: Garlic powder, Old Bay and Italian seasoning
  • Lemon for a bright zing!
Sheet pan dinner

The basic concept: making dinner on a sheet pan

The basic concept for a sheet pan dinner is to place your veggies on a sheet pan and roast until tender. Many sheet pan dinners use protein like chicken or shrimp, and take the pan out of the oven a few times to add veggies in the order of their cook time. We wanted to make this sheet pan dinner whole food plant based (WFPB) and seriously easy, so guess what? All the veggies are roasted at the same time.

Yep, there’s no taking the sheet pan in and out of the oven here. Just throw all the veggies onto the sheet pan and roast. Here’s what you’ll do:

  • Chop all the veggies (see instructions below).
  • Mix them with the drained chickpeas, olive oil, and spices.
  • Place on parchment lined baking sheets and roast for 30 minutes at 450 degrees, rotating the pans once after 20 minutes.
Sheet pan dinner

How to serve this sheet pan dinner

You can serve this sheet pan dinner on its own: just the straight up veggies! But to make it a filling and complete meal, here’s what we did:

  • Serve with rice, quinoa or another whole grain. Adding a little rice, quinoa or a whole grain makes it into a more filling meal. We’d suggest about 3/4 cup cooked grain per serving.
  • Serve over seasoned lentils! Alex recently made us a veggie dish for dinner and instead of serving it over rice, he served it over lentils instead. It was really good! The benefit of this is it packs in even more plant based protein! Try our Seasoned Brown Lentils, Seasoned Black Lentils, or Instant Pot Lentils.
  • Dollop with sour cream, cashew cream or another sauce. It’s nice to have a dollop of creaminess to tie everything together. We used sour cream, or for vegan cashew cream is delicious (make it ahead). A few other sauce ideas: Best Tahini Sauce, Cilantro Sauce, or Lemon Yogurt Sauce.
Sheet pan dinner

Can you substitute anything for chickpeas?

What if you don’t like chickpeas? Chickpeas are essential for adding plant based protein to this dish, which makes it filling enough for a main meal. Here are a few things you could substitute that still have plant based protein:

  • 15-ounce can black beans
  • 1 1/2 cups shelled edamame

More filling plant based dinner recipes

Looking for more healthy and easy plant based dinner recipes? We got you! Here are some you might enjoy:

  • Easy Chickpea Curry The ultimate healthy and easy weeknight dinner! It’s done in 20 minutes, totally plant based, and full of flavor.
  • Mexican Sweet Potatoes You won’t believe the flavor here, topped with black bean salsa and creamy cilantro sauce!
  • Favorite Vegan Lasagna This will become your new favorite : guaranteed. It’s whole food plant based and dairy free.

This recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.

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Easy sheet pan dinner

Easy Sheet Pan Dinner

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

5 from 6 reviews

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 4

Description

This easy sheet pan dinner is filled with healthy vegetables and fresh flavor! Throw it all in the oven while you cook rice or quinoa. Dinnertime win!

Ingredients

  • 1 crown broccoli (1/2 pound)
  • 1 medium red onion
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes (1 1/2 pounds)
  • 2 medium red potatoes
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 15-ounce can chickpeas
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning*
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 lemon
  • Rice or quinoa (or another whole grain or seasoned lentils), to serve (optional)
  • Sour cream or cashew cream, to serve

Instructions

  1. Adjust the oven racks for roasting 2 trays. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Optional: If serving with rice or quinoa, follow How to Cook Brown Rice, Instant Pot Brown Rice, How to Cook Quinoa or Instant Pot Quinoa.
  3. Chop the broccoli. Cut the onion into thick slices. Dice the potatoes. Dice the red pepper.
  4. Place all the vegetables in a large bowl. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then add them to the bowl. Mix in the olive oil, garlic powder, Old Bay, Italian seasoning, and kosher salt until everything is evenly coated.
  5. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (we prefer this to silicone baking mats because it results in crispier veggies). Spread the vegetables evenly onto each sheet.
  6. Place into the oven and bake for 20 minutes (do not stir!). Remove the pans from the oven, rotate them, and roast another 10 minutes (for 30 minutes total) until tender and lightly browned on one side.
  7. Cut the lemon into wedges, and spritz the veggies with fresh lemon juice to taste. (Required: this step adds just the right zing! Or you can serve with lemon wedges.)
  8. Transfer to a serving bowl or dish and serve immediately with rice or quinoa. Top with sour cream or cashew cream.

Notes

*If you can’t find Old Bay, you could try 1 teaspoon paprika and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt or celery salt.

A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes

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